I was in the White House one day in 1993 because President Clinton was reading a book II had written about President John F. Kennedy, the man he says inspired his life in politics. We chatted for a few minutes, the President showing me from which direction the British had come when hey set fire to the White House in 1814.
Soon, my scheduled ten-minute drop-by had stretched into lunch and more than two hours of conversation. The talk, most of it by him, was interrupted only by three polite attempts to break it up by one of his assistants, George Stephanopoulos, whispering that Robert Dole was on the telephone hoping to talk about Haiti and application of the War Power Act.
The President ignored them. On the subject of Jean-Bertrand Aristides the man U.S troops were poised to forcibly reinstate as president of Haiti, Clinton met my questions about his legitimacy and stability with a defining politicians answer: “I know what they say about him, but be got 67 percent of the vote.” Votes are the moral imperative in his business.
A year later, when I came to the White House for an interview on October 18, 1994, it was different. Clinton had given himself over to handlers. Assistants Stephanopoulos and Mark Gearan were sitting on a couch in the Oval Office, placed so that he could see them but I could not. A couple of times, when I bent over my notes, Clinton looked over to them, apparently seeking acknowledgment that he was sticking to his script.
After a half-hour or so, Chief of Staff Leon Panetta came in, an obvious signal that it was time to end. I was asking, “ Why do so many people dislike you so much?”
"The radical right and the Congressional Republicans have demonized me,” he answered. Then he changed direction.
"You know the story about the guy who falls off the mountain, down into a canyon to certain death, and he sees the little twig, grabs it. And the roots start coming out? He looks down. Hundreds of feet below, and he says: “God, why me? Why me?” And this thunderous voice comes out of the heavens and says: “Son, there’s just something about you I don’t like!”
I asked, “Do you know what that something is?”
“No,” Clinton replied. “All I know is that I work hard at this job.”
A lot of people hated President Roosevelt and his wife, many for the very good reason that he was a great man, changing the assumptions and rules of being American. He changed lives.
Many Americans hate President Clinton and his wife, too, for reasons that are much less clear, He has accomplished more than a few things, but none of them have been life-changing for great numbers.
There is obviously widespread mistrust, which seems to begin with Clinton’s manipulation of whole truth. Mainly, though, millions of Americans hate Clinton not because of great events of his Presidency, but because of the 1960s — the ani-authoritarianism, the attacks on great institutions from government to religion, the overthrow of patriotism and traditional American history.
But Clinton is a professional—the most gifted politician of his generation, self-created and almost Roosevelt-like in his political skills. He will do whatever he has to do in the next two years to survive— and very possibly win re-election.
In fact, Clinton has already found the appropriate maxim. Paraphrasing Lincoln, he told a reporter, “You may take another time, where Lincoln said, ‘I am controlled by events. My policy is to have no policy.’"
1993年的一天我來到白宮，因為克林頓總統在讀我寫的一本關于約翰?F ?肯尼迪的書，他說肯尼迪對他的政治生涯起了鼓舞作用。我們聊了幾分鐘，總統指給我看英國人在1814年時從白宮哪個方向放的火。
很快，原本計劃十分鐘的拜訪一直延續到午餐時間，談話進行了兩個多小時。交談中主要是他在侃侃而談，其間只被他的助手，喬治?斯蒂芬尼普勒斯禮節性地打斷了三次，低聲說羅伯特?多爾來電話想談談有關海地及實施作戰權力法案的事情。
總統未去顧及那些。關于讓.伯特蘭.亞里斯泰迪斯的問題，美國軍方打算強行恢復他海地總統的職位，克林頓以政治家的明確態度回答了我關于他復職的合法性和安定性的問題：“我知道他們對他的看法是怎樣的，可他有百分之六十七的選票。”選票在他的事業中在道義上是絕對必要的。
一年后1994年10月18日當我來白宮接受會見時情況就不同了。克林頓好像自己不再作主了。助手斯蒂芬尼普勒斯和馬克?奇蘭坐在橢圓形辦公室的長沙發上，正好是他能看得到而我卻看不到的位置。有好幾次，當我俯身記錄時，克林頓就望望他們，很顯然他是在確認他的講話是否與稿子的內容一致。
大約過了半個小時后，參謀長萊昂?佩尼塔走進來，這是個明顯的該結束談話的暗示。我問道，“為什么有那么多人如此不喜歡你？”
“激進的右派和國會共和黨人把我丑化了，”他答道。接著他話鋒一轉。
“你是否知道關于一個人跌落山崖的故事，落入峽谷行將就斃，他看到一截小樹枝，抓住了它，而樹根開始脫落？他看到下面是萬丈深淵，就說道：“上帝，為什么是我？為什么是我？”上蒼傳來轟鳴的聲音說：“孩子，因為你有些事我不喜歡！”
我問道：“你知道有些事是指什么嗎？”
“不，”克林頓答道，“我所知道的就是努力干我的工作。”
許多人討厭羅斯福總統及他的夫人，其絕妙的理由是他是個偉人，改變了美國人的一些臆斷與規則。他改變了生活。
很多美國人因為一些莫明其妙的理由而討厭克林頓總統及夫人。他完成了很多事情，可沒有哪件事改變了大多數美國人的生活。
這種顯而易見的廣泛的不信任，似乎源自克林頓對事實真相的操縱。然而，成百上千萬的人討厭克林頓主要不是因為他總統任期內所發生的一些大事，而是因為六十年代發生的一些事件—反獨裁主義，未成熟的變革，對從政府到宗教主要機構的抨擊，對愛國主義和傳統美國歷史的摒棄。
但克林頓是個職業的——他這一代人中最有天賦的政治家，在政治手腕上幾乎如羅斯福那樣有獨創性。他會在后兩年里竭盡全力站穩腳跟，并很有可能連任。
實際上，克林頓已找到適合自己的行為準則。他對一位記者解釋林肯的話說：“記得有一次，林肯說：‘我被重大事件所左右。我的政策就是沒有政策。’” |
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