'92 DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION : Cuomo Speech Likely to Stray From Clinton Camp's Script : Message: Diversity of party asserts itself at podium. Convention's rhetorical shots are sometimes scattered.

By RONALD BROWNSTEIN

July 15, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES POLITICAL WRITER

NEW YORK — When one of Bill Clinton’s top aides was asked earlier this week if he was nervous about the nomination speech that New York Gov. Mario M. Cuomo is scheduled to deliver tonight, he fixed the group of reporters surrounding him with the sort of impatient look usually reserved for particularly dense children.

“Are you kidding? Of course, I’m nervous,” he said.

Here’s the reason: No one in Clinton’s camp expects to get more than a courtesy look at Cuomo’s speech before he steps to the podium tonight. Cuomo--whose knack for drama may be exceeded only by his flair for controversy--has checked with Clinton’s communications director, George Stephanopoulos, about some technical details. But staff members in both camps say the text will be Cuomo’s own--without editing from Clinton’s armada of message gurus.

In a convention that was supposed to be tightly scripted, there seems to have developed a bit of a leak at the top. To some observers, the most striking thing about the convention’s first two days has been the way that messages from the podium have seemed to reinforce and clash with Clinton’s own themes almost at random.

On Tuesday, former President Jimmy Carter, West Virginia Sen. John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV and the Rev. Jesse Jackson all delivered supportive speeches salted with praise for the Arkansas governor.

On Monday, though, it was a different story as the three keynote addresses scattered their fire and largely slighted Clinton’s core themes; two of the speakers hardly referred to him at all.

“It wasn’t like the keynoters were all three making rousing speeches in support of Bill Clinton,” said Merle Black, an expert on Southern politics at Emory University in Atlanta. “It was more personal statements of why they were Democrats.”

That may have been so because Clinton aides applied a largely hands-off policy toward them. Although Clinton aide Paul Begala helped draft the keynote address of Georgia Gov. Zell Miller--an old client--the campaign had no meaningful input on the speeches by New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley and former Texas Rep. Barbara Jordan.

“There are some people you just don’t edit,” says David Wilhelm, Clinton’s campaign manager.

One result of that laissez-faire approach is that even at this unusually placid gathering, the ideological diversity of the Democratic Party appears to be inexorably reasserting itself.

Jordan, for example, gave Clinton an important--if implicit--message of support in the controversy over his condemnation of the rap singer Sister Souljah by saying the party must condemn “both white racism and black racism.” And she echoed Clinton in her repeated insistence that the party must change.

But she offered few details about the direction in which she expected the party to move. And when she did get specific, it was to embrace an idea Clinton has generally resisted: cutting entitlement programs to reduce the federal deficit.

For his part, Bradley delivered a speech that oscillated between partisan attacks on President Bush and his own occasionally abstruse analysis of the “crisis of meaning” facing the United States; there was almost no mention of Clinton.

Alone among the keynoters, Miller highlighted some of Clinton’s core themes--including welfare reform--and talked about Clinton’s rise from humble origins.

Not surprisingly, Clinton’s staff was most pleased with Miller’s remarks. Asked what he thought about the opening addresses, one Clinton adviser gushed, “I loved Zell. Zell is my main man.”

On Tuesday, the tone was much more uniform, as a series of party officials emphasized Clinton’s themes of personal responsibility and “putting people first” in their presentation of the platform. Rockefeller emphasized Clinton’s hardscrabble roots and Jackson opened his speech by praising “President Clinton.”

Some messages came through clearly from the podium both nights. Among them: A commitment to women’s issues, a call for racial reconciliation, the contention that Bush is out of touch with the nation’s problems and an acknowledgment that the Democratic Party must experiment with new approaches.

But there were also reminders that not all in the party share Clinton’s priorities. When Jordan listed a range of groups the Democratic Party must help--minority mothers, immigrants, the homeless, the unemployed--she omitted the central target of Clinton’s speeches over the last year--what he has called “the forgotten middle class.”

Even Jackson, in his strikingly conciliatory remarks, went beyond the Democratic nominee in calling for a massive investment of pension funds in domestic needs, and the creation of a Palestinian state.

How much this intermittent dissonance really matters isn’t clear. “I think it’s better if everybody was singing different verses of the same song,” said Black.

But those around Clinton don’t seem worried by the occasional cacophony. Privately, one source said, many agree the keynote speeches were less than stellar. But they’re confident no one will remember any of that if Clinton hits the mark with his acceptance speech Thursday night.

Today’s Schedule

Here are today’s main events at the Democratic convention: --Call to order

--Rules Minority Report discussion

--Speakers on democratic values

--Film honoring Robert F. Kennedy

--Remarks by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts

--Nominating process

--Nominating speech for Gov. Bill Clinton by New York Gov. Mario M. Cuomo

--Roll call of states

TV Coverage

All times Pacific Daylight.

C-SPAN: 2 to 8:30 p.m.