[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book II)]
[November 8, 1994]
[Pages 2038-2040]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Interview With John Gambling of WOR Radio, New York City
November 8, 1994

Midterm Elections

    Mr. Gambling. Mr. President, good morning.
    The President. Good morning. Good morning, John.
    Mr. Gambling. Important day for you, the Democrats, Republicans, and 
independents. It's election day, and you know, they give frequent flyer 
miles on Air Force One, you're going to get a free trip to anywhere. You 
have been busy.
    The President. Well, it's been a busy week. But you know, I had to 
take that very important trip to the Middle East, and when I came back, 
a lot of our candidates asked me to get out there and campaign, 
including Governor Cuomo, so I tried to do all I could to make the best 
argument for why we're moving our country in the right direction and we 
don't want to go back to the policies that failed us before in the 
eighties. So this morning I'm just taking a last opportunity to 
encourage the American people to go out and vote, to make their voices 
heard today. The stakes in this election are quite high, as they always 
are in any midterm election, but especially in this one. So I hope the 
people within the sound of my voice will exercise their citizenship 
today and get out there and vote.
    Mr. Gambling. Interesting contrast for you; maybe you can talk about 
it for just a second, between the events of the Middle East and our 
political system and the fact that the peace treaty signing--coming so 
close to our election.
    The President. Well, of course, we've been working on that very hard 
for a couple of years. It's just a coincidence that it came as close as 
it did to our election. But I would hope that it would remind the 
American people of the great potential of this country and the greatness 
of this country. And I hope it would keep our people in a positive frame 
of mind. One of the unfortunate aspects of so much of modern campaigning 
is that the negative tends to outweigh the positive, and the negative 
television ads, the whole business about the tone and tenor of our 
elections. This is actually quite a great country with a great past and 
an even greater future if the people who are going to be affected by it 
will invest in it and vote for it and vote for people who will build the 
country, not just place blame, vote for people who will keep moving us 
into the future.
    That's really the lesson of the Middle East, that people want the 
United States involved in the peacemaking and the problem solving of the 
world, whether in the Middle East or in

[[Page 2039]]

Haiti or Northern Ireland, just to name three, because they think we 
have a good system and that we are a good people. And sometimes I think 
we forget it, and we need to remember it. This is election day. We can 
go out, be heard, and make a difference.
    Mr. Gambling. As a man that has spent his entire life in politics, 
how do you define politics? Is it program or is it more the essence and 
the basics of hope, security, fulfillment?
    The President. Well, I think the programs matter, but I also think 
the principles matter. I think giving voice to people's hopes to getting 
people together, giving energy to other people is very important. So 
much of what we do down here in Washington basically is an effort to 
empower people to take responsibility for their own lives. There aren't 
so many things that the Government does directly. I mean, we pay for 
medical care for the elderly through Medicare. We finance the Social 
Security system. We run a wonderful National Park System. We do a number 
of other things directly, but a lot of what we do is to empower people: 
the student loan program, the Head Start program, the crime bill which 
enables the city of New York to hire more police officers and have 
programs for kids to keep them out of trouble.
    All these things basically give people in their individual, family, 
or community lives the ability to take responsibility for themselves. So 
part of it's programs, but a lot of it is setting the right tone and the 
right direction, looking to the future all the time. This country is 
always at its best when it's coming together and moving to the future.
    Mr. Gambling. I hear a frustration in your voice about the mood of 
the country, the cynicism, the negative advertising that's taking place 
on all sides in the past weeks.
    The President. Well, I don't know that I'm frustrated. I think it 
has too much sway over our national life, but I think our communications 
in general with one another are too negative these days. We ought to be 
having more honest conversations with one another and doing less verbal 
bomb-throwing. I think the American people are frustrated by it, and 
that's why I hope that there will be a good turnout today for candidates 
like Mario Cuomo who have essentially been a positive force throughout 
their public careers. Because it's just so easy to give in to the kind 
of pounding-attack communications that tend to dominate not just the 
elections but often the daily communication of our public life. And it's 
not a very good way to run a railroad or a country, and we're better 
than that. And whatever happens today in these elections, I'm going to 
be determined over the next few years to try to lift our country out of 
that.
    Mr. Gambling. President Bill Clinton on the ``Rambling With 
Gambling'' phone this morning. Along those lines, if, as predicted by 
some, the Republicans gain control of the Senate, will your agenda for 
the next couple of years have to change?
    The President. No, but I will have to have more responsible 
bipartisan efforts on all parts. I will make my effort, and we'll see 
others make theirs, I hope.
    On the other hand, if the American people turn out in equal numbers, 
if the Democrats turn out as well as the Republicans do at the polls 
today, I don't think that'll happen. It's really, in so much measure, a 
question of who cares enough to go and vote and whether the spirits of a 
lot of normally Democratic voters are dampened by the negative 
atmosphere of the moment.
    You know, the country's economy is coming back, we're tackling our 
problems like crime, we're facing things long ignored, and this is a 
time to keep going forward.
    Mr. Gambling. Where do you vote today? Do you vote in Arkansas by--
--
    The President. Yes. I voted absentee in Arkansas. I voted for my 
Governor, and I called him last night and told him I did. [Laughter]

President's Security

    Mr. Gambling. Well, that's good. The security question, the events 
of the last couple of weeks--I understand--and I'm not looking for 
specifics here but just generalities--I understand your routine has 
changed a little bit.
    The President. Well, we've asked the Secret Service to take a look 
at all the procedures and everything, as they periodically do. Every 
year, I think for quite a long while now, Secret Service has increased 
its ability to protect the President, and I think they are continuing to 
do it. I have a lot of confidence in them, and the trick is to permit 
them to do that without having the President completely cut off from the 
public at large, because this is a great, free society, and one of the 
problems the President always has is trying to avoid losing touch.

[[Page 2040]]

    Mr. Gambling. Exactly. Probably the most difficult thing, you've got 
to keep in touch with the folks. I want to thank you very much, Mr. 
President, for choosing us this morning to talk about politics on 
election day, 1994. Thank you very much.
    The President. Thanks again. I want to urge all your listeners to go 
on and vote today. Thank you.

Note: The interview began at 7:12 a.m. The President spoke by telephone 
from the Oval Office at the White House.