Bill Clinton: “I wouldn't say that, but one of the frustrations is that what is going on--in a funny way, you don't have either one.…”

“I wouldn't say that, but one of the frustrations is that what is going on--in a funny way, you don't have either one. Because if you had direct democracy, at least people would then want to take real time and have real debates and assume real responsibility. But what happened--what is happening often now, particularly to us in the first 2 years, where the Democrats had the Congress but not a controlling majority--that is, the Republicans could kill anything but a budget in the Senate--and I was in the Presidency, the culture of criticism took over. I mean, the people could say anything and not have to be responsible and not even be held accountable, and very often the mainstream media even would not pay any attention to what was being said on talk radio or by my political opponents because, after all, it didn't affect decisions. But the impact of this was that the people tended to understand the criticism more than the record of what was done. It's an almost stunning disconnect between what you're actually doing and what is being talked about and understood out there. So that's why I say the cure for this is not to try to undo it. You can't undo it; you can't go back the other way and abolish technology and abolish opportunities to communicate. We have to look at where we are now as a stop along the way, and we have to keep working through it so that people don't just use their information as an instrument of anger and frustration and so they know when they're being manipulated by people who have an ax to grind and they have access to things they care about, to hear both sides, evaluate the facts, and then go forward. So we just have to keep working through it, and we'll get there. Administration Accomplishments Mr. Lamb. This Parade magazine--I don't know if you've had a chance to see your picture----”