Bill Clinton's Race Commission: "PRESIDENTIAL OPRAH?"

IS TALKING ABOUT RACISM IN AMERICA
"PRESIDENTIAL OPRAH?"
by Mac MacArthur

Bill Clinton wasn't amused by ABC's John Donvan yesterday when he asked.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 17TH, 1997 -- New York (APJP) -- Bill Clinton held a wide-ranging press conference yesterday which set the tone for next year's presidency weeks ahead of his State of the Union address. The president claimed he had a "banner year" in 1997; named the First Dog; was reluctant to deny women in the military opportunity; wants to see the Bosnian peace process continue, refused to discuss, in detail, his confidence in Louis Freeh as FBI Director; called Saddam Hussein "clever crazy"; brought up possible rapprochement to Iran; explained that he didn't personally snub Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in Los Angeles; said he believed that his race initiative is working, announced a Spring meeting of NATO; said the country was better off than five years ago when he took office; and almost lost his temper with an "opinionated" reporter.

Clinton flared briefly when a reporter said some had dismissed his recent Ohio, town meeting on race relations as "presidential Oprah," referencing TV talk star Oprah Winfrey.

He got into a spat with a reporter who said that "reports from the front lines of your race initiative suggest that the initiative is in chaos," and was "a little more than 'Presidential Oprah."'

"If that's your opinion, state your opinion," Clinton said, and asked the reporter to identify the critics. It was classic Clinton, exposing the reporter's own bias and continuing his open "fight-back" attitude. The reporter did not tell the President who the critics were, but implied they came from within his own Administration and that he might "fire" them if he did.

"That may be your editorial comment, that's not my reports," Clinton shot back. He then challenged the reporter to name one source. "Just one," he said, almost ridiculing him. "Give me a name."

John Donvan
"I don't want them to get fired by you, sir," replied the harasser, John Donvan of ABC News.

"Puhleeeze" as my friend Avak Keotahian always says. Donvan, a Dartmouth grad, should have given up his sources, or apologized. Either way the POTUS would have respected him more.

White House aides said that Clinton's job yesterday was to show he remains the dominant figure on domestic policy. Clinton is facing "journaballistic"" conjecture that his lame-duck phase has started. One reporter told him that two top advisers from the last presidential campaign -- Dick Morris and George Stephanopoulos -- have said, in recent days, that the White House "lacks energy" and new ideas.

Well, what do you think this press conference was about - mad cow disease?

Those comments were "almost worthy of dismissal," Clinton said, and told reporters that he got the balanced budget and tax credits passed letting people write off nearly all the cost of junior college, and won agreement by the NATO alliance to extend membership to three former client states of the Soviet Union.

I think he could have done better than that. How bout running a country while being attacked from all sides?

Clinton wanted very much to dispel criticisms from former and current aides and the media that he is "at sea." His style was relaxed for more than an hour and a half and he repeatedly ignored aides' urging him to stop. In all, he took 34 questions before ending the press conference - the longest he's had since winning the presidency in 1992.

RACE RELATIONS

The President has been taking a lot of heat for his race relations initiative and he sought to counter critics spending quite a bit of time talking about the importance he sees in discussing race in the "absence of crisis."

"I believe talking is better than fighting," he said. No one picked up on the fact that the president may be worrying that increased pressure from legislation and ballot initiatives like Proposition 209 in California, may increase pressure on inner-city youth to feel left behind resulting in a tough Summer in 1998. Talk about the heads-up press corps.

Clinton said matter was "on track," that he was trying to end housing discrimination and that many people have accessed a new White House web site for details on ways to ease racial differences.

You can visit that web site at http://www.whitehouse.gov/Initiatives/OneAmerica/index1.html

It's terrific.

"I think it is working and I think it is taking shape, and I believe it has got a clear direction, and I think you will see better results as we go forward," the President said.

The racism panel is next to meet again on Wednesday in Fairfax, Va., with teachers and William Bennett, who was secretary of education under President Ronald Reagan.

That's too bad. Bennett will thorn it, that's for sure.

Clinton also said he might need the panel to work longer than June, his original deadline for what he thought would be a one-year national "conversation" on race relations.

Clinton also used the Army's success with affirmative action as a demonstration of his feelings on the issue.

The Army does not use quotas or promote unqualified people, he said, but there's an effort to qualify people so that in each promotion pool, the applicants for the next rank "reflect the racial composition of people in the next lowest rank."

Clinton sent a message to Ward Connerly and the University of California regents adding that the Army's program might hold a lesson for universities, which could try to find students who, because of their education might score poorly on standardized tests "but whose probability of success in college is very, very high."

That remark resonated in Southern states and California college administration buildings as a harbinger of things to come -- perhaps at urging from Bill Lan Lee and/or progressive educators worried about destructive erosion in opportunity for higher education among minorities now that some have openly pretended to "prove" that myth called "reverse discrimination."

Clinton rejected the idea that merit should govern college admissions totally. "The whole premise on which affirmative action is being attacked," he said, "is that there really is a totally objective, realistic way you can predict success in college."

The President indirectly attacked our friends at ETS, Princeton when he said that "In fact grading systems vary, and the Scholastic Aptitude Test "is not a perfect predictor of capacity to learn and capacity to perform."

"I honestly believe that, if every kid in this country had the right kind of preparation and a hand up where needed enough in advance, and the right sort of supports, and you had a realistic set of criteria for letting people into college, that there would not be much racial disparity in who got into which institutions."

Absolutely right.

Clinton also said that success in business stemmed from "the whole fabric of contacts people have and what they know and what experiences they've had." His support for economic affirmative action programs is the result of that thinking and he said so yesterday.

The President also said that, while Americans might be misled by loaded terms like "racial preferences" in the debate over affirmative action.

"If we get down to slogans, you have no better than a 50-50 chance of seeing any kind of affirmative effort prevail," the Clinton said.

BOSNIA

President Clinton readied us for a protraction of US military presence in Bosnia. He will be talking with the allies about the future, but thinks it's vital to stay and beef up the police force in Bosnia and has concluded a continued U.S. troop presence of at least two more years will be required.

John Warner, (Republican of Virginia) said, "I would say it's going to be an uphill climb to get Congress behind the president." on this one.

Gee. I thought the military was a Republican "thing."

IRAQ

Clinton said he would "not rule out anything" to force Saddam to give U.N. weapons inspectors full access to sites they suspect may hold chemical or biological weapons.

"There are those who would like to lift the sanctions," Clinton said. "I am not among them."

Clinton said this about Saddam, "He's clever crazy on occasion."

He said the Iraqi leader may be "clever crazy" rather than mentally unbalanced, as a reporter suggested. But Clinton also added that Saddam has made "maddeningly stupid" miscalculations by trying to block the work of United Nations weapons inspectors and that the administration is monitoring on a "daily basis" whether to take additional steps to compel Hussein to open up all suspected weapons sites for inspection.

IRAN

Clinton said he was "quite encouraged" by Iranian President Khatemi's call Wednesday for a "thoughtful dialogue" with the US. But Clinton said this dialogue cannot begin until Iran provides assurances it is not sponsoring terrorism or subverting the Middle East peace process. He must have been listening to Eleanor Clift Sunday when she warned, "It's way to early to start slobbering over the regime in Iran -- Proceed cautiously."

THE BUDGET

The President was not eager to heighten expectations about rumors that me may propose tax cuts next year. That doesn't mean he won't., and may be waiting for the state of the union to announce so.

"We need to stay at that task," he said. "We don't have a surplus yet."

STEPHANOPOULOS AND MORRIS

A reporter reminded him that two of his own people -- Dick Morris and George Stephanopoulos -- have said in recent weeks that he lacks energy and ideas.

The remarks, said Clinton are, "almost worthy of dismissal."

Perhaps George and Dick might be too if they were still on the presidential payroll, although, in a way, they are?

FREEH

The president also talked about internal White House criticism of FBI Director Louis Freeh -- but not much. Press Secretary Mike McCurry told reporters during the Reno/Freeh spat over the appointment of an independent counsel that Freeh was leading the agency "as best he can."

"I think there's been too much back and forth, and I don't want to get into it," Clinton said. He did add that Freeh's support for an independent counsel in the fund-raising controversy had no effect on his opinion of the FBI director, and later suggested that, in the Saudi bombing case, Freeh's activities were good.

"Here is a case where I believe that Mr. Freeh and the FBI have worked hard to try and get an answer," the president said.

Freeh, earlier yesterday, told reporters that he is not worried about what the White House thinks of him and has no plans to resign. "That doesn't bother me at all," he said. "My job here is not to make people happy or to please them or to be a loyal subordinate when that conflicts with what I think my job is."

CAMPAIGN FINANCE

Few questions about campaign finance were raised and drew even less information from the president. One reporter asked if he still considered fund-raisers Charlie Trie and John Huang "his friends." Clinton merely said that anyone who violated the law "should be held accountable" and then immediately began a pitch for campaign finance reform legislation.

He called for tighter campaign-finance laws and accused Republican congressmen of investigating his campaign in hopes of bankrupting (him and) the Democratic Party.

"I think the Democratic Party's financial problems are due almost entirely to the legal bills it incurred with a lot of very vigorous help from Republican congressional committees," he said. "So it's obviously part of a strategy, and it's worked to some extent."

AL GORE

Asked whether Al Gore was a :"victim" of rivals within the Democratic party to hurt his presidential prospects, Clinton said Gore "needs no defense from me"

"He's had the most full partnership with the president of any vice president in history."

GORE AND GEPHARDT

Clinton made light of any significance re the internal Democrat debate set afire recently by House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt who chastised the White House for dropping the party's "core values" and turning it into a "money machine." at a recent Harvard speech.

"There's plenty of time for presidential politics," Clinton said, "the most important thing now" is to focus on making progress on important issues. "In terms of the debate with Congressman Gephardt, let me just say I think that it's easy to overstate that." He took time to illustrate that Gephardt and he (and Gore) agree on many policy areas including the crime bill and the failed health care initiative which the White House will try for again next year.

Clinton said that Democrats' rifts over free trade would not "split this party in 1998," because, in the end all Democrats believe "we should trade more, and we should do more to help people around the world with environmental and labor problems, and help people here at home who are being left behind."

TAXES

Clinton refused to rule out basic changes in the tax code. But, he said, such changes would have to be "fiscally responsible" and "fair to all Americans." He also said, the changes would have to benefit the economy and simplify the tax code.

Clinton insisted on fiscal discipline within any tax-cut proposal. "There are a lot of tax cuts that might be desirable, but how would you pay for them?" he said.

GLOBAL WARMING

President Clinton promised to offer a strident agenda in his State of the Union address next month and said the balance of his term will be spent on long-range problems such as global warming and ensuring the solvency of Medicare and the Social Security trust fund.

PEACE PROCESS

Clinton also said he was impatient with the "slow pace" of the Middle-East peace process and that this has led him to take the unusual step of not meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu when he was in this country last month. Clinton maintained that was not a snub of Netanyahu, the Israeli has said publicly. Clinton said he met with Netanyahu five times in the last 18 months and that it is important their next meeting "be a real meeting and that there be some understanding of where we are and where we're going."

START II

Clinton is also ready to set a date for his next trip to Russia to talk with President Boris Yeltsin but wants to wait until after the Russian Parliament ratifies the long-delayed START II treaty aimed at curbing nuclear arms. By waiting, he said, he and Yeltsin can go directly to an agreement on the START III treaty.

The President was in no hurry to leave the press conference although aides tried to get him to end it after the first hour. Clinton turned to them and said, "We're having a good time," After the domestic press corps became lost for questions, he called on a number of foreign journalists and covered a wide array of less-than-exciting topics from Greek-Turkish relations, to the election of a new president in Guyana.

Did he have too much coffee?

Look for the President to repeat this performance after the State of the Union. Aides say to us that he's trying to build a more personal relationship with the American people, and even though critical of the press lately, will use the White House press corps to do so.

It remains to be seen whether they'll be fair and let him, or whether scandal-mongering will continue to be the watchword of the press corps day.

- Mac Smith

OH YEAH, THE DOG

Clinton revealed the name of his new dog, "Buddy." The puppy, a three-month-old Chocolate Labrador, was named after a Clinton family friend who passed away recently.

If not for that, I would have urged the President to name him DOTUS, for "Dog of the United States."