Clinton on Sunday returns to Washington from the island of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, where he has spent nearly two weeks healing his marriage and plotting his political comeback after his Aug. 17 speech admitting an inappropriate relationship with Lewinsky.
Clinton will remain in Washington for a day then leave for a summit with Russian president Boris Yeltsin in Moscow, which U.S. officials acknowledge is gripped by a political uncertainty high even by Russian standards.
The turmoil in Russia, brought on by its inability to deal with a deepening financial crisis and Yeltsin's firing of his government a week ago, shook investor confidence around the world and sent share prices plummeting.
At the summit Clinton will try to bolster the immediate stability of Yeltsin's government, while urging it along the path to financial reforms and seeking to develop ties with prospective leaders of an eventual post-Yeltsin Russia.
The war on terrorism, launched by Clinton when he interrupted his vacation last week to announce cruise missile strikes against what he said were suspected terrorist targets in Sudan and Afghanistan, further clouded a picture of prosperity and peace that has helped support Clinton's popularity despite scandal. Nevertheless, White House aides said they are confident Clinton can continue to lead effectively.
``There are challenges around the world ... but the president has demonstrated over the last six years that these are challenges he is stepping up to and knows how to deal with, and will not shrink from,'' a White House aide said.
Referring to foreign policy, the aide said, ``We live in a complicated and changing world, and there are obviously limits to what an outsider can do. But we've got a foreign policy that advances U.S. interests and has also made the world a safer place.''
On the economy, he said, ``I'm not an economist, but everything I've read says the fundamentals are still strong.'' Clinton's biggest domestic challenge is restoring his political standing after his confession, which shocked some loyal supporters and drew criticism from some members of both parties for failing to express adequate contrition.
Special prosecutor Kenneth Starr appeared near the end of his investigation into whether Clinton illegally sought to hide an affair with Lewinsky. Clinton has denied the allegation.
The president emerged near the end of the week to make a policy speech in Worcester, Massachusetts. He was treated to a well-staged show of support from state Democrats and cheering crowds, but the president also appeared weary and a number of protesters outside the speech diverted attention.
But in the more emotion-charged environment of a commemoration of Martin Luther King's August 1963 ``I Have a Dream Speech,'' vows of solidarity from prominent African Americans, including Democratic Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, brought tears to Clinton's eyes Friday. The president again stopped short of apologizing for his affair with Lewinsky, but he forecast he would get ``a lot of practice'' in requesting forgiveness and laid out a view that the road to redemption required seeking forgiveness as well as giving it. ``And all of us -- the anger, the resentment, the bitterness, the desire for recrimination against people you believe have wronged you, they harden the heart and deaden the spirit and lead to self-inflicted wounds,'' he said. ``And so it is important that we are able to forgive those we believe have wronged us, even as we ask for forgiveness from people we have wronged.''
``There are challenges around the world ... but the president has demonstrated over the last six years that these are challenges he is stepping up to and knows how to deal with, and will not shrink from,'' a White House aide said.
The president has demonstrated he can step up to these challenges, deal with them, and not shrink from said problems. The mindset I am referring to, is the one in which we believe we are the worlds only super-power(which is true), and thus, must play the worlds only super-hero(which, I believe, is a faulty assumption). This is the way I look at it. Instead of trying to rule the world, why don't we learn to work with other countries. Now, you may say that there are always countries which simply won't co-operate... There are terrorists who will do whatever it takes to get their way. And I reply: and who are these terrorists? Don't you think that our reaction to the bombings in Africa are a terrorist act? We are trying to strike the fear of the US and it's god into the heart of those who would dare question her superiority. Now, I am certainly not condoning Osama Bin-Ladn, or the Taleban, or any fundamentalist group whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, etc... Nor terrorist groups of any other sort, anti-new-one-worlders, militia members, reactionaries... All of them. What did we do? We reacted to something.
I think in order to change this paradigm, we all need to sit back, and look back at why we believe the way we do. We need to question our cultural assumption. If we never look at other cultures, and try to understand their perspective, we'll never solve anything. Why did the group attack the US(as was claimed... We have no solid proof. It was never brought before the public. It was never brought to court. We didn't try to bring the "criminal" in. No, we bomb his sorry ass. And what else? A pharmaceutical company. We claimed it was producing precursors for chemical weapons(or, was it biological... Damn, I should have written this when it was fresh news... I'll try to stay current on events from now on) Anyways, Sudan said that we had bombed an innocent facility. Unless we take this before a world court, we'll never find out who's right. And the US doesn't want to have an independent world court. Nope... Sad, innit? We always want things done our way, and if the same standards would apply to us, we would refuse them... Just as any other country has done to us when we aggress their sovereignty.(Sovereignty is bullshit in this day and age. At least, it should be. It's a stale dogma in need of major revision. We need sovereignty to a limited degree, but too much interferes with a global operation towards peace.)
The second:
we've got a foreign policy that advances U.S. interests and has also made the world a safer place.''
A foreign policy that advances "U.S. interests", and made the world a "safer place" Really? Do we truly believe this? Are we so blind as to think that we've done either? What US interests? A dream for peace and freedom for all? Democracy? "Here. Lemme put a gun to your head, and let you choose democracy." Democracy should never be forced upon a people. Yes, dictatorship is evil, totalitarian regimes are a terrible affliction dotting the face of our planet... But democratic aggression is not necessarily that much better."
Could it be the interests we are advancing are corporate interests? Commercial aggression to keep us as the strongest country in the world? Now, I'm a limited capitalist. Not a complete capitalist, as I had been... But I definitely believe in a form of captilism that allows for freedom and protection... The Middle Way, if you will(thank you Gautama) But protection doesn't mean to protect these mega-corporations... It means to protect the consumer. Special Interest Groups... I think I'll put up the lyrics to a Dead Kennedys Song called "Kinky Sex makes the world go 'round" Great commentary on the military-industrial complex.