Bill Clinton: “Well, I think, first of all, if you look historically, that is not an atypical de- velopment in a transition period…”

“Well, I think, first of all, if you look historically, that is not an atypical de- velopment in a transition period, because the debate becomes wider and people become more open to different things. Some of them are quite good and sensible; some of them are, in my judgment, too extreme. But we had, I think, four parties on the ballot in the 1948 Presidential election, just to mention one period of transition. Both psychologically and substantively, things, you know, began to be more open. I think in this time period--I think the--you know, when people have 50 channels on their television station at night, if you say would you rather have 3 parties instead of 2, it's pretty obvious what the answer's going to be. And the third thing I would say is--and this is a challenge that I think, frankly, those of you who are in the print media can perhaps help us to meet. The information age is a mixed blessing for serious public policy and politics, because the pressures on people who live in Washington to speak in terms that aggravate the differences and simplify the issues so that they can get their 10 or 15 seconds over to the American people at night are enormous. And sometimes it benefits one party, sometimes it benefits another, and they win a big election victory over it. But the aggregate impact of it is, if it doesn't quite resonate with what people think is the whole truth--all the facts--is to make people disillusioned with the process, even as they reward people who may be kind of shaving it in ways that are not good. So, one of the things I'm looking forward to in the next election is to try to restore what I thought we had in 1992, that I thought was so good, you know, the town meetings, the debates and the different formats, the debates in which people were involved and could ask their questions. All those things, I felt, helped to restore people's faith in the system. So I do believe--one thing I agree with Speaker Gingrich on, I think that over time, the American people have been well served by basically having two stable political parties. But I would remind you that one reason that's worked is that both parties have had a rather broad tent. They have had philosophical convictions. There have been clear differences, but they have made room in their parties for people of different views so they could make principle compromises and keep moving the country forward. I think that is what has worked best for America over the long run. The American people will be the final judge of what will work best in the future. Campaign Finance Reform”