IT MAY NOT LOOK LIKE IT, BUT THAT GUY, LYING all bloodied on the mat, surrounded by clumps of his own hair and fragments of his own teeth is actually winning the fight.

For three years, almost every important decision made by the Republican party has been framed by a terror of being demagogued by President Clinton on retirement issues, especially Social Security. It was with Social Security that, in 1995, he bludgeoned them during the government shutdown, and it was with Social Security that, in 1998, he intimidated them into cutting no taxes and increasing “emergency” spending by $ 20 billion. If ever a politician seemed to own a set of issues, Bill Clinton seems to own the issue of retirement security. And yet, while Clinton uses Social Security to score partisan points, he is steadily losing on the issue itself.