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Clinton cites successes, failures
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-06-21 15:18 Although his presidency may be indelibly marked by
his affair with intern Monica Lewinsky, US former president Bill Clinton said
his biggest failure as president dealt with policies not achieved.
''I'm sorry on the home front that we didn't get health care and that we
didn't reform Social Security," Clinton told CBS's ''60 Minutes" in an interview
that aired last night. ''And international affairs I'm -- I regret that I didn't
succeed in getting Osama bin Laden. And, equally I'm sorry that I wasn't able
enough to convince the Israelis and the Palestinians to make peace."
US
former President
Bill Clinton speaks with Dan Rather of the television network
CBS in a preliminary meeting before his interview for the '60 Minutes'
program. The interview was aired June 20, 2004.
[Reuters] | Clinton said his economic plan was his
greatest accomplishment.
''I kept score, how many people's lives were better off," he told Dan Rather.
''I think the fact that we were able to have 22 million jobs and record home
ownership and lower interest rates -- people actually had the ability to do more
things than ever before."
Among the low points were telling voters that he had smoked marijuana but not
inhaled, and the nadir was finally telling his wife, Hillary, about the affair.
''I had a sleepless night and woke her up and sat down on the side of the bed
and just told her," Clinton said. ''And it was awful. But I had to do it,
because the grand jury testimony was coming up and I was going to tell the truth
to the grand jury, and I wanted her to know before it happened."
He spoke candidly about his affair on ''60 Minutes" and with Time, but never
mentioned Lewinsky by name in the television news program.
Clinton cited ''old demons" and ''unresolved anger" at independent counsel
Kenneth W. Starr as part of the explanation for his affair.
''It's not good for a person to be as mad underneath as I was," Clinton said
in an interview with Time in which he spoke of his anger at Starr's relentless
search for financial and personal wrongdoing in Clinton's White House. ''I think
if people have unresolved anger it makes them do nonrational, destructive
things. People ask me all the time, they say, 'What you did during the
government shutdown with Monica Lewinsky didn't make any sense, so explain. How
could you do this? You knew Ken Starr was looking over your shoulder.' "
When Rather asked Clinton why he had the affair, Clinton answered: ''Just
because I could. I think that's the most-- just about the most morally
indefensible reason that anybody could have for doing anything."
Clinton flatly denied launching cruise missiles at Osama bin Laden to divert
attention from the scandal with Lewinsky.
The two interviews kick off a whirlwind promotional week for Clinton's
long-awaited memoir, ''My Life," which will be sold in bookstores tomorrow. The
957-page tome -- which Clinton reportedly wrote himself in longhand -- has put
the former president back in the international spotlight, earning him jabs from
comedian Jay Leno, an anticipated spot on ''Oprah," and a front-page review in
the Sunday New York Times, which called the book ''eye-crossingly dull."
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