Bill Clinton: “Well, I think when she did that on television, and you got to see the interplay with her family and her friends who were…”

“Well, I think when she did that on television, and you got to see the interplay with her family and her friends who were not homosexual, you got to see all that--I think for many Americans who themselves had never had a personal experience, never had a friend or a family member who's a homosexual, it did give them a chance to see it in a new light. So I think he was accurate about that. My experience in life--all I can tell you is what my experience is-- and I'm not talking about as President, I'm talking about as a citizen now, as a person--is that most people's attitudes about how homosexuals should be treated really are determined more than anything else based on whether they have ever known someone who is homosexual. Now, whether most people's attitudes about whether the lifestyle should be condoned or condemned is a function, perhaps, of their religious training. But we're not talking about people's religious convictions here. We're talking about how people in the public arena, as citizens, should be treated in terms of their right to education, to jobs, to housing, and to be treated free of discrimination. And that is the agenda that I want to further for all Americans. And that is what I think we ought to be focusing on. Administration Accomplishments Mr. Russert. In preparing for this interview, we went out and talked to thousands of American viewers, voters, with a poll, and we asked some interesting questions. The first was, what do you think the best accomplishments were of the Clinton administration? And let me show it to you on the screen and I'm going to read from there: protecting Medicare and education, 30 percent; improving economy and creating jobs, 23; keeping the U.S. at peace, 13; balancing the budget, 13. Would you agree with that list?”