-Caveat Lector-
Los Angeles Times
November 7, 2000
Act Two for Clinton May Dwarf Act One
By RICHARD T. COOPER, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON--It was a sparkling Labor Day afternoon, a perfect
time to be on the golf course of the Army Navy Country Club in
Arlington, Va. And President Clinton was two-up on his friend and
chief fund-raiser, Terry McAuliffe. Yet the president turned
pensive as he slid behind the wheel of the golf cart.
"You know something, Macker," McAuliffe recalled the
president saying wistfully. "In 26 years, this is the first time
I haven't been in a Labor Day parade."
"There are moments like this when he realizes it's what he's
done his whole life, and it's coming to an end," McAuliffe says
of the man who--despite the agonies of scandal and
impeachment--has relished being president as much as anyone who
has ever held the office.
"None of them has wanted to leave the White House when it
came right down to it. Jimmy Carter even cried," says Clinton
confidant Vernon E. Jordan Jr., who's known every president since
Lyndon B. Johnson. "The morning of Jan. 21 will be the worst day
for him."
Does this mean William Jefferson Clinton, soon to become the
nation's sixth-youngest former president, is glumly contemplating
the dustbin of history? Does he expect to be moping about in his
Camp David pajamas while others play the great game -- perhaps
even overshadowed by his wife, if Hillary Rodham Clinton wins her
New York Senate race?
Don't bet on it.
Based on what some who know him best say, if even half of
Clinton's post-White House plans work out, you ain't seen nothing
yet.
His starting point is the redoubtable Carter, whose
continual intervention in trouble spots around the world since
leaving office has discomfited his successors--and almost
eclipsed his own presidency. But Clinton, while vowing not to
tread on official toes--especially if his vice president,
Democrat Al Gore, wins the presidency--is thinking on a scale
that dwarfs Carter, or even the elder statesman gambits of
Richard Nixon.
Clinton sounds like a man determined to raise more money,
talk with more world leaders and generally plunge deeper into the
public fray than any of his modern-day predecessors.
Clinton Is 'Positive About His Future'
From education and health care reform to bringing peace to
Northern Ireland and the Middle East, Clinton envisions playing a
high-profile role that will cheer his admirers and keep his
enemies gnashing their teeth for years to come.
"He's 54 years old and he's in great health. He wants to
continue with these causes," says McAuliffe, who talks with
Clinton frequently and is helping to raise more than $150 million
to fund an ambitious presidential library and other elements of
the second act of Clinton's life. "He is upbeat, he is positive
about his future, his spirits are great."
Indeed, Skip Rutherford--another longtime friend and head of
the Clinton presidential foundation--thinks it won't take long
for Clinton to eclipse his fellow living ex-presidents. Ronald
Reagan is ill. Gerald R. Ford and George Bush are showing their
age, and Carter can't go on forever. Soon, Clinton will have that
role all to himself.
"He will cut a wide path on the world stage, despite his
detractors," says former Sen. Dale Bumpers of Arkansas, who's
talked with Clinton recently about his plans. "He's as
well-respected worldwide as any leader since FDR."
And history suggests that, although most former presidents
subside into figurehead status, some -- especially the younger
ones -- have played important roles after leaving the White
House. Theodore Roosevelt became so angry at his successor,
William H. Taft, that he bolted the Republican Party and ran for
president again on the Bull Moose ticket in 1912--opposing Taft
and helping elect Woodrow Wilson president. Grover Cleveland,
another youthful former president, also ran for the White House
again -- and won in 1892, the only man to have two nonconsecutive
terms. (The Constitution bars modern-day presidents from doing
that.)
The other three who left office younger than Clinton,
Franklin Pierce, Millard Fillmore and James K. Polk, played
quieter roles. But John Quincy Adams, a venerable 61 when he left
the Oval Office in 1829, won a seat in Congress and became a
powerful voice against slavery.
So, Clinton's determination to remain a player could be more
than a pipe dream.
To be sure, big plans for the future are not the only things
on Clinton's mind in these autumnal moments of his presidency. He
is still driving to get more done before he surrenders power.
He's involved in planning his presidential library in Little
Rock, Ark.--right down to the sizes and shapes of rooms, although
he's threatened to relocate the facility if the state disbars
him. And as always, he's obsessed with politics--including Gore's
bid to succeed him and, most of all, with his wife's Senate race.
Last Accomplishments While in Oval Office
One sign that Clinton is not banking his fires is the almost
feverish way he's working to strike new blows for cherished
causes. Groups that share his views on the environment, education
and other issues are trooping through the Oval Office to discuss
what last steps Clinton might take on their behalf through
executive orders, new regulations or other uses of executive
power.
"He's saying: 'I have two, three months left. If there are
some things we can accomplish, let's accomplish them. . . . If
there are some last-minute things, let's get them done.' He wants
to ride this out the whole way," one senior White House official
says.
Immediately after leaving office, Clinton's instincts tell
him, he should keep a low profile for a while. He doesn't want to
wear out his welcome.
Then, according to Bumpers and others, look for an intensive
schedule of paid speaking engagements. The Clintons will leave
the White House in debt, with as much as $9 million in unpaid
legal fees alone as a result of the Monica S. Lewinsky and
Whitewater investigations.
Only the $100,000 or more per appearance that a former
president can command--coupled with an advance of as much as $10
million for his memoirs (no firm plans or publisher yet)--can
erase those debts and put Clinton on the strong financial footing
necessary for what is to come next: his return to the arena of
politics and policy.
By the time all that's out of the way, plus a world tour --
remember that Reagan received some $2 million for a
post-presidential visit to Japan -- the Clinton library should be
nearly ready.
The trove of historical documents, the largest collection of
presidential papers ever, is the least of it. The Clinton Center
will provide the launching pad for his public agenda. It will
house a research institute that planners see as a moderate
counterpart to the Hoover Institute at Stanford, which provides
intellectual ammunition for conservatives. Through a variety of
educational programs, the center also aims at training cadres of
future Clintons.
The complex will even include a penthouse apartment for the
Clintons, to supplement the condo they already own in Arkansas.
But what associates think will set Clinton's library apart
is the way he will use it as a platform for influencing public
debate. With the former president as a draw, for instance, the
Clinton Center hopes to convene conferences of world leaders as a
way of amplifying his voice.
Politics Are Clinton's Vocation, Avocation
In part, Clinton's untraditional vision of the traditional
presidential library reflects the fact that he has lost none of
his appetite for politics. The subject comes up all the time in
conversations with friends. It is his vocation and his avocation.
"He knows every place in America and what they like and what
they don't, and different populations, and what they care about
and how messages should be framed," says one senior White House
official. "It's sort of like a star athlete still in the prime of
their career. It's like, 'I'm leaving, I know I'm leaving, but I
know I'm still good.' "
Nowhere is that continuing passion stronger than in the New
York Senate race.
Clinton pushed hard for his wife to run. Over the course of
her trial-by-fire candidacy, he never stopped advocating and
advising. He talked regularly with her campaign staff and
debriefed her pollster, Mark Penn, sometimes several times a day.
Occasionally, he stepped out with her to campaign. But mostly
he's remained in the background, because his political experience
told him voters would accept her only if she found her own way.
"Running for office is like applying for a job," an aide
remembers Clinton saying one day. "Lots of people can write
recommendations for you, but when you go in for that interview,
you're in there by yourself and you either click or don't click
by yourself.
"It's whether people, it's whether the voters, feel you'll
fit in. . . . It's a very personal decision; no one can do it for
someone else."
The president pointed to what he considered a blunder by his
1992 rival, former President Bush, for pressing voters to support
his son. "That's like the golden rule you cannot break. It's
George W. that's running, not his father."
Still, Clinton's pride in his wife, watching her go from
novice candidate to savvy and self-confident professional in a
relatively short time, has been obvious to those around him.
McAuliffe remembered that after watching one of Mrs.
Clinton's televised debates, her husband delighted in her
performance.
"He'd say, 'Did you see the debate? She was fantastic. Do
you see how well she does with people?' "
Underlying Clinton's commitment to Hillary's race is a
welter of feelings that even his closest friends see in differing
lights. Some see an unfaithful husband trying to make amends for
his unforgettable, if not unforgivable, betrayal. "No question,
there's a sense of atonement about it," Bumpers says. "He'll go
to his grave sincerely regretting the pain and mental anguish he
caused her."
McAuliffe, on the other hand, says it's something broader:
"He is there to support her because she has been there to support
him in his 26 years in elective office."
Either way, with election day at hand, her campaign also has
been about repairing the family name. "In some sense, even though
he's not on the ballot, there's a lot of him invested in this,"
one friend says.
"Ultimately," says Leon E. Panetta, former Clinton White
House chief of staff, "I would not be surprised if he gets back
into politics -- runs for the Senate from Arkansas or takes some
senior foreign policy post. I cannot see him staying out of the
game and becoming the elderly statesman. That's not his nature."
"This story is going to go on and on and on," agrees
Rutherford. "It's not over when he leaves office. It'll just be a
new chapter."
---
Times staff writers Geraldine Baum, Alan C. Miller, Jack
Nelson, Alissa J. Rubin and Elizabeth Shogren contributed to this
story.
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