    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 4 (Monday, January 31, 2000)]
    [Pages 151-159]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Interview With Jim Lehrer of PBS' ``NewsHour''

    January 26, 2000

    State of the Union

        Mr. Lehrer. Mr. President, welcome.
        The President. Thank you.
        Mr. Lehrer. Can we assume, sir, that tomorrow night in the State of
    the Union you're going to declare the state of the Union to be in pretty
    good shape?
        The President. It's in good shape. And I'm very grateful. But I'm
    also going to challenge the Congress and the country to make it better.
        Mr. Lehrer. The things that are good about this country right now,
    how much of that do you believe you deserve credit for?
        The President. Well, I think most of the credit, as always, goes to
    the American people. This is a country where citizenship is the most
    important job anybody can have. And I think we should start with that. I
    think the Members of Congress who are working with us deserve a lot of
    credit. But if you look at where we are now, compared to where we were 7
    years ago, I think the fact that we got rid of the deficit and are
    running surpluses; the fact that we changed the philosophy of the
    National Government on welfare, on crime; the fact that we have formed
    unprecedented partnerships with people in the private sector to deal
    with all kinds of social problems--teen pregnancy, which is down,
    adoptions, which are up--the fact that we have protected more land than
    any administration in the country's history, except those of the two
    Roosevelts--I think that those things are things that our Government
    did.
        I also believe that people have a lot more confidence now, that we
    can actually do things as a nation. In '92 we didn't just have economic
    distress and social decline. We had this political gridlock and
    discredited Government. The national Republicans have badmouthed the
    Government for 12 years, and they'd done a pretty good job of convincing
    America that it couldn't do anything. Now we have cut the size of
    Government by over 350,000. It's the smallest it's been since John
    Kennedy was here, and it really

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    works to empower people and to create these partnerships.
        So I think that we have played a role in the recovery of the economy
    and in the improvement of the situation with crime, with welfare, with
    education. We've opened the doors of college to virtually all Americans.
    And I think all these things count for something. And of course, our
    country has been a great force for peace and freedom around the world.
    And I'm very grateful for the chance to--all of us--to serve here.

    President's Historical Legacy

        Mr. Lehrer. Do you believe that history is going to give you credit
    for all those things you've just enumerated?
        The President. Well, I think that's up to the historians. I think
    that history will be very much--that people who do serious histories of
    this administration will be amazed at the amount of energy and effort
    that went into the wide variety of areas that we worked in. And I think
    that it will show that in virtually every area we had progress, from
    helping to reduce poverty to improving the plight of our children, to
    creating an environment with the reform of telecommunications, the
    reform of banking, and getting rid of the deficit and major investments
    in science and technology, to this exploding new economy.
        I think that it will show that we helped America to make this major
    transition into a new economy and an era of globalization.
        Mr. Lehrer. Are you worried about what the historians are going to
    write about you?
        The President. No, I can't control that. But I think time will tend
    to accelerate the positive and put what negative there is into proper
    perspective. And I feel quite comfortable about that. But the main thing
    is, I don't think too much about it because I know that the only thing I
    can do to impact on it is to do the right thing today by the American
    people.
        I mean, my philosophy has been, ever since I got here, is that in
    the modern political world, the most important thing you can do is get
    up and go to work and concentrate on your job and always keep thinking
    about tomorrow. And all the pressures that operate on you are designed
    to prevent you from doing that, to hobble you, to distract you, to
    divide you, to get you to obsess about what somebody said or wrote or is
    doing.
        And so my whole theory has been from the beginning that if we could
    start and give, first 4 years and then 8 years, of unbridled,
    concentrated effort, no matter what else happened, the American people
    would be all right. And that's really all I hired on to do, is to try to
    help them do better.
        Mr. Lehrer. Let me read what the New York Times said in its lead
    editorial on Monday. They're talking about you, your legacy, and your
    Presidency as you go into this last year. It said, ``historians are
    beginning to categorize Mr. Clinton as a politician of splendid natural
    talent and some significant accomplishments who, nonetheless, missed the
    greatness that once seemed within his grasp.'' What's your reaction to
    that ``what might have been'' kind of thing?
        The President. I think that--well, first of all, I think it's not
    productive to talk about what might have been. But I think if you--the
    question is how you keep score, what is this time like, how will you
    measure it? The time that this is most like is the turn of the last
    century. Did we manage the transition of America in the new economy and
    an era of globalization well, or not? I think the answer is, we did. Did
    we make social progress? Did we actually change the way we approach
    social issues? If the issue is crime, welfare, national service, the
    answer is, we did. Were we good stewards of the environment? We were.
        And then, what were the forces you stood against, and what did you
    stop? And if you look at the forces we stood against from 1994 forward
    and what we stopped, I think the answer is, what we did was, A,
    successful, and B, good for America. And then, did we work with
    contending forces when we could to reach common agreement? I think the
    answer is, we did. So I believe that, first of all, there is no such
    thing as history, because this is still going on. We shouldn't worry
    about that. You know, in 5 years, 10 years, 20 years--I got a book the
    other day on President Nixon's Presidency, and then I got one a week
    afterward on President Kennedy's Presidency that are still being
    written.

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        I just read a new book, a great book, on Theodore Roosevelt's
    Presidency. And I think the further away you get from it, the more
    perspective you get and the more you're able to look at all the
    evidence.
        So frankly, my view is not much better than the New York Times' on
    this. Neither one of us really can properly evaluate how this will be
    viewed in the light of history. I think that we have, given what we
    could have accomplished within the framework of possibility that was
    there and the job that was there before us, I think we've done pretty
    well. But all I can tell you is, I've worked every day, and I did the
    best I could, and I'm going to let the historians make their judgment
    after I give it one more hard year.

    President's Agenda for Last Year in Office

        Mr. Lehrer. Let's talk about the one more hard year. Is there one
    particular thing that you really want to do before you leave this
    office?
        The President. Well, there are many things that I really want to do
    before I leave this office. Obviously, I'm still heavily engaged in the
    search for peace in the Middle East. But whether we can do that or not
    depends----
        Mr. Lehrer. What's the problem there, Mr. President? Particularly
    Syria and Israel, what's the problem?
        The President. I think the main problem is they haven't talked in a
    long time; there's still a fair measure of distrust; and the decisions
    that have to be made will require of both parties actions which will
    cause difficulty for them with some constituencies in their country.
        But let me say, I'm convinced that both the leaders of Syria and
    Israel want peace, and I'm convinced that substantively they're not that
    far apart. So we have a chance to do that.
        But you asked me what I wanted to do. That's something I would like
    to be involved in if they want to do it. I'm prepared to do whatever I
    can.
        I want to continue to do everything I can to protect the natural
    treasures of this country. I want to lay the foundation for America
    dealing with climate change. I want to lay the foundation for America
    dealing with what I think will be the biggest security challenges of the
    21st century.
        I believe--you know, all the attention today is on whether we can
    develop a missile defense and, if so, whether we can deploy it without
    falling out with the Russians and our friends and other countries who
    question this. But the likeliest threat, in my view, is brought on by
    the intersection of technology and the likelihood that you'll have
    terrorists and narcotraffickers and organized criminals cooperating with
    each other, with smaller and smaller and more difficult to detect
    weapons of mass destruction and powerful traditional weapons. So we've
    tried to lay in a framework for dealing with cyberterrorism,
    bioterrorism, chemical terrorism. This is very important. Now, this is
    not in the headlines, but I think it's very, very important for the next
    10 or 20 years. I think the enemies of the nation-state in this
    interconnected world are likely to be the biggest security threat.
        And then, of course, you know the things that are really close to my
    heart: I'm going to try to get a lot done in education, in health care,
    in bringing opportunity to poor people and reducing poverty in this
    country.

    Health Care

        Mr. Lehrer. What about health care? What is it that you would like
    your legacy to be on health care?
        The President. Well, I wish I could have given health insurance to
    all Americans, because I still think it's inexcusable that we are the
    only advanced country in the world that doesn't do that. But I feel good
    about many of the things we have done, in medical research, in letting
    people keep their health insurance when they change jobs, in providing
    much more preventive screening for older people with illnesses or
    potential illnesses, and of course, in the Children's Health Insurance
    Program.
        So I'm going to focus now on what I think I can get done this year.
    I want to try to increase the number of people with health insurance
    dramatically by letting the parents of children in the Children's Health
    Insurance Program buy into it, by letting people between the ages of 55
    and 65 buy into Medicare. And I want to have another big investment in
    biomedical research.

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    Education

        Mr. Lehrer. What about education? What mark can you leave in this
    next year on education?
        The President. First of all, if you look at what we have done--we've
    already helped almost all the States to develop higher standards. And
    we've got--test scores in reading, math, and college entrance exams are
    up.
        Mr. Lehrer. And you feel you've done that? You feel the
    administration has done that?
        The President. No, I--I think our administration has contributed to
    it. No, the people that did it were the kids and the parents and the
    teachers. But I think, consistent with our philosophy, which is to be a
    catalyst for new ideas and to be a partner to help people achieve it,
    there's no question we've had an impact.
        Now, one thing we've had a really direct impact on is we've done
    more than any administration ever has to open the doors of college to
    everyone with big increases in Pell grants; the direct student loan
    program, which lets people borrow money at less cost and pay it off at a
    percentage of their income; we've got a million work-study grants; we've
    got AmeriCorps, 150,000 young people there; and the HOPE scholarship tax
    credit and the lifetime tax credit really means people have no excuse
    for not going to school.
        Now, I have also proposed this time, for the first time in history,
    that we make college tuition tax deductible, up to $10,000 a year, which
    will mean that we have guaranteed access to 4 years of college for all
    Americans. I think that is a huge achievement. Since I became President,
    the number of--the percentage of high school graduates going to college
    has gone up to 67 percent. That's an increase of 10 percent. But we need
    for everybody to be able to go. And so I think that this will be a major
    achievement.
        Now let's go back to the beginning. The next big challenge, besides
    making--this is the last piece, making college universally available.
    The next big challenge is to make sure that everybody's diploma means
    something. And we've been working on this all along, starting in early
    childhood, the increases we made in Head Start. We now have 1,000
    colleges sending mentors into grade schools to make sure kids learn to
    read by the third grade. And I think we've increased the emphasis on
    that--you probably noticed that Jim Barksdale gave $100 million to the
    University of Mississippi, to do nothing but focus on how we can teach
    grade school kids to read. This is a huge deal; it's great.
        So what else do we need to do? I think we need a national strategy
    to turn around failing schools or shut them down. I think we need to
    institutionalize reform with more charter schools. And I think we ought
    to make preschool available to everybody. And everybody that needs it
    ought to have access to after-school. I think if you get those things
    done, and we continue to train the teachers, especially in how to use
    the computers as you hook up all the schools to the Internet, I think
    you're going to see really big, continuing improvements in education.
        Mr. Lehrer. But you can't do all that this next year, can you?
        The President. Sure we can. We can--no, but we can take big steps
    toward it. If you look at the whole history of our country--I read
    something President Johnson said the other day, and he got through
    Medicare and the Medicaid and the first steps of major Federal aid to
    education. He talked about how most of our big progress comes in
    deliberate, discrete steps. And if you take enough steps in the right
    direction, you turn back around, you see you've come quite a long way.
        So what I'm going to try to do in my speech tomorrow night is to
    outline what I think the long-term goals for the Nation in the 21st
    century should be and then what steps I think we can realistically hope
    to achieve in this year and urge the Congress to join me in them.

    2000 Elections and President's Agenda

        Mr. Lehrer. Now, you're doing this, of course, in a Presidential
    election year. In whose interest is it to help you do this, in terms of
    simple politics of getting it done, to help you improve your legacy or
    get things done before you leave office?
        The President. Well, first of all, it's in none of their interest to
    help me improve my legacy. That's not why they should do it. It is in
    their interest to do the job they

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    were hired to do, which is to help the people they represent. And I
    think the people that they represent, whether Republicans or Democrats,
    would find it amazing that someone could suggest they ought to take a
    year off. I mean, anybody who wants to take a year off ought to give up
    their paycheck and say, ``I'm sorry. I'm not going to work this year,
    but I'm not going to take your money.''
        Secondly, in a more mundane way, it is clearly in the interests of
    all the people in Congress to do things that are good for America,
    because the American people will appreciate it. I think it helps the
    Democrats, but I don't think the Republicans--I mean, a bunch of them
    have to run next time, too. And people are going to know--want to know,
    what did you do last year?
        If you look, it's quite interesting. We had a very good year in '96,
    where I had to veto the welfare reform bill twice because the
    Republicans wouldn't agree with me to guarantee child care and health
    care and more nutrition and medical care and transportation for the
    welfare families. And then they did it at the end, and we got this big
    welfare reform. And now we've got 7 million fewer people on welfare. In
    '98 we passed a lot of very important legislation at the end, because it
    was election year.
        So what you might see in terms of Congress now is not an enormous
    amount of activity at the beginning, although I do believe there's a
    good chance we can fairly early pass my proposal to help Colombia fight
    off narcotrafficking and preserve its democracy and work with its
    neighbors along the border. And I think there's a good chance they'll
    pass the China normal trade relations bill--I hope that's true--but I
    think at the end of the year, when people will be held accountable by
    the voters, I think there's a chance we'll get quite a lot done. We did
    in '96. We did in '98. I think we will this year.

    Leadership Choice in 2000 Elections

        Mr. Lehrer. Mr. President, what do you make of Governor Bush's
    comment the other night after he had won the caucuses in Iowa? He said,
    this is the beginning of the end of the Clinton era, and everybody in
    the room cheered.
        The President. Well, they would. [Laughter] I think if he said that
    he would reverse what we were doing, I think he would. And I think
    that's the choice before the American people. I mean, he's offered a
    $1.4 billion tax cut. And the only thing I'd ask the American people is
    to remember, you know, we've now had 20 years of experience. We tried it
    their way for 12 years, and they quadrupled the national debt. And when
    I took office, we had high unemployment, a massive deficit, a huge debt,
    and totally neglected our domestic affairs. We had rising crime, rising
    welfare rolls, all the social indicators going the wrong way.
        Now, we've tried it our way for 7 years. We've got the biggest
    surpluses in history, the first back-to-back surpluses in 42 years. We
    can get this country out of debt now in 13 years--out of debt for the
    first time since Andy Jackson was President in 1835. And all the social
    indicators are going in the right direction.
        So it seems to me that he was being honest with the people, that he
    said that he will reverse this course. And I do think the American
    people ought to vote for change in this election, because things are
    changing so fast around us in this globalized world, we have to keep
    changing. The issue is: Are we going to build on what works or revert to
    what didn't. That's what I think the issue is.
        Mr. Lehrer. You've given kind of your definition of the Clinton era,
    and he has his. Now, what he is--the interpretation of what he's talking
    about is that it's just a continuation of what all the Presidential
    candidates have mentioned to some degree, that Republicans like Governor
    Bush, more than the Democrats, but even Vice President Gore and Senator
    Bradley have said about returning the Presidency back to a nobler
    office, to words like promising to restore dignity and respectability,
    decency, and trust to the Presidency. They're talking about you, aren't
    they, Mr. President?
        The President. Well, first of all, I made one mistake. I apologized
    for it. I paid a high price for it, and I've done my best to atone for
    it by being a good President. But I believe we also endured what history
    will clearly record was a bogus investigation, where there was nothing
    to Whitewater and nothing to

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    these other charges, and they were propagated, and tens of millions of
    dollars were spent, and we got a clean bill of health on that.
        And in terms of trust, let me just tell you a story. I went back to
    New Hampshire for the seventh anniversary of the New Hampshire primary
    in 1991--or the eighth anniversary, excuse me, last year, in 1992--so it
    was the seventh anniversary. I went back there last year. And it was
    raining, and there were children standing in the rain, and people
    standing in the rain. And the thing that meant the most to me--not the
    Democratic Party event, just going around, because they heard the
    campaign in the most detail--was people saying, you know, ``We're so
    much better off now, but the thing that really matters is, you did
    exactly what you said you would do.''
        And it seems to me that all of us in life, we can spend all of our
    time pointing our finger at other people and saying we're better than
    they are, or we can work as hard as we can on our own character, on our
    own lives. And if we're in public life, we need to tell people what
    we're going to do and then we need to do it. And if we don't do it, it
    ought to be because we tried and couldn't.
        I think that's what people know about me and this administration. We
    laid out the most detailed set of commitments anybody ever had in '92.
    We've accomplished virtually everything we set out to do. What we
    haven't accomplished, we tried and failed to accomplish. And even there,
    in the health care area, we made a lot of progress. And people know
    that.
        So I'm satisfied that the American people will make a judgment in
    this election based on what's best for them and their families, on
    whatever factors they choose. They're in control again. We're back into
    the biggest job interview in the whole world. And whatever they decide
    and however they decide it, I think they'll get it right. They nearly
    always do.
        Mr. Lehrer. Do you get angry, though, when somebody like Alan Keyes
    said recently, ``We are coming to the end of the most disgraceful, the
    most immoral Presidency in the history of this country''?
        The President. No, because he's a far rightwinger who probably
    thought Iran-Contra was a good thing for America. And you know, there's
    just no evidence to support it. I mean, you know--so it doesn't make me
    mad at all. How could you take that seriously? This is about--one of the
    things that I had to learn when I moved to Washington is, before I ever
    got angry at anything anybody said, was to ask myself whether it was
    about the subject they were discussing, or whether it was really about
    power.
        And I remember once, I had a conversation with a Republican Senator
    in the middle of the D'Amato hearings, when he was trying to convince
    people, or at least the Republican Senators were, that my wife had done
    something wrong in this Whitewater thing, which was totally absurd. And
    so I asked this Senator, I said, ``Do you think either one of us did
    anything wrong? Not illegal, just wrong, even wrong?'' And he started
    laughing. He said, ``You've got to be kidding.'' He said, ``Of course
    you didn't do anything wrong. That's not the purpose of this. The
    purpose of this is to convince the American people you did. It's all
    about power.''
        Now, I made a mistake. I acknowledged it. I've done my best to atone
    for it. But all this broad-brush stuff, you know, people see that for
    what it is. And when I'm criticized now, I try to remember Benjamin
    Franklin's admonition that our critics are our friends, for they show us
    our faults. So, you know, I'm just trying to be a better person and a
    better President every day. I don't know what else to do. And I'm trying
    not to let this stuff get in the way.
        Again let me say, the job of a President is to have a vision and a
    strategy and pursue it; to show up every day and, insofar as possible,
    to think about the American people and their welfare, and to not think
    about himself. The environment in which a President operates is designed
    to prevent him from doing that--as much as possible, to make him torn up
    and upset, full of recriminations and anger, and have his attention
    divided.
        So what I've tried to do is to create a frame of mind and a climate
    around here with our people, so we could do our job. I hope I've

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    succeeded. I think the results think for themselves.

    Impeachment

        Mr. Lehrer. Difficult question, a matter of history that I feel
    compelled to ask you, Mr. President. We sat, you and I, 2 years ago
    almost to the day, and it was the day that the Monica Lewinsky story
    broke in the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. And you denied
    that you had had an improper sexual relationship with Ms. Lewinsky. In
    retrospect, if you had answered that differently right at the beginning,
    not only just my question but all those questions at the beginning, do
    you think there would have been a different result and that, in fact,
    you might not even have been impeached?
        The President. I don't know. I don't know. I just don't know. I wish
    I knew the answer to that, but I don't. But the thing I regret most,
    except for doing the wrong thing, is misleading the American people
    about it. I do not regret the fact that I fought the independent
    counsel. And what they did was, in that case and generally, was
    completely overboard. And now rational retrospectives are beginning to
    come out where people that have no connection to me talking about what
    an abuse of power it was and what a threat to the American system it
    was. And I'm glad that our people stuck with me, and that the American
    people stuck with me, and I was able to resist what it was they
    attempted to do.
        But I do regret the fact that I wasn't straight with the American
    people about it. It was something I was ashamed of and pained about, and
    I regret that.

    Independent Counsel's Investigation

        Mr. Lehrer. There was another interview that we did before that, in
    which I asked you if you agreed with Susan McDougal that Kenneth Starr
    was out to get you. And your answer was interpreted by Mr. Starr and
    others that, ``well, the facts speak for themselves,'' is what you said.
    There have been many facts since then. That interview was even before 2
    years ago. Do you think the facts have spoken on that?
        The President. Oh, absolutely. I mean, it's not even close anymore.
    Everybody knows what the deal was. And more and more, there will be
    people who didn't have a vested interest in trying to promote some view
    they had previously taken who will evaluate this and come to the same
    conclusion.
        And as I said, even though I'm sorry about what I did and sorry
    about the developments there, I really felt, once the last chapter of
    this played out, that I was defending the Constitution and the
    Presidency. And I feel that more strongly today.
        I think they knew for a long time there was nothing to Whitewater.
    They knew it was a bunch of bull. They had no evidence. In fact, if even
    the law we had, or the one we had before the independent counsel law had
    been in place, there never would have been a special counsel because it
    didn't meet the standard. The only reason I agreed to ask Janet Reno to
    appoint one in the first place was I really believed that the people
    that were talking about it wanted to know the truth, and I knew that
    they'd just look into Whitewater and find out it was a big bunch of bull
    and go on. And what I found out was that a lot of the people who wanted
    it didn't want to know the truth. And they wanted somebody that could
    hang on until they could find something that they could find about me or
    Hillary.
        But they knew for a long time. They knew before 1996 that there was
    nothing to it, which was why they had to get rid of Mr. Fiske and get
    Mr. Starr in there, so it would drag past the '96 election. And I think
    history will show that, too. So I'm relaxed about that, and I don't
    spend much time thinking about it.
        Again, to me, I had to make amends to the American people, and to my
    family and to my friends and my administration. I've done my best to do
    that. Now, the only way I can do that is to just keep looking toward the
    future, to stay excited, to stay upbeat, and to stay focused. And that's
    what I'm trying to do.
        Mr. Lehrer. Do you have moments, private moments, of pleasure and
    satisfaction knowing that if, in fact, there was a conspiracy to run you
    out of office, it didn't work, you're still sitting in the Oval Office?
        The President. I don't spend much time thinking about it like that.
    You know, maybe

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    when I'm gone I will. I'm grateful that for whatever reason, my friends
    and my family stayed with me; the American people stayed with me. I
    believe I defended the Constitution against a serious threat. I'm sorry
    I did something wrong, which gave them an excuse to really go overboard.
    I'm very sorry about that. But mostly what I try to do is to focus on
    trying to be a better President, trying to be a better person, trying to
    be a better husband and father, just trying to do the things that I can
    do.
        You know, you can't--none of us ever gets ahead in life, I don't
    think, by taking big satisfaction in victories or looking down on other
    people or keeping our anger pent up. One of the things I learned in this
    whole deal is you've got to let all that go. Life will always humble you
    if you give in to your anger or take some satisfaction that you defeated
    somebody or some satisfaction that, well, no matter how bad I am, at
    least I didn't do this, that, or the other thing. Life will always
    humble you. And I have just tried to be grateful and to keep serving and
    to just worry about myself and not think about other people--in terms of
    whether you're doing right or wrong. That's all I can do.
        But I'm actually--what I feel every day is, I'm just happy. My
    family was all here at Christmas. We had this fabulous Christmas. My
    administration, I've been fortunate by having all these people stay with
    me. The ones that leave are going off to do exciting things. And we've
    got--I feel that when I took office, the country had so many problems in
    it--it's like we've turned it around now, and we're going in the right
    direction. And now we've got a chance to really dream big dreams for our
    children. And that's a great thing to be doing in your last year in
    office. It's great. And not only to dream those dreams but actually take
    some big steps toward achieving them. So I'm just happy. You know, I
    can't be mad or--it's hard for me to think about all that stuff. It just
    happened. I've come to terms with it, and I'm just trying to go on.

    Post-Presidential Plans

        Mr. Lehrer. When this next year is over, you'll leave office, and
    you'll be the youngest former President since Teddy Roosevelt. You'll be
    in your fifties. You'll still have a lot of time and energy. Are you
    worried about that at all, about staying connected?
        The President. No, not at all. No, no, I'm so excited about it. I
    mean, I'm worried I'll have to go back to learning basic things. But I'm
    excited about that, too, driving a car, shopping for food, paying the
    bills when the house--the pipes freeze, all that kind of stuff. You've
    got to go back to living your life like an ordinary person. I think
    that's good.
        But Theodore Roosevelt had an interesting life when he left office.
    And of course, I've said this many times; I think President Carter has
    basically set the standard for what Presidents should do in terms of his
    public service at home and around the world. And that shows you that
    there's just worlds of possibilities out there. I'm very excited about
    it.
        There are all kinds of things that I'll have to do. Of course, I'll
    have to make a living, and I hope I'll have to make a living to support
    a wife who's continuing our family's tradition of public service. But--
    --

    Hillary Clinton's Senate Campaign

        Mr. Lehrer. Do you think she's going to win?
        The President. I do, yes. I do.
        Mr. Lehrer. Why? Why do you think so?
        The President. Well, I think they're both very strong, formidable
    people and strong, formidable candidates. You know, you get all these
    elections, where you've got to bad-mouth one candidate to like another,
    and you'd think I'd certainly be there in the race involving my wife.
    But the truth is, the mayor and Hillary are both strong, formidable
    people. They have impressive achievements in their lives that relate to
    public service.
        But I think that she's much better suited for the work of a Senator
    and this whole legislative process. And I think that the passions of her
    life, 30 years of work and achievement in education and health care and
    the challenges that children and families face, and the whole philosophy
    she has about community are more consistent with where New York is today
    and what they need in the future.
        And so that's why I think she'll win, not because I think he's the
    bad guy or something, because I think they're both very

    [[Page 159]]

    strong people, but I think that New York will believe, in the end, that
    what she represents and where she wants to go and what her skills are
    and what she knows and cares most about is a little closer to where they
    are than his whole approach. And I think she'll win.
        So I'll have to worry about that. But once I figure out how to
    support my wife's public service--she supported mine for many years--and
    fulfill my other family obligations, I want to find a way, through the
    center I'm going to build in Arkansas, with my library and in other
    ways, to be a public servant. You don't have to be an elected official
    to be a public servant. You can be a servant in other ways. And I can
    help others and do things, and that's what I want to do.
        Mr. Lehrer. Mr. President, thank you very much.
        The President. Thank you.

    Note: The interview began at 3:30 p.m. in the Oval Office at the White
    House. In his remarks, the President referred to Jim Barksdale,
    president and chief executive officer, Netscape Communications Corp.;
    Gov. George W. Bush of Texas; former Senator Bill Bradley, Democratic
    Presidential candidate; Republican Presidential candidate Alan Keyes;
    former Senator Alfonse M. D'Amato; Susan McDougal, Whitewater
    investigation defendant; former Independent Counsel Robert B. Fiske,
    Jr., and his successor, Kenneth Starr; and Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of
    New York City. A tape was not available for verification of the content
    of this interview.