Every president gets to indulge a personal hobby. George Bush set up a horseshoe pit. Gerald Ford built a swimming pool on the South Lawn. Rhodes scholar Clinton has created a private university-with a student body of one and a handpicked faculty. Every few months, in unpublicized sessions, Clinton brings in leading scholars. To cram for last year’s D-Day anniversary, he summoned Eisenhower biographer Stephen Ambrose. To grapple with affirmative action, Clinton noodled with Yale Law professor Paul Gewirtz and the University of Chicago’s William Julius Wilson. Searching for ways to use his office more effectively, he sought out Harvard presidential scholar Richard Neustadt.
The sessions result from Clinton’s frustration with day-to-day governing. He has instructed aides to schedule more “thinking time” for him. And some seminars have had an impact. At his November 1993 meeting on presidential power, guests urged Clinton to make better use of the bully pulpit. A week later in Memphis, Tenn., he gave perhaps the most memorable speech of his presidency, a fiery sermon about black churchgoers’ obligation to take responsibility for their streets and their children. After reading Yale professor Stephen Carter’s book (“The Culture of Disbelief”) lamenting the lack of spirituality in public life, Clinton invited Carter to the White House and started using phrases from the book in speeches. He singled Carter out for praise when he signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act in 1993–a bill limiting the states’ ability to restrict religious practices.
But they don’t call these guys “eggheads” for nothing. One guest at the juvenile-crime dinner suggested that Clinton establish a “National Cease fire Day” in which teenagers would be exhorted not to shoot one another. (Clinton is “mulling” that one, according to an aide.)
Some visiting thinkers wonder whether Clinton is really challenging himself. University of Pennsylvania criminologist Marvin Wolfgang came away feeling that Clinton wanted “mostly affirmation and support.” The White House’s imperial aura makes even seasoned scholars tentative. And all the big-think may just reinforce Clinton’s tendency to dither. In January Clinton organized a Camp David retreat to revitalize a presidency that seemed aimless and undisciplined. The session, participants report, was aimless and undisciplined.
Clinton acknowledges that the dinners underscore his reputation for indecision. “People say I’m wavering,” he told a friend a few months ago. “But I think it shows good leadership style” to talk out an issue. More to the point, say aides, listening to others may be the best way for Clinton to figure out what he believes.
