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A. We had a marvelous breakfast, the four of us did. We talked about NAFTA in the context of just this issue I've been talking about. I said, you know, the thing that bothers me about this is that we are caught in a time of real change and it is very hard on some people and a lot of people aren't secure in their jobs. But we've always been able to figure out how to take these challenges and face them, embrace them and come out at the other end of the process ahead. And now a lot of people seem to want to turn away.
Q. Do you envy former President Carter being able to call Ross Perot a demagogue with unlimited financial resources to undermine NAFTA?
A. From the comments around the breakfast table, I wasn't sure he would be the one to make that comment.
Q. There were other candidates?
A. There were other candidates for the prize. But anyway, he won the award.
Now, of course, if you're a former President, you have a different role and a different leeway. I don't think as President I should be trying to personalize this conflict. I think we've got a better chance with NAFTA if it doesn't degenerate into a shouting match but instead elevates into an honest discussion of the difficult choices facing the country.
Not because anyone can see the future. These people did not sign this ((peace)) agreement out here last Monday because they knew how. All they did was make a decision that they would go on a journey and where it would end up.
The most audacious example of that in modern history was when Kennedy said we'd go to the moon by a certain date, and then we just embarked on a journey together. I think now the problem for the American people is that with all the problems they are having now, this journey has a lot of aspects. The journey means different economic arrangements. It means having to d eal with the health-care issue. It means having to literally change the way the whole national government works. It's all part of a journey toward the 21st century that is just confronting us with a bewildering array of change. I've got to find the balance of security and responsibility that American families need to make it. But I think we're getting there.