Associated Press Nl^WS DIGEST NefiSkan
Edited by Todd Cooper X 1 I i V Y VJ JL-^LV_JJ—iVJ X Tu~d.,,*prti 27,19*3
Poll: 48 percent say Clinton
breaks too many promises
NEW YORK — As President
Clinton nears his 100th day in office,
almost half of Americans in an Asso
ciated Press poll say he already has
broken promises loo often. But about
the same number consider him a
strong leader.
The leader
ship measure
could be cru
cial for a presi
dent trying to
push an agenda
of change after
winning only
43 percent of
the vote in No
vember. Those
_11_a _■
jwiii/U ii'gaiu
Clinton as a strong leader 49 percent
to 37 percent, with the rest unsure.
More Americans than not say
Clinton has set the right tone for his
administration, by 44 percent to 40
percent.
But 48 percent say he already has
broken his promises too often, com
pared with 34 percent who say he has
kept his promises up to this point.
Clinton complained Sunday that it
was “just not realistic” to expect that
he could have moved on all his cam
paign commitments in his first 100
days. “That’s why you gel a four-year
term, not a three-month term,” he
said.
The pollindicatesaquarterof those
critical of broken promises still re
spect Clinton’s leadership. People who
voted for him are much less likely
than others to fault him for breaking
promises,butncarly a fourth arc with
holding judgment or have a mixed
assessment, the poll found.
The national telephone poll of 1,014
adults was taken April 16-20 by ICR
Survey Research Group of Media,
Pa., part of AUS Consultants. Results
have a margin of sampling error of
plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Clinton was under harsh media
scrutiny while the poll was taken,
with Republicans in Congress having
scuttled his $16.3 billion economic
stimulus and the standoff with armed
cullists in Texas ending, in a fiery
tragedy. But the poll asked respon
dents to take a broad view of Clinton ’ s
"opening months in office," 100 days
as of Thursday.
Most, 68 percent, say Clinton has
accomplished about what they ex
pected, 6 percent say more than they
expected, 22 percent say less. Among
the disappointed are 18 percent of
Democrats and 18 percent of Clinton
voters.
Clinton gets higher marks for lead
ership among women in the poll than
among men, possibly because of his
pushfor spending on social programs
that traditionally are more popular
with women than men. Also, die presi
dent has taken favorable stands on
controversial issues, such as abortion
rights and homosexuals in the mili
tary, in which polls show more male
than female opposition.
Two-thirds of those who said they
voted for President Bush for re-elec
tion give thumbs down to Clinton’s
leadership. Ross Perot voters split
about evenly in assessing Clinton.
While 6 percent of voters refused
to say how they cast ballots in No
vember, those who did say seemed
reluctant to acknowledge voting for
the loser. Only 29 percent said they
voted for Bush, who won 38 percent
of the vote, and 17 percent said they
backed Perot, who actually got 19
percent. Clinton got a four-point bo
nus in the poll.
Clinton’s first 100 days
Qm In these opening months
1 in office, do you think
I President Clinton has set
the right tone for his
administration or not?
N^Answer^.-Right tone:
Qm Do you think
£ President Clinton has
■ accomplished:
Just about what you expected
him to accomplish:
68% ^-\
Less than
you More than you expected in
expected: his first months of office:
22% e%
From what you have
seen thus far, do you
think Bill Clinton has
shown he is a strong
leader, or not:
Strong leader: 49%
Q| Which do you agree
g with more:
President Clinton has Kept Ns
promises up to this point: 34%
President Clnton has already
broken hie promisee too often: 48%
Source: AP National phone pole of1,014
adults taken April 16-20 by ICR Survey
Research Group of MedW Pa.. partofAUS
Contuttante. Margin of error 3 percentage
points, plus or minus. Because of rounding,
■urns may not total 100%.
Arson investigators say cultists purposely started fire
WACO, Texas (AP) — Branch Davidians
started the quickly spreading Tire that con
sumed their prairie fortress a week ago, killing
an estimated 86 people, independent arson
investigators said Monday.
“We believe ft was intentionally set by
persons inside the compound,” said Paul Gray,
who headed the investigation team. “At least
two locations were significantly distantenough
from each other that they couldn ’t have been set
by the same source at the same lime.”
The findings supported FBI claims that the
fire was set by cult members. Some of the nine
survivors have claimed the fire began when a
lank knocked over a lantern.
Earlier today, a fugitive Davidian accused
of plotting to illegally make machine guns
emerged from hiding and surrendered in Hous
ton.
Paul Fatta, 35, had been sought since the
Feb. 28 raid outside Waco that left four federal
agents dead and triggered the 51 -day siege that
ended with last week’s deadly inferno.
Fatta was not at the compound during the
standoff. On Sunday, the cult leader’s lawyer
said a TV photographer’s warning to a mailman
gave David Koresh advance notice that federal
agents were coming for him the day the standofT
began.
Thcallomcy, Dick DcGuerin, also said Sun
day that Koresh asked him to draw up a will and
legal documents protecting the cull's property
rights and providing for his children. But Koresh
never got a chance to sign the documents before
a deadly Tire swept through the compound last
Monday.
Authorities say the fire, which broke out as
federal agents were ramming the compound’s
buildings with armored vehicles and pumping
in tear gas, was started by cult members. Sev
eral of the nine cullists who survived say it
started when the armored vehicles knocked
over lanterns and smashed a propane tank.
The Tire ended a 51 -day standoff that began
after agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco
and Firearms who came to arrest Koresh shot it
out withcullmcmbcrs. Four agents werekilled.
DcGucrin said when he visited the com
pound during the standoff, he spoke several
limes with David Michael Jones, whose body
was the first of the cull members’ identified by
authorities.
DcGucrin said Jones, who was a mail car
rier, told him he’d been driving his car, with
U.S. Postal Service lags on it, when he saw a
television photographer who appeared lost.
He said the photographer warned him,
“‘There’s going to be a big gunfight with these
religious nuts over here. You better get out of
here.”’
Jones, who was also Koresh’s brother-in
law, told the cult leader, DcGucrin said, and the
group was ready when the ATF agents arrived
Feb. 28.
19 Costa Rican court justices
taken hostage by four gunmen
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica—Four
gunmen barged into the Costa Rican
Supreme Court on Monday and
took 19 of the 22 justices hostage,
officials said.
The gunmen, who called them
selves members of “The Com
mandoof Death,"entered the four
story building through a basement
entrance, said Jose Gerardo
Gonzalez, an Interior Ministry
spokesman.
Rafael Brenes, deputy director
of the judicial police, told reporters
there were four gunmen, and he
didn’t know their nationality. He
said one of the judges held hostage
was a woman.
He didn’t say how the govern
ment knew the attackers called
themselves ‘The Commando of
Death,” nor if officials had had any
contact with them.
“The situation is very critical.
We believe it involved kidnap
ping,” Gonzalez said.
He said he had no immediate
details concerning the group or its
demands. The number of gunmen
involved was not known.
President Rafael Angel Calderon
called an emergency meeting of his
Cabinet to determine what to do.
Dozens of police armed with
assault rifles surrounded the build
ing, while people caught inside
were seen leaving the building.
Gonzalez said the judges were be
ing held on the second floor.
Serbs split on U.N. peace plan
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia — The
first cracks appeared Monday between
Bosnian Serbs and their patrons in
Belgrade when the Serbian leader
ship in Bosnia ignored a sharply
worded appeal from Serbia’s presi
dent.
With tougher sanctions set to be
gin Tuesday that would basically im
pound any Yugoslav planes, trains
and ships that operate abroad, Serbian
President Slobodan Milosevic urged
the ad hoc assembly to accept an
international peace plan to end more
than a year of fighting in Bosnia.
The assembly, meeting in the north
eastern Bosnia town of Bijeljina, had
met in hurried session Sunday night
but in the end, its 77 representatives
voted unanimously against accepting
a U.N.-sponsored plan to end fighting
m Bosnia.
Bosnia’s Serbs arc dependent on
- it
Your other option is an unnecessary war which.
. .cannot bring anything but evil, suffering and
violence for your side and others.
—Milosevic
Serb president
-— — -
Yugoslavia for supplies and moral
support, so without Yugoslav back
ing, they face the prospect of being
totally cut off.
The assembly’s rejection of the
peace plan sets the stage for lough,
new international sanctions to go into
effect against Serb-dominated Yugo
slavia.
It also may bolster the arguments
of those in the West and the Islamic
world who say only force will make
Bosnian Serbs end the fighting.
V w
Milosevic’s bid lo unite Serbs
throughout the former Yugoslav fed
eration in a “Greater Serbia” is widely
seen among his foes as the chief rea
son for the bloodshed.
The international plan is “a just
peace,” Milosevic said in a letter
signed by others the the Belgrade
leadership.
“Your other option is an unneces
sary war which.. .cannot bring any
thing but evil, suffering and violence
for your side and others.”
‘Late Night’ successor set to be named
NEW YORK—NBC said it would
announce David Lettcrman’s succes
sor on the “Tonight" show Monday
night, and all signs pointed to Conan
O'Brien, a little-known writer-come
dian, as heir to the “Late Night" throne.
Theannouncement would be made
by 'Tonight” host Jay Leno, and the
host-designate would appear with him,
the network said.
O’Brien, 28, is a 1985 graduate of
Harvard University, where he was
twice president of the Harvard Lam
poon magazine, the nation’s leading
undergraduate comedy school.
His graduate course was the San
Francisco-basedGroundlingscomedy
troupe, training in sketch comedy and
“ *■—"~ ---
improvisation.
O’Brien was a writer for HBO’s
“Not Necessarily the News" before
his Five-year stint at “Saturday Night
Live," where he shared a writing
Emmy and occasionally appeared as
a sketch player.
For the past two years, he has been
a writer-producer at Fox’s hit ani
mated sitcom ‘The Simpsons."
O’Brien was a leading contender
among the young comedians vying
for the “Late Night” job and hadarun
through audition on the set of “To
night* in the Burbank studios two
weeks ago.
The announcement ended a week
of speculation that longtime stand up
Garry Shandling, star of HBO’s talk
show spoof “The Larry Sanders
Show,” would get the nod.
Sources close to the negotiations
said Shandling turned down NBC’s
offer on Monday morning, triggering
the O’Brien deal.
Shandling reportedly got the offer
two weeks ago, when his own name
entered the mix in mid-April.
According to one source, Shandling
was the first approached for the job, .
but turned down a multimillion-dol
lar deal because it required him to
have his program ready for air by
August.
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