Bill: Hillary Could Break 2004 Promise

Ex-President Bill Clinton said Tuesday that New Yorkers would forgive his wife if she broke her promise to serve out a full six-year term in the U.S. Senate and instead decided to run for president next year.

"I was impressed at the state fair in New York, which is in Republican country in upstate New York, at how many New Yorkers came up and said they would release her from her commitment if she wanted to do it," Clinton told an audience in Monterey, Calif.

He added, however, that Hillary "just doesn't understand how to walk away from that [promise]. So I just have to take her for where she is right now."

Clinton's comments were reported by the New York Sun on Wednesday.

In 1990, Mr. Clinton made a similar promise to Arkansans to serve out his full four-year term as governor, which would have prevented him from running for president in 1992.

At the time, he organized a series of town hall meetings where he explained that he should be released from his pledge because he could do more for the people of Arkansas as president.

Addressing fund raisers and party strategists gathered in Chappaqua 10 days ago, Mr. Clinton called his wife and Gen. Wesley Clark the Democratic Party's two brightest stars, then predicted, "We might have another candidate or two jumping into the race."

Gen. Clark announced his candidacy earlier today.

On Gen. Clark's chances for success, Clinton predicted that he'll have "a good run here at the beginning," but added, "Whether he can get elected president I don't have a clue."

Later in the day, Clinton addressed an entirely different topic, the question of why Republicans hate him.

Speaking at a charity fund raiser in Seattle, Clinton explained, "[Republicans] think I betrayed the whole culture."

"They're mostly white, Southern male and Protestant, and I am one," the former Arkansas governor noted. "I'm an apostate."

Clinton sounded upbeat about his own party's prospects in next year's election, saying of his fellow Democrats, "I think we've got our mojo working pretty good now."

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
2004 Elections
Sen. Hillary Clinton

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