The Kennedy Half-Century (129 page)

17
. Clinton,
My Life
, 381.

18
. Smith,
Selected Speeches of Bill Clinton
, 120–21. Some aspects of this proposal became reality during the Clinton administration, especially with regard to Russia and newly independent republics that had been a part of the old Soviet Union. See, for example, Carl M. Cannon and Mark Matthews, “Clinton, Yeltsin Begin to Talk about Money: Vancouver Summit Focuses on Issues of Russian Economy,”
Baltimore Sun
, April 4, 1993, and William J. Clinton, “Statement on Signing the Foreign Operations Appropriations Legislation,” September 30, 1993, Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley,
The American Presidency Project
,
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=47145
 [accessed July 25, 2012].

19
. Smith,
Selected Speeches of Bill Clinton
, 127.

20
. Clinton,
My Life
, 428.

21
. Telephone interview with James Carville, February 15, 2013.

22
. Clinton was classified 1-A (available for military service) when he graduated from Georgetown in the spring of 1968. But the local draft board in Arkansas, proud of Clinton’s academic accomplishments, granted him a temporary reprieve so that he could continue his studies as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford. Opal Ellis, the draft board’s executive secretary at the time, told the press: “[W]e were proud to have a Hot Springs boy with a Rhodes Scholarship” [and so] “the board was very lenient with him … We gave him more than he was entitled to.” Clinton says the board told him that he would probably be called up in September or October of 1969. According to Ellis, Clinton returned to Arkansas after
his first year at Oxford and told her that “he was going to fix [her] wagon [and] pull every string he could think of.” Clinton disputed Ellis’s version of events and said that he met with an Army ROTC recruiter at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and “agreed orally to join the Army officer’s program at the law school there.” As a result, the Hot Springs draft board changed his classification from 1-A to 1-D, “a draft deferment that a spokesman for the Selective Service System says was only for people who had joined a reserve unit, or who were students taking military training, such as the ROTC.” Clinton never joined the program or even enrolled at the university, opting for Yale Law School instead. It is not clear if Clinton ever planned on attending UA-F or simply made a phony promise so that he could avoid the draft. The Army ROTC recruiter, Eugene Holmes, says he was surprised and angered by Clinton’s decision not to attend the university and had him reclassi-fied as 1-A. A new draft lottery system was enacted in November 1969 and on December 1, the lucky Clinton drew “number 311.” “No one with a number higher than 195 was called, according to the Selective Service System.” See Jeffrey H. Birnbaum, “Clinton Received a Vietnam Draft Deferment for an ROTC Program That He Never Joined,”
Wall Street Journal
, February 6, 1992.

23
. Nigel Hamilton,
Bill Clinton: An American Journey: Great Expectations
(New York: Random House, 2003), 575; Michael Kramer, Laurence I. Barrett and Richard Woodbury, “Moment of Truth: Insisting That Flowers’ Charges Are ‘False,’ Bill Clinton Faces the Biggest Test of His Political Career,”
Time
, February 3, 1992; Lucy Howard and Ned Zeman, “ ’92 Campaign Edition,”
Newsweek
, January 27, 1992, p. 4.

24
. Transcript of the Clintons’ January 26, 1992, interview with
60 Minutes
, “In 1992, Clinton Conceded Marital ‘Wrongdoing,’ ”
Washington Post
website,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/stories/flowerso12792.htm
 [accessed July 25, 2012].

25
. S. Robert Lichter and Larry J. Sabato,
When Should the Watchdogs Bark? Media Coverage of the Clinton Scandals
(Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1994).

26
. John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge,
The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America
(New York: Penguin Press, 2004), 104.

27
. Interview with Fred Malek, November 16, 2011. See also Susan Okie, “Bush’s Thyroid Condition Diagnosed as Graves’ Disease,”
Washington Post
, May 10, 1991, and Bob Woodward, “Watergate’s Shadow on the Bush Presidency,”
Washington Post Magazine
, June 20, 1999,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/daily/june99/shadow20.htm
 [accessed April 13, 2012].

28
. See, for example, this poll conducted by Los Angeles Times, October 2–October 5, 1992, and based on 1,833 telephone interviews that showed Clinton defeating Bush 53% to 39%, with 8% other or don’t know. Sample: National adults. [USLAT100792.R13]. Los Angeles Times poll, Oct. 1992, iPOLL Databank, Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, University of Connecticut,
http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu.proxy.its.virginia.edu/data_access/ipoll/ipoll.html
 [accessed July 24, 2012].

29
. Clinton and Perot were neck and neck in the Gallup poll between April and May 1992. Perot pulled ahead in June (39%), followed by Bush (31%) and Clinton (25%.) By August, however, Clinton held a commanding lead over his two rivals (57%) and won the general election with 43% of the vote. See “Gallup Presidential Election Trial-Heat Trends, 1936–2008,” Gallup Politics,
http://www.gallup.com/poll/110548/gallup-presidential-electiontrialheat-trends-19362004.aspx#2
 [accessed June 19, 2012].

30
. Perot withdrew from the race on July 16, 1992. At that time, he argued that the Democratic Party’s surge meant that the election would likely be thrown into the House of Representatives and “since the House of Representatives is made up primarily of Democrats and Republicans, our chances of winning would be pretty slim.” “Excerpts from Perot’s News Conference on Decision Not to Enter Election,”
New York Times
, July 17, 1992. Perot reentered the race on October 1. Twenty-four days later, he told the press that “he had withdrawn [in July] after hearing that President Bush’s campaign was scheming to smear his daughter with a computer-altered photograph and to disrupt her wedding.” Richard L. Berke, “Perot Says He Quit in July to Thwart G.O.P. ‘Dirty Tricks,’ ”
New York Times
, October 26, 1992.

31
. William Greider, P. J. O’Rourke, Hunter Thompson, and Jann S. Wenner, “The Rolling Stone Interview: Bill Clinton,”
Rolling Stone
, September 17, 1992, Jann S. Wenner website,
http://www.jannswenner.com/Archives/Bill_Clinton.aspx
 [accessed February 3, 2012].

32
. Joe Klein,
The Natural: The Misunderstood Presidency of Bill Clinton
(New York: Broadway Books, 2002), 215.

33
. Howard Fineman with Ann McDaniel, “Minus Perot: The New Math,”
Newsweek
, July 27, 1992, p. 24.

34
. “1992 Tribute to Sen. Robert Kennedy, Jul. 15, 1992,” C-SPAN Video Library,
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/SenRo
 [accessed February 2, 2012].

35
. Clinton,
My Life
, 418. See also Robin Toner, “Choice Is Affirmed,”
New York Times
, July 16, 1992.

36
. “Clinton 1992 Acceptance Speech, Jul. 16, 1992,” C-SPAN Video Library,
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Clinton1&showFullAbstract=1
 [accessed February 2, 2012].

37
. Clinton,
My Life
, 480.

38
. Transcript of NBC
Today
, November 5, 1992, pp. 14–15.

39
. Lance Morrow with Tom Curry, “The Torch Is Passed: Bill Clinton Parades into Washington as America Gambles on Youth, Luck and Change,”
Time
, January 4, 1993: 22–25.

40
. Respondents were asked: “In terms of style, which of the following presidents do you think Bill Clinton will be most like?” Kennedy was named by 43%, Carter by 25%, 15% for other presidents, with 17% unsure / don’t know. Survey by NBC News,
Wall Street Journal
, conducted by Hart and Breglio Research Companies, December 12–December 15, 1992, and based on 1,004 telephone interviews. Sample: National adults. [USNBCWSJ.4035.R07C]. NBC News /
Wall Street Journal
poll, December 1992, iPOLL Databank, Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, University of Connecticut,
http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu.proxy.its.virginia.edu/data_access/ipoll/ipoll.html
 [accessed July 24, 2012]. Sample size: 1,004 respondents—national survey, adults. Margin of error: +/− 3.2 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.

41
. “Clinton Inaugural Gala,” SNL Transcripts,
http://snltranscripts.jt.org/92/92kinauguration.phtml
 [accessed February 23, 2012].

42
. U.S. Representative Joseph P. Kennedy II also attended.

43
. Gilbert A. Lewthwaite, “Clinton, Set for Oath, Promises ‘New Spirit’: Iraq Crisis Shadows Inauguration Eve Marked by Visit to Kennedys’ Graves,”
Baltimore Sun
, January 20, 1993.

44
. See John F. Kennedy, “Inaugural Address,” January 20, 1961, Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley,
The American Presidency Project
,
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=8032
 
[accessed February 23, 2012], and William J. Clinton, “Inaugural Address,” January 20, 1993, Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley,
The American Presidency Project
,
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=46366
 [accessed February 23, 2012].

45
. Clinton,
My Life
, 478.

46
. Garry Wills, “The Art of Oration: Short Is Always Good,”
Los Angeles Times
, January 24, 1993.

47
. Bill Clinton, “Response to the Lewinsky Allegations (January 26, 1998),” Miller Center website, University of Virginia,
http://millercenter.org/scripps/archive/speeches/detail/3930
 [accessed July 25, 2012]. If there is any other remembered sentence from the Clinton years, it may be this gem: “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.” The statement was originally made by Clinton before a Starr-convened grand jury investigating Whitewater and other off-shooting scandals. See “The Starr Report,”
Washington Post
website,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/icreport/icreport.htm
 [accessed July 30, 2012].

48
. William J. Clinton, “The President’s News Conference,” April 20, 1993, Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley,
The American Presidency Project
,
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=46451
 [accessed February 22, 2012]; Clinton,
My Life
, 498.

49
. For more information on McVeigh’s life and motives, see Dan Herbeck and Lou Michel,
American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing
(New York: HarperCollins, 2001), and Brandon M. Stickney, “
All-American Monster”: The Unauthorized Biography of Timothy McVeigh
(Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1996). Senator John Danforth (R-MO) led a federal investigation of the government’s handling of the Waco standoff. His report is available at
http://www.cesnur.org/testi/DanforthRpt.pdf
 [accessed June 19, 2012].

50
. See, for example, Jack Germond and Jules Witcover, “Clinton Must Deliver on Outrage at Bombing,”
Baltimore Sun
, April 21, 1995, and Evan Thomas,
Back from the Dead: How Clinton Survived the Republican Revolution
(New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1997), 22.

51
. “Federal Agents Seize Elian in Predawn Raid,” CNN, April 24, 2000,
http://articles.cnn.com/2000-04-22/us/cuba.boy.05_1_helmeted-agent-delfin-gonzalez-lazaro-gonzalez-they?_s=PM:US
 [accessed June 19, 2012].

52
. Clinton,
My Life
, 469–70.

53
. See “Bill Summary & Status, H.R. 2264,” Library of Congress website,
http://thomas.loc.g0v/cgi-bin/bdquery/zTd103:H.R.2264
 [accessed July 24, 2012].

54
. See “H.R. 2014, Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997,” Library of Congress website,
http://thomas.loc.g0v/cgi-bin/bdquery/zTd105:H.R.2014
 [accessed June 19, 2012].

55
. See Table 1.1, the Historical Budget tables,
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BUDGET-2011-TAB/pdf/BUDGET-2011-TAB.pdf
 [accessed November 7, 2012].

56
. These averages are based on numbers from “Economic Report of the President,” U.S. Government Printing Office,
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/browse/collection.action?collectionCode=ERP&browsePath=2001&isCollapsed=false&leafLevelBrowse=false&isDocumentResults=true&ycord=0
 [accessed July 30, 2012].

57
. William J. Clinton, “Remarks on Signing the National and Community Service Trust Act,” September 21, 1993, Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley,
The American Presidency Project
,
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=47092
 [accessed February 29, 2012].

58
. President Johnson first established a “domestic Peace Corps” in 1965. It was called
VISTA—Volunteers in Service to America—but it was scaled down somewhat in subsequent administrations. AmeriCorps included the remnants of VISTA and broadened the service mandate to other fields. For more information, see the AmeriCorps website,
http://www.americorps.gov/about/programs/vista.asp
 [accessed June 19, 2012].