CLINTON: 3rd TERM? I'D HAVE WON

In Article, His Take On His Past, Future

Washington-Bill Clinton says he would have been tempted to run for
president again if the Constitution would have allowed it. And, he
says, he would have won.

"Oh, I probably would have run again," Clinton tells Rolling Stone in
an interview.

Does he think he'd have been a three-time winner? "Yes. I do. But it's
hard to say, because it's entirely academic," Clinton said.

He adds that as life expectancy rises, there may be a reason to change
the 22nd Amendment, which limits presidents to two four-year terms.
Maybe it should just limit presidents to two "consecutive" terms,
Clinton suggests.

The article in Rolling Stone's Dec. 28-Jan. 4 issue combines
information from three interviews that Jann Wenner conducted with
Clinton between 1992 and 2000 covering topics including his
impeachment, prison reform and what he will do when he leaves the
White House.

Clinton says his impeachment for actions involving his affair with
Monica Lewinsky was wrong, just as it was wrong for lawmakers to
impeach President Andrew Johnson in 1868. Clinton says he became upset
at times but vented his feelings in private. "I got angry, but I
always was alone with friends who would deflate me. I don't think it
ever clouded my judgment on any official thing," Clinton says.

"One of the things I had to learn ... was that, at some point,
presidents are not permitted to have personal feelings. When you
manifest your anger in public, it should be on behalf of the American
people and the values that they believe in. All this stuff you can't
take personally." On prison reform, Clinton says that jail time helped
his brother, Roger, kick a cocaine habit, but that not all drug
offenders would necessarily benefit from being locked up. "A lot of
people are in prison today because they have drug problems or alcohol
problems. And too many of them are getting out - particularly out of
state systems - without treatment, without education, without skills,
without serious efforts at job placement," Clinton says.

Of his future, he says, "I'm sure I'll be involved in this whole area
of racial and religious conciliation at home and around the world, and
economic empowerment of poor people, here and around the world." The
president expresses interest in global warming and economic
development, racial and religious reconciliation and the breakdown of
public health systems around the world. "The challenge is to trade
power and authority, broadly spread, for influence and impact, tightly
concentrated," he says.