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You have to be very disciplined about it too. First of all, we have to establish the Administration as one that's rolling up its sleeves and going to work from the President on down, where there's a serious, passionate commitment to the interests of the American people. When the work is well in hand, then I can begin to go back out in the country and do a lot of these things. But I think that when we travel, both of us, it ought to be not just to be in touch with people but to be in touch with them over something that together we can do.
Mrs. Clinton: The model of the economic conference may be one that we try to build on. It was open to the public. It was carried on television. Individuals who were there represented many people like themselves in many respects. And there was a sense in which the viewer who watched it on television or read about it in the paper felt a part of it. If we can keep that especially around issues, I think people will feel they are in touch.
The most important part of all this is results. What are the outcomes of all this effort? What is it that is happening that is changing people's lives? We've talked a lot about how you create a culture within the government, along the lines of what many companies have tried to do as they restructured, trying not only to build teams but to create a shared vision and to have a sense of direction that it keyed to the outcome you are trying to achieve. It sounds corny, but we'd love it if the people in the government in the Clinton-Gore Administration go to work every day and say to themselves on the way to work, "What am I going to do today that will help Americans?" and at the end of the day, they'd say to themselves, "What have I done today to make anyone's life get better?" Those kinds of questions are markers that will help to create a culture within the government that we hope will communicate itself to people so that they will feel their interests are being represented, even if they don't personally get to see Bill out on the street doing something.
Clinton: That reminds me. You asked me earlier what else had surprised me. I'm a little chagrined to admit this because it shouldn't surprise me, having been a Governor for 12 years. But one of the things that has struck me since I won this election is that there are a huge number of people who work for the Federal Government and know about all these things I care about. Many of them have been out there for years, and nobody has ever asked them for their opinion. There are a lot of really gifted, devoted people who ought to be given a chance to hook into this future we are trying to build.
Q. John Kennedy said that after he was elected, he began to think in terms of who it was he had to have in the room when he made the really big decisions. For him, that was Robert Kennedy. Who is it for you?
A. Hillary.
Q. How does that work? If you disagree, how do you work that out? Or don't you disagree?
Both: Oh, yes, we disagree.