LasVegasWeekly

Bill Clinton, the next president of the United States?

Clinton says re-upping a possibility

By Joe Schoenmann (schoenmann@vegas.com)

Clinton for president--again?

Pausing for photos with reporters and editors in the office of the Las Vegas Sun last week, former President Bill Clinton said it's conceivable that an ex-president--like himself--could be re-elected.

Clinton, looking several pounds lighter than during his presidency from 1992-2000, stopped to answer a question about the possibility of a two-term president "re-upping" and trying for another term. Although the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, enacted in 1951, forbids a president from being elected more than twice, Clinton had obviously researched the subject, speaking for five minutes about constitutional law and academic studies about the prospect.

"Some constitutional experts think it is possible," he said.

In fact, Clinton last December told a reporter that the 22nd Amendment, being seen as too restrictive, could be changed to limit the president to two "consecutive" terms. That would allow him to run again in 2004.

Asked if he would consider it, Clinton didn't say, but he added he would "probably do well" in another election because of his high approval rating, about 65 percent, when he turned over the keys of the Oval Office to George W. Bush.

The former president--ear-phoned Secret Service agents with weaponry bulging beneath their sport jackets in tow--was in Las Vegas last week for five days with his daughter, Chelsea. Clinton collected an estimated $450,000 for three days of speeches to a contingent of Japanese businesswomen. He and his daughter also reportedly attended "O" at the Bellagio, stayed at the Four Seasons and visited Brian Greenspun, Clinton's friend and editor of the Sun.

On his last day, he visited the Sun's new office complex in Henderson, did a newspaper interview--telling reporters the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste plan is the wrong way to go--and shook hands with newspaper employees.

The former president obviously relished the interaction, wading into conversations about his weight loss, his scant use of email, and bullets spraying the White House in Washington--then stopping to puff his cheeks, mimicking a caricature he held next to his face as someone snapped pictures.

Though the use of email and the Internet grew exponentially during his eight years in office, Clinton revealed that over his entire presidency, he only used email twice. Once was in October 1998 to send a message of congratulations to Sen. John Glenn, who returned to space in the Discovery shuttle, 36 years after he became the first American to orbit the Earth. The second was to a group of Marines on a ship near Camp Lejeune, N.C. Clinton went onto say that he ended his use of email because of the inherent inability of email systems to keep them private. [OG, sarcastically: Yeah, right, everybody knows how important it is to keep congratulatory e-mails private. Those pat-on-the-back e-mails will come back to hauntcha every time. Depending on whose back it is, of course.]

Asked about the Sun's office complex, Clinton called it "very friendly," then segued into the 1994 shooting by a man across the White House lawn. It was at a time when Clinton was losing his fight with Congress to ban assault weapons. Smiling, he also noted that the only White House windows broken by the gunman were in the press room, which had small windows near the top of the room. No one was hurt in the shooting.

Asked about his skinniness, Clinton said it's the result of not having access to the "White House dessert chef," and the freedom to jog outside. Though he jogged outdoors early in his presidential term, the runs became major headaches for the Secret Service, which had to deploy 50 people to keep him safe, so he quit. "And I wasn't as good about" working out indoors, he added. That, combined with the desserts, resulted in more pounds.

Clinton's Secret Service contingent, though they'll remain with him for the rest of his life, is much smaller now, so he's able once again to jog outdoors.

-- Anonymous, September 03, 2001