Clinton Win Pleases Faculty

Not long ago, Assistant Professor of Government Michael G. Hagen would have been surprised.

"If, four years ago, I'd been asked whether George Bush would be able to beat the governor of Arkansas in an election," Hagen said last night. "I think I would have laughed."

But after this election campaign, Hagen said, last night's results should have shocked nobody.

Dillon Professor of International Affairs Joseph S. Nye said last night that in "our first post-Cold War election" the political rules have changed.

While Bush had a "relatively successful foreign policy," Nye said it was clear last night that defense and foreign policy were no longer the key issues for American voters.

The real question in this election, he said, was the economy. Nye, who served as deputy undersecretary of state under Jimmy Carter, said he looks forward to "the new energy that Clinton will bring to revitalizing the American economy."

"I think it's quite fascinating to have the generational change that we are seeing," Nye said.

Part of that generational change, Mather House tutor Pat Hoy said, is a new attitude toward the military.

Hoy, a Vietnam veteran, said he has written pieces for The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal applauding Clinton's opposition to the Vietnam War.

"I was urging him to make his not going to the war a matter of his character," Hoy said last night. "I think it's time that we understand the complexity of that war."

Hoy said he hopes Americans will abandon the ethic "that would require everyone to put on a uniform no matter what, as a test of his manhood."

Hagen, who teaches courses on electoral behavior, said he thinks the election results indicate the depth of Americans' desire for change.

"I think it's pretty clear that it stems from peoples' dissent about the course of the country in the last year or so," Hagen said.

But Dillon Professor of the Civilization of France Stanley H. Hoffmann said he was disheartened by Ross Perot's relative strength in the polls.

"When people are desperate for change they don't always get very choosy about who they support, alas," Hoffmann said.

Still, Nye said he believes a plurality of voters yesterday endorsed a mandate that will set the country in the right direction.

"I do think that the kinds of changes that Clinton is going to make are changes that we need," said Nye. "So I'm very pleased."

Hoffmann said he hopes the election ushers in changes Americans need.

"The last time I voted for a winning candidate was 1964," said Hoffman. "The next thing that happened was the Vietnam war, which wasn't quite what I had I voted for."