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In the final portion of President Clinton's Newsmaker interview with Jim Lehrer, the president sums up elements of his political philosophy and talks about some of his more difficult policy decisions.
A RealAudio version of of this Newsmaker interview is available.
In his Newsmaker interview with Jim Lehrer, President Clinton discusses:
- re-election and his first term
- negative politics and Whitewater
- the differences between himself and Bob Dole
- his stake in the Congressional elections
- Dick Morris and the role of consultants
- his move to the center
NewsHour Coverage:
September 18, 1996:
Issue and Debate: Foreign Policy. Following a comprehensive background report on Clinton's foreign policy, Margaret Warner leads a panel discussion.
JIM LEHRER: So all of these things that you're criticized about--and we talked about them a moment ago--about the idea that you have moved to the center and you've done it for political reasons because you want to be reelected and that's the only reason you've done it, and these aren't based on convictions, it's just total nonsense, from your perspective?
PRESIDENT CLINTON: It is total nonsense. For one thing, what was my ‘92 campaign about? It was about creating a dynamic center in American politics, not a split-the-difference, middle-of-the-road, don't ever do anything center, but a dynamic center, where you--we could meet the challenges of the modern era, preserve the traditional American value, and bring people together to actually do things. And that is consistently what I have tried to do. But the idea that, you know, that we haven't tried to take tough decisions or been willing to do things that were controversial is just wrong.
The budget was controversial; taking on the NRA over the Brady bill and the assault weapons ban were controversial, dealing with the tobacco companies, which no other President has done was controversial, the Bosnia decision, the Haiti decision, the decision to give aid to Mexico was controversial. And, by the way, we've gotten our money back with interest, and made a profit out of it. I've done twenty or thirty things that were wildly controversial. I don't mind being unpopular and controversial, but my philosophy, the one I outlined, you go back to 1991, I gave a set of speeches at Georgetown, and I said that we needed to create opportunity, insist on responsibility, and create a stronger sense of American community, and that the role of government was not to advance government; it was to give people a tool to make the most of their own lives.
In 1996, I wrote a new book, said the same thing, here's where we've come from, here's where we're going, so I have tried to be very consistent. And, you know, anybody--if you serve long enough, you make thousands of decisions, you're going to have some decisions where you actually change your mind, one or two things where you just think that you ought to do something different. China is a good example, where I became convinced the more I studied it that the worst thing we could do was cut off all trade relations with China, even though we disagree with their human rights policy, because we'd lose all ability to influence it, and if you looked at the world twenty, thirty, fifty years from now, when they're almost certainly going to be more powerful, stronger than they are today, we should continue to work with them and engage with them and be tough where we can but to cut off all contact would be in error. I just made a decision about that.
But I think that if you look at the record, I think there's a remarkable amount of consistency there, and I feel quite comfortable with it. And I'm saying the same things I did when I ran for President in ‘92,
except focused more on the future, focused more on what are we going to do tomorrow, not what have we done in the past.
JIM LEHRER: Mr. President, thank you very much.
PRESIDENT CLINTON: Thank you.
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