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Time - Man of the Year
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Time_Man_of_the_Year_Compact_Publishing_3YX-Disc-1_Compact_Publishing_1993.iso
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1993-04-08
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THE WEEKNATION, Page 18Stepping into the Washington Whirl
The President-elect makes the rounds of a city he's about to
call home
The symbolism, at least, is unmistakable: after defeating a
President regarded by most voters as out of touch with the
nation's problems, Bill Clinton is cutting a different figure.
He went jogging one morning last week in Washington, stopped on
the way back at a McDonald's two blocks from the White House,
ordered a cup of coffee and started to chat up the locals. One
homeless man explained that he had been out of work for three
years. A woman said she prayed for him every night. "That's why
I go [to McDonald's] at home," Clinton said later. "You see
a reasonable range of people in there."
The theme of Clinton's Washington tour was "I'll keep in
touch" -- with the plain folk who helped carry him into office,
with the Democrats on Capitol Hill who have been out of favor
for years, and even with the Republicans who now find
themselves in a distinct minority. It won't be easy: upon
Inauguration, Presidents-elect slip helplessly into the
protective cocoon of White House and Secret Service agents
whether they like it or not. But certainly the speed with which
Clinton moved about the city indicates that he will be, if
anything, an even more energetic President than the ever
bustling Bush.
Perhaps the most surprising development came when Clinton
and erstwhile rival George Bush met for 45 minutes more than
their allotted one-hour meeting on Wednesday. Details of the
Oval Office session, which was devoted largely to foreign
policy, are sketchy. But within 24 hours, Clinton suggested that
Bush's conciliatory posture toward China might not have been as
counterproductive as he had once believed. A Clinton official
denied that any reversal had occurred a day later. But the
President-elect's back-and-forth maneuver, also a common tactic
of Bush's, led an outgoing White House official to remark, "It
all sounds eerily familiar."
The President-elect journeyed uptown to an all-black
neighborhood that is combatting crime as well as recession. That
pilgrimage perhaps took the sting off the two nights he spent
at glittery parties in posher Georgetown. Clinton's trip to
Capitol Hill on Thursday was what an aide to the Governor
described as a "love shack." Latent intraparty disagreements
over taxes, deficits, auto-fuel standards and a line-item veto
were quietly shelved; starved for a leader after 12 years, the
Democrats are all singing the same music. For now, anyway, happy
days are here again.