Clinton Pledges ‘Coalition Of Center’

In his first major speech since his re-election, President Clinton promised Wednesday to “forge a coalition of the center” in his second term, working to balance the federal budget, expand access to education, create jobs for former welfare recipients and overhaul campaign finance laws.

“We have clearly created a new center - not the lukewarm midpoint between overheated liberalism and chilly conservatism, but instead a place where throughout our history, people of good will have tried to forge new approaches to new challenges,” Clinton told the Democratic Leadership Council, the organization of centrist “new Democrats” that he helped found in 1985.

“While the era of big government is over,” the president said, “the era of big challenges is not.”