Note to parents: Don’t get upset if your young kids log onto the Internet to hear former President Clinton read the first two audiotaped excerpts from his book.
In the G-rated, Monica-free, anecdotes -released on AOL -the former president talks about two incidents in the summer of 1963 that made him decide on a career in public service.
In one of the excerpts, Clinton reflects on the magical July day when he met and shook hands with President John F. Kennedy, whom he greatly admired.
The 16-year-old Clinton was in D.C. as one of two delegates elected to represent Arkansas at the American Legion’s Boys Nation.
Clinton calls it “an amazing moment for me, meeting the president whom I had supported in my ninth-grade class debates and about whom I felt even more strongly after his 2½ years in office.”
“I was in the front, and, being bigger -and a bigger supporter of the president -than most of the others I made sure I’d get to shake his hand even if he only shook two or three,” Clinton says.
The meeting has been widely credited as his inspiration to seek the presidency.
“My mother said she knew when I came home I was determined to go into politics” but “I’m not sure about that,” he says.
Instead, he said it inspired him to become a senator.
“I will study and get ready, and perhaps my chance will come,” he quotes Abraham Lincoln as saying.
In the second excerpt, Clinton recalls hearing Martin Luther King Jr.’s awe-inspiring “I Have a Dream” speech on the radio on Aug. 28.
Clinton says waves of emotion washed over him as he listened to the radio while sitting in a white reclining chair in his den.
He hails it as the “greatest speech of my lifetime.”
King delivered the speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.
“I started crying during the speech,” Clinton says in the excerpt.
“That speech steeled my determination to do whatever I could for the rest of my life to make Martin Luther King’s dreams come true.”
Clinton’s choice of opening excerpts is a way to position himself in a way he wants to be perceived, said Publishers Weekly editorial director John Baker.
“I’m sure he was aware that everyone would be looking for the racy bits, and he wants to come out of the gate first as a statesmanlike figure,” Baker said.
With Post Wire Services
PAGING THE PRESIDENT
‘[Hillary] looked as if I had punched her in the gut when I finally confessed to my affair with Monica Lewinsky. I slept on the couch for at least two months after that.’
– Bill Clinton in “My Life”
“I wanted to wring Bill’s neck.” – Hillary Clinton in her own memoir, “Living History” upon learning the truth about his infidelity.
Hillary also wrote that, at one point, Buddy the dog (below) was the only member of the family willing to keep the president company.
“A terrible moral error. “I did something for the worst possible reason. Just because I could.”
– Clinton on his affair with Monica Lewinsky (right) on CBS’ “60 Minutes.”
“The whole battle was a badge of honor. I don’t see it as a stain, because it was illegitimate.”
– Clinton on the impeachment process, started by Prosecutor Ken Starr (left)