"I Didn't Get Hired to Fix Everything"

By Margaret Carlson, James Carney, Michael Duffy and Bill Clinton.

Last Friday afternoon, President Clinton talked in the Oval Office with TIME White House correspondents Margaret Carlson, James Carney and Michael Duffy. On Clinton's desk was a hardcover book, The Culture of Disbelief by Stephen L. Carter, with the jacket flap folded in as a place marker. He appeared relaxed and spoke softly.

Q. When you were on the stage at the signing of the peace agreement and you put your arms out for Arafat and Rabin to shake hands, did you plan to do that?

A. Well, not exactly. It sort of came naturally. I wanted to be supportive of them and of the importance of going through with their handshake, which they had agreed to do in advance but which I think both of them thought would be a difficult moment. I thought I was making it easier for them.

Q. What do you think you've learned in the first six months that you are applying in, say, the second?

A. Well, first, I think I've learned to try to focus not only my energies but my words. The way a President speaks to the people is different than the way any other citizen can or should speak. And in a way it's markedly different than the way a Governor or a Senator would speak. And maybe I just found the way to do that.

Q. Is there something about the style of leadership that is required of a President that has made you change?

A. I believe that one of the things I learned in the last six months is, to get people to really change, you have to create the conditions in which they feel secure and in which they can personally make the decision to do it. And the reason I think this Middle East peace thing worked is because we made it clear from the get-go that we were going to do everything we could to get the process up and going but that we would not impose a peace agreement.

But I think what I have to do as President is to try to somehow call forth very simple but powerful feelings from the American people as we face each of these challenges. They have to feel both more secure and a greater sense of responsibility.

I hope that maybe I can do a better job as we go along now of letting people know what the big motivating factors behind these decisions are. And I think that's really what a President's job is. A President is not America's chief mechanic. You know I didn't get hired to fix everything in that sense. I got hired to do what I'm now trying to do, to set forth a vision.

Q. Is that what you always had in mind?

A. I probably knew it before I came here. But I think a President needs a little time to set forth the big framework of things to the people, which I was able to do on Feb. 17 ((in the Joint Address to Congress)), with good results I think, but it's hard. I wasn't able to sustain it so well.

Q. Besides talking about issues with the ex-Presidents who were here, did you get some general advice from the only people who can really know how to be President?

A. We had a marvelous breakfast, the four of us did. We talked about NAFTA in the context of just this issue I've been talking about. I said, you know, the thing that bothers me about this is that we are caught in a time of real change and it is very hard on some people and a lot of people aren't secure in their jobs. But we've always been able to figure out how to take these challenges and face them, embrace them and come out at the other end of the process ahead. And now a lot of people seem to want to turn away.

Q. Do you envy former President Carter being able to call Ross Perot a demagogue with unlimited financial resources to undermine NAFTA?

A. From the comments around the breakfast table, I wasn't sure he would be the one to make that comment.

Q. There were other candidates?

A. There were other candidates for the prize. But anyway, he won the award.

Now, of course, if you're a former President, you have a different role and a different leeway. I don't think as President I should be trying to personalize this conflict. I think we've got a better chance with NAFTA if it doesn't degenerate into a shouting match but instead elevates into an honest discussion of the difficult choices facing the country.

Not because anyone can see the future. These people did not sign this ((peace)) agreement out here last Monday because they knew how. All they did was make a decision that they would go on a journey and where it would end up.

The most audacious example of that in modern history was when Kennedy said we'd go to the moon by a certain date, and then we just embarked on a journey together. I think now the problem for the American people is that with all the problems they are having now, this journey has a lot of aspects. The journey means different economic arrangements. It means having to d eal with the health-care issue. It means having to literally change the way the whole national government works. It's all part of a journey toward the 21st century that is just confronting us with a bewildering array of change. I've got to find the balance of security and responsibility that American families need to make it. But I think we're getting there.