    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (1999, Book II)]
    [December 11, 1999]
    [Pages 2291-2296]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Interview With Mark Knoller and Peter
    Maer of CBS Radio in Orlando, Florida
    December 11, 1999

    Domestic Challenges

        Q. President Clinton, thank you very much for joining us for this
    special interview with CBS News. Heading into the next century, beyond
    your immediate goals for the rest of your term, what do you think are
    the one or two top domestic challenges facing the country?
        The President. I think the aging of America and the children of the
    country. It's ironic that we seem to be growing at both ends. We're
    going to double the number of people over 65, and yet, we have the
    largest group of schoolchildren in our country's history in our schools,
    the first group bigger than the baby boomers, and they're much, much
    more diverse. They come from more different ethnic and racial and
    religious backgrounds. And I think that dealing with them are the two
    biggest things that ought to be on the front burner.

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        I also believe that, related to that, obviously, as you've heard me
    say many times, is the challenge of continuing to grow the economy while
    reaching out into poor areas, continuing to improve the environment, and
    paying the debt off. I think those are the big, big challenges.

    New Millennium

        Q. Mr. President, one of the things I've noticed about these
    celebrations that the White House, you, and the First Lady are planning
    is that it's propagating the myth that January 1st is the start of the
    new millennium and the new century. Are you guilty of creating that
    erroneous impression?
        The President.  Yes. I mean, I think basically, by common consent,
    everybody decided that we ought to celebrate the millennium on January
    1, 2000, even though most of the strict correctionists say that it's
    January 1, 2001.
        Q.  Well, they're right, aren't they?
        The President.  Well, apparently, that was the prevailing view among
    the experts, but the people have expressed a different wish, so we're
    going with the folks. We've got a democracy here, and that's the way
    we're going. It will be nice for me. Maybe I can do it twice, and I'll
    be a President of two millennial changes.

    Power of the Presidency

        Q.  Well, looking ahead into the next century, whenever it begins,
    where do you see the power of the Presidency itself evolving? Is it
    going to change?
        The President.  Oh, yes, it's always changing. But I think it will
    always--at least for the future that I can foresee--will continue to be
    an extremely important office. I think that a lot of the executive
    actions will be important, along with getting along with Congress. I
    think that building partnerships with the private sector will become
    more important. It will become more important to mobilize the American
    people and to organize them to meet the challenges in the future the way
    we've done.
        For example, maybe a good example would be the way we've worked on
    wiring the schools, where we did--the main Government thing we did was
    to change the law so that we have this E-rate now in poorer schools and
    hospitals.
        Q.  You mean wiring for the Internet?
        The President.  Yes, wiring for the Internet. Poorer schools and
    hospitals can get a discount rate. Then we go out and try to hustle up
    all the equipment and the Internet connections and get everybody to do
    that. So I think you'll see a lot more of that.
        The other thing I think you will see is, I believe the world is
    growing ever more interdependent, so I think the President, in order to
    effectively lead the world, will have to be an increasingly effective
    negotiator, conciliator, bringing people together, working people
    together. And I think it will be just as important 30 years from now for
    America to be involved in the rest of the world as it is now. But I
    think it will be an increasingly interdependent world that will require
    powers of persuasion and not just unilateral power.

    Final Year of President's Term

        Q. Next year is also, as you well know, the final year of your
    Presidency. Do you find that in any way liberating to try and do things
    that you weren't able to do in the first years of your Presidency?
        The President. I don't know if I find it liberating. I find it--it's
    concentrated my attention and my energies and, obviously, since I'm not
    running, I could do things in an election year that might be difficult
    to do otherwise. But if you go back, I mean, we've taken a lot of
    controversial decisions. That's one of the reasons we lost the Congress
    in '94; we took on the gun lobby and the health care lobby and the
    deficit issue at the same time, and it was more than the system could
    bear, I think.
        But I do think that I am acutely mindful of the fact that I have 14
    months left, and that I need to be out there squeezing the most out of
    every day. And I need to get as much done as I can for the American
    people, to try to leave our country in the best possible shape so that
    the next President and the next Congress will be even freer than they
    are to basically look with a visionary eye to the future and take on the
    big issues. That's the theme that I had today in Florida; that's the
    theme that I try to echo everywhere.
        I believe that this really is the only time in my lifetime we've had
    so much prosperity, social cohesion, and national self-confidence, with
    the absence of internal crisis or external threat. I will get as much
    done on these big challenges as I can. But after I'm out of office and
    there is a new team in, I still think it's very important that they keep
    the American people focused on these big issues in the 21st century,
    because

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    a society rarely has the luxury of having the tools and the space to
    deal with these long-term challenges that we now have. And I think it's
    very important that we seize it.

    Gays in the Military

        Q. Let me ask you one specific, if I may, on the question of gays in
    the military. As you no doubt know, the First Lady this past week was
    critical of the ``don't ask, don't tell'' policy. She said it just
    doesn't work. You weren't going to institute that at the beginning of
    your Presidency, anyway. Why not use the last year of your Presidency to
    institute an end to discriminatory discharges against gays in the
    military? And what do you think of what the First Lady said this week?
        The President. First of all, I'm quite sympathetic with what she
    said. I think--that was the position that both of us brought to the
    White House. But I think there's one thing that may be not clearly
    understood. The reason that I went for ``don't ask, don't tell'' is that
    it's all I could do because I had a clear signal from the Congress that
    if I implemented my policy, they would reverse it by overwhelming
    majorities.
        I didn't implement ``don't ask, don't tell'' until the Senate voted
    68-32 against the policy that I wanted. So I think it's very important.
    For me, what's important is that the policy, as implemented, does not
    work as I announced it and as the leaders of our military at that time
    in '93 pledged to implement it.
        I can only hope this last brutal beating death of a gay soldier will
    give some sobering impetus to a reexamination about how this policy is
    implemented and whether we can do a better job of fulfilling its
    original intent.
        Let me remind you that the original intent was that people would not
    be rooted out; that they would not be questioned out; that this would be
    focused on people's conduct, and if they didn't violate the code of
    conduct, and they didn't tell, that their comings and goings, the mail
    they got, the associates they had, that those things would not be
    sufficient to kick them out of the military or certainly subject them to
    harassment.
        So what I would like to do is to focus on trying to make the policy
    that we announced back in '93 work the way it was intended to, because
    it's way--it's out of whack now, and I don't think any serious person
    can say it's not.
        Q. How are you going to do that, sir?
        The President. Well, we're working with the Pentagon now to do it. I
    mean, I think there's a greater awareness now that it's just not--it's
    not being implemented as it was announced and as it was intended.
        Now, as for--but I don't have any problem with what she says,
    because that's--after all, that's what I said back in '93, and if
    anybody--you know, if there's a sense in the Congress or in the next
    White House that that ought to be done, then maybe together they'll have
    enough votes to do it.

    Middle East Peace Process

        Q. You mentioned earlier the importance of future Presidents
    becoming even more mediators and conciliators on the world scene. This
    coming week, of course, Syria and Israel are going to be at the White
    House. And I know you told us, at the news conference, you've taken a
    blood oath to avoid discussing details of those long-stalled talks, the
    renewal of them, but how do you plan--just in general, since you don't
    want to go into details--how do you plan to get this process moving and
    keep it moving when you get these gentlemen sitting down again?
        The President. Well, I want to get
    them together, let them talk, and get them
    to try to agree on an agenda and a timetable. They know what the issues
    are, and they know what the options are for resolving the issues. And my
    experience has been that competent people--and you're dealing with two
    highly competent people here; I mean, these people are good in what they
    do in representing the interests of their countries, and that when--they
    don't go into these negotiations without some idea about where they want
    to finish and some idea about where they'll have to give, and whether
    the other person will give, and how it will all play out.
        So on the other hand, it is difficult, but not as complex, in my
    view, as the Palestinian negotiations with Israel. So I would like to
    see them get together, talk together, get to know each other a little
    better, and agree on an agenda and a timetable, and then take a couple
    of days off and go back and meet with their respective teams to decide
    where they're going to start and where they're going to stop, and come
    back

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    here and just look to burn through it, just keep going until we get the
    thing done.
        Q. Why is the time right now?
        The President. I think because both leaders, for different reasons,
    finally have this sense of urgency, and I think they should have a sense
    of urgency. And I think they know that the enemies of the peace process
    are gearing up; they want to try to derail it, and not just for the
    Palestinians. I think that they know that there is a sense of hope and
    possibility now, and I think they believe that Prime Minister
    Barak is committed to trying to resolve all this,
    just like he said he was.

    Russian Espionage

        Q. Mr. President, is there any doubt in your mind, sir, that Russia
    is responsible for the listening device that was discovered at the State
    Department? And to what extent are you disturbed by it? Don't we all do
    the same things, spy on each other?
        The President. I think when--we have always taken spying seriously
    and taken appropriate action, and I think they will take appropriate
    action in this regard. And I have no reason to believe that the press
    accounts on this are not accurate.
        Q. You must be concerned, though, about this big security breach in
    the State Department.
        The President. Well, I certainly wish it hadn't happened, but I
    think they learned something about this. I think now they'll figure out
    how to deal with this technology, and it won't happen again. And I think
    we just have to--look, the consequences of all this, while certainly not
    good, are not as dire as they were in the dark days of the cold war when
    both of us were spying on each other in a much more sweeping way. And we
    had ways of dealing with it. And there's sort of an established protocol
    for dealing with this kind of thing, and I think we ought to do it. And
    the main thing we ought to do is learn whatever we can from the
    incident. How did they do this? How did they get away with it? How can
    we prevent it from happening again?
        Q. What effect will it have on American relations with Russia?
        The President. Based on what I now know, I think we should proceed
    where it's in our interest to do so in our relations with Russia; and
    where we have differences of opinion, we ought to proceed to articulate
    them. You can't let every spy case affect the larger national interests
    in the country.

    Private Life/Public Record

        Q. Mr. President, a couple more reflective questions. Based on your
    own experiences over the years, going back to your first campaign, to
    what extent do you think a politician's private life should become part
    of the public record?
        The President. Oh, I don't know. I think I'll let the press and the
    people decide that. I think--let me say it in a different way. I think
    that what I have seen too often is that the politics of personal
    destruction become the preferred option only when people think they
    can't win the old-fashioned way; they can't win on the issues or
    whatever.
        Now, a person--I'm not talking about whether somebody's robbed a
    bank or something like that, but I think that the pendulum swung pretty
    far over in the last three or four elections, and I think it's swinging
    back now. And I think that's what the voters are saying, and they'll try
    to get it right. But something ought to be genuinely relevant, and we
    ought to not just target people for no good reason and just pound on
    them and use that because they couldn't win the old-fashioned way. I
    think that both the politicians and the press should be mindful of that.
        But it will get sorted out. These things come and go. You know,
    early in the 1800's, we had several years where this sort of thing was
    all the rage, completely dominated the political debate. And then it
    sort of faded away again. And these things come and go, and the
    underlying health of our democracy and the common sense of our people
    have always been enough to see us through, and I think they will be
    here.

    Former Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's
    Statement

        Q. What do you make of the recent statement by Ken Starr that he
    thinks you ought to get right with the law by admitting in a public way
    that you were not truthful in your statements under oath?
        The President. I'm not sure that I know what to make of Mr. Starr.
        Q. You know, he's giving interviews. He's doing talk shows.
        The President. No, but it's a free country.
        Q. Why do you think he's still pursuing this after he's resigned his
    office?

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        The President. I just don't think I can serve any useful purpose by
    commenting on it now. Maybe I should follow his lead; when I don't have
    a job, I can comment on it more.

    Post-Presidential Plans

        Q. Speaking of that, as we wind up here, besides getting your
    Presidential library off the ground, what is Bill Clinton going to do
    with the rest of his life?
        The President. Well, I hope I'll be a member of the Senate spouses
    club. That's one of the things I really hope I'll be. And I say that--
    we're laughing, but I'm dead serious about that. I want to do what I can
    to help Hillary. And getting this
    library and public policy center up and going and having it continue the
    best missions of my Presidency I think will be quite time consuming.
        I hope I'll have a little more time for my family and my friends,
    but I still want to be a good citizen. I really admire what Jimmy
    Carter's done with his life. I wouldn't
    necessarily choose the same endeavors, although I've supported Habitat
    for Humanity, and I certainly believe that if someone needed me in the
    future to monitor an election or something like that, I ought to be
    willing to do it.
        But the main thing I want to say is that he
    has said--the life he has lived has been a life of service, and he
    said--he's also had a very interesting life. I mean, he's had time to go
    climb up to the base camp of Mount Everest; he goes fishing and does the
    things that he loves to do; he goes skiing. But he has lived a life of
    service. And he has recognized that it is an incredible gift to have the
    chance to be President and that, when you have this gift for 4 or 8
    years, you learn things; you know things; you have a perspective that no
    one else has the chance to develop. And you can't just walk away from it
    and not at least make yourself available. If people don't want you to do
    anything, that's one thing. But at least you ought to be available for
    public service. And Jimmy Carter has lived a life of public service.
        I admire that, and I hope that when I leave here, I will be able to
    do a lot of the personal things I'm interested in but, fundamentally,
    help in a way. I don't want to be under foot for the next President. I
    don't want to get in anybody's way, but I do think there's a lot of good
    things I can do for the world and for our country, and I intend to try
    to do what I can.

    Advice for Future Presidents

        Q. Finally, sir, I know it's 14 months away, but what advice do you
    have for your successor and your successors as the last President of
    this century? What thoughts do you have to pass on to them?
        The President. I think it's very important for a President to have a
    sense of history and a sense of the future. You have to know where your
    country is at this moment in our journey. You have to know what the
    lives of the American people are like. Then you have to have a vision of
    what you think it ought to be. And once you do that, once you're
    grounded in the facts and the history and you have a vision of what you
    think you ought to be, then you need to have a lot of ideas and a lot of
    energy and a lot of interpersonal skills, and you just need to go to
    work every day and never forget your mission, because all the pressures,
    in political life, on the Chief Executive is at the center of the vortex
    of--all of these things are designed to make you forget your mission.
    And those who remember their mission and stay on it tend to do very
    well, even under the most adverse circumstances.
        You know, Lincoln once said in the Civil War, he said, ``My policy
    is to have no policy; I am controlled by events.'' And to some extent,
    that was true. He was being very flexible, and the Government was a much
    more rudimentary enterprise than it is today. But to some extent, he was
    being disingenuous, because his policy was: ``I am going to save the
    Union; if I have to burn every wheat field in this country and if I have
    to give up my own life to do it, we will not be split.''
        Okay, so he knew where he was in history. You know, if you listened
    to him, he talked about George Washington a lot. He had this sense of--
    he knew about the future. He signed the Morrill Land Grant Act. He was
    all for the railroads and the public improvements. He had a lot of
    imagination about the future, Lincoln did, and he said, ``There won't be
    any future unless we hold together. No, that's my policy, and I'm
    willing to try anything or anybody or any general to get it done.''
        The thing that made him great was he never forgot what his mission
    was. He was grounded in history. He had the vision of the future. He
    used to say he kept regular office hours. My office in the White House
    on the second floor

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    is in Lincoln's waiting room, which was later the Office of the
    President through Theodore Roosevelt. But Lincoln used to keep regular
    office hours with people that wanted a job in a post office or
    something, because he said he wanted to be reminded on a regular basis
    of what the daily concerns of people were, and he wanted the war to be
    over so everybody could be restored to pursuing those daily concerns.
        So anyway, that's one specific, very big example of what I think the
    general rule is. You've got to understand your country's history, have
    some idea of your country's future, have a vision of where you want it
    to go, come up with a set of ideas and a good team, and just pursue it
    with all the energy and focus you can and have a good time doing it.
    That's my advice. Don't forget the mission; don't forget who you work
    for.
        Q. We're honor bound to break this off, sir, but we're very grateful
    for your time.
        Q. Thank you very much for doing this.
        The President. I've enjoyed it. Thank you.

    Note: The interview began at 11:25 a.m. in the Human Resources office at
    the Wyndham Palace Resort on December 11 but was embargoed for release
    by the Office of the Press Secretary until 12:01 a.m. on December 13. In
    his remarks, the President referred to Prime Minister Ehud Barak of
    Israel; and Minister of Foreign Affairs Farouk al-Shara of Syria. A tape
    was not available for verification of the content of this interview.