Clinton's Rx: Road Trip!
Will veteran CBS News White House Correspondent Bill Plante shred the veil of secrecy that shrouds the Oval Office? Nah. But, from time to time, Plante will take you Behind the Scenes at the White House. In this piece, he looks at Travelin' Bill and the Invisible President.
TRAVELIN' BILL
The first lady says she's packing up to move to the new house in Chappaqua, N.Y. Chelsea's away at school. After the holidays, the White House will be a pretty lonely place. What's a president to do? In Bill Clinton's case - hit the road.
What's there to do out there? Fun stuff. Raise money for the Democrats, visit other countries, maybe even campaign for Al Gore -- when invited.
The president has made a dozen foreign trips this year alone. He wanted to take one more -- to Ireland, to celebrate the return of self-government to Northern Ireland. The White House senior staff had to talk him out of it -- too early in the process, still too much risk the deal could come apart. When Mr. Clinton finally said "no" last weekend, the staff breathed a sigh of relief -- not just for him but for themselves.
 Bill Plante |
But Ireland is high on the agenda for year 2000 travel -- along with India, Japan, and, believe it or not, Brunei. He also wants to visit Vietnam. (Yeah, he has been warned that there'll be a lot of negative publicity because he avoided serving in the war -- but he wants to go anyway.) And he wants to go back to Africa. Think of it as a farewell tour of the world!
THE INVISIBLE PRESIDENT
At this point in any two-term presidency, attention begins to shift away from the guy who's had the job for seven years to the people who want it. And if you're Bill Clinton, that no fun at all. He just can't stand fading into the background.
For months during the scandals of 1998, Clinton avoided the press like a bad plague. Now he won't -- can't -- stay away. Given a chance to answer one question, he'll take ten. Last week, during an Oval Office announcement about a new parental leave policy, he took ten questions, none of them on the subject of parental leave.
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