‘I’m Never Going to Get Out of Scrutiny,’ Says Clinton on Whether She’d
Hesitate to Run for President to Avoid Scrutiny of Public Life
‘I’d Like Some Time Off to Sit On a Beach or Take a Hike, But I Don’t Think
the Republicans Ever Rest!’ She Says of Working Towards Kerry Victory
NEW YORK, July 25, 2004 – Read LAWFUEL’s PRESS RELEASES for all today’s law announcments
When asked whether she might not
hesitate to run for president to avoid having her private life once again held
up to public scrutiny, New York Senator Hillary Clinton tells Newsweek, “I’m
never going to get out of scrutiny.” Clinton also fails to knock down a
comment former President Bill Clinton made recently on “Good Morning America”
about his wife’s political future: “She’s now where I was in 1988. When I
didn’t run [for president] in 1988, I thought I would never get another chance
to run because I really thought the Democrats were going to win…So we’ll
just see.” Responding to her husband’s quote, Clinton says, “That’s a
statement of the obvious; you never know in life.” And asked to describe her
relationship with her husband, Clinton tells Newsweek “It’s the same as it’s
been for 32 or 33 years.”
If fellow Democrat John Kerry should win the White House, he would upset
any plans Clinton has of running for president herself in four or even eight
years, reports Contributing Editor Melinda Henneberger in the August 2 issue
of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, July 26). Her situation these days, as one
Democrat who knows her well tells Newsweek, “is that whether or not she ever
gets to run for president is in the balance and she’s on the sidelines. It’s
like she’s the second-string quarterback.” In that position, “Do you want your
team to win the championship, or do you want the guy [who’s in the game] to
get injured? It’s certainly a fair question.”
But in her interview with Newsweek, Clinton rails against President George
W. Bush’s efforts to undo the Clinton legacy and leaves little doubt that she
is pulling for her team. “I’d like some time off to sit on a beach or take a
hike, but I don’t think the Republicans ever rest!” she says. “The president
is giving up his vacation, so we know it’s serious.” She continues: “I do get
agitated and energized. But I don’t want to wake up on Nov. 3 and think I
haven’t done everything I can…And I’m wild that there may be more problems
in the electoral system.”
Clinton is on the road for Kerry because “she’s a real trooper and a real
professional,” says New York Rep. Charles Rangel, who was irate when the Kerry
campaign initially neglected to offer Senator Clinton a speaking role at the
convention. “I don’t think she was an early supporter, but she’s with him now,
and they need her…she cannot be ignored in national politics,” he says.
Though friends say Senator Clinton was not happy when it seemed as though she
would not be speaking, she says that’s not the case: “I’ve said from the
beginning, I’ll do whatever I’m asked.”
Of the idea that Clinton herself sees
the current ticket as her future competition, she insists, “People keep
imputing meaning to me I don’t put out.” Clinton says of Kerry, “I’m delighted
he’s going to be the president. He’s the perfect man for this moment, a
serious man for a serious time.”
