Bill Clinton: “Well, there's something to be said for that. I mean, the argument is, of course, that every decision can become the…”

“Well, there's something to be said for that. I mean, the argument is, of course, that every decision can become the subject of instant analysis and communications and that Congress can be paralyzed by a blizzard of faxes, not F-A-C-T-S, F-A-X-E-S, and that you can just have a stampede based on the emotion of the moment. I think there's something to that. But Andrew Jackson once said that the cure for any problem of democracy was more democracy. I mean, you know, look what we're doing here. C-Span is exactly the reverse. It's plugged in, but you just cover everything the way it is and people can make their judgments about Bill Clinton or Newt Gingrich or Bob Dole or whomever they wish to evaluate. And they can hear the ideas; they can assess the people. And I think even, you know, talk radio can be a very positive thing if it's a conversation rather than a weapon. I remember--I just went today, before this interview started, as you know, to the memorial service for Senator Fulbright. And I remember 20 years ago--and he's been gone from the Senate for 20 years--coming on his last campaign, he was complaining about how the Members of the Congress then, by his standard, had to travel around too much, had to be almost too accessible, didn't have the time they needed to think and absorb and then discuss with their constituents in an unhurried way what the great issues of the day were. Well, that's 10 times more true today then it was then. So what I think we need to do is not recoil from the democracy, the hyperdemocracy, but try to work through the more irrational and destructive aspects of it to have a national conversation again. You know, when I was running for President, we had all these town hall meetings, and I just loved them. And I--particularly when I attracted no notice--I never had to worry about whether I could have a meeting with 400 people and answer 40 questions, and then if one of them turned out to be a controversial question, that would then be on the evening news and 100 million people would see that, and only 400 would have heard the regular things. So I could go around and carry on this democracy. And we just have to find ways to do more of that and to show things whole and balanced and not twisted. Presidential Debates Mr. Lamb. As you know, we were a part of reenacting the Lincoln- Douglas debates this last summer.”