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CNN Live Today

Interview With Mark Leibovich

Aired June 05, 2003 - 11:48   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Senator Hillary Clinton's memoirs of her turbulent White House years goes on sale on Monday, but already excerpts from the book describe the heartache and humiliation of her husband's affair with Monica Lewinsky.
Mark Leibovich is a political writer for the "Washington Post," and he joins us this morning to talk some about what we may be seeing in this book. Good to see you, Mark. What do you think? It is going to be worth the wait or what?

MARK LEIBOVICH, "WASHINGTON POST": What is the what? I didn't hear you.

HARRIS: Do you think it is going to be worth the wait or what?

LEIBOVICH: Oh, I don't know. I mean, I think probably. Certainly the buzz factor, which is hard to measure, but certainly palpable is pretty high, certainly in D.C. and around the country. I mean, the first leaks from the book have generated a lot of interest.

HARRIS: All right. Have you been surprised at all -- with these leaks at least -- surprised at all about the level of things that we are seeing being admitted or talked about here?

LEIBOVICH: Not particularly. I mean, I think the news that's been broken yet is virtually nil. The information that's new to people is the emotion that Hillary Clinton is talking with about a subject that she's been largely silent on for a long time.

HARRIS: And in that -- let's talk about that for a second here. She talks about how she wanted to wring Bill's neck, and she goes on and talks -- somewhat explicitly about what exactly happened in that conversation when he admitted it to her finally. And this is the first time we've actually seen Hillary Clinton talking about her emotions on something like this. What do you think about that? Doesn't that go a long way towards -- I don't know, I guess humanizing her a bit to a lot of the folks out there that may not like her very much?

LEIBOVICH: Right. Yes, absolutely. I think it's almost a cliche at this point to say that Hillary Clinton is a -- quote -- "polarizing figure."

Now, I think she is a polarizing figure not so much because of who she is or what she does or what she stands for but largely because there are just people on the left and on the right who have very, very passionate feelings about her, and there is probably about 35 percent on either side of the spectrum who are going to love or -- love or hate her no matter what.

And the things that sell books are somewhat different from the things that get people elected to higher office. So we'll see. I mean, I think the emotion seems very genuine. It's hard to be anything but sympathetic to a woman in a position she is in, and I think the whole country would probably sympathize to some degree.

HARRIS: All right. Well, since you bring in the numbers of people on either side of this whole thing, let's take a look at this poll that we've got here.

CNN "USA Today" Gallup Poll asks the question, "Is Hillary Clinton qualified to be president?

As you see here, the numbers came in, Yes, and those who would vote for her, 33 percent; and yes, but would not vote for her 17 percent; and no, not qualified.

But we had -- I believe, with the other numbers that we also had from this poll, the numbers I wanted to talk about, people basically -- we don't have that graphic? OK. That was the wrong one there. But anyway, people's opinions, as you see, pretty much have been set in stone for some time. Do you think that what's going to happen with this book is that enough minds are going to change that, maybe, perhaps her political ambitions may end up changing and going higher?

LEIBOVICH: Maybe. There is certainly a lot of speculation that she is going to run for president one day, if not in 2004, 2008. And what is interesting about Hillary is that, like her or not, she's a rock star. I mean, her name comes up really unprompted even in hard core Republican settings as this bogeyman or bogeywoman. And in the Democratic primary circles, there is certainly a lot of hankering and speculation about whether she would ever consider running this time around and, frankly, it's overshadowed a lot of the people who are running now. But Hillary Rodham Clinton is obviously someone that people know and have a lot of strong opinions about. I don't know if the book will change any minds, but I certainly think it will be read.

HARRIS: Do you think that she wrote this book specifically to launch a presidential campaign in 2008?

LEIBOVICH: I think she wrote this book for a lot of reasons. One, to sell books, and I think, clearly, this is a public figure with a political future, and everything she does is going to be done to some extent through the lens of where she sees herself two years out, four years out, six years out, and so forth. So I mean, I think -- clearly there are political calculations that go into it, but I also think it's a commercial venture also.

HARRIS: At some point then, there is going to be a battle of commercial ventures because President Bill Clinton, his book is going to be coming out pretty soon as well. His comes out after hers. How do you see that battle shaping up out there in the book stores across the country? Do you see her basically beating him out on this one or what? LEIBOVICH: Oh, I have no idea. I guess it would be revenge in some ways. No. I mean, Bill Clinton, I don't think, is anywhere near being done with this. I don't think the publication date is -- I think it's years away, and Bill is notoriously late on things. So no one is holding their breath for them to go direct one shelf to another shelf on Barnes and Noble. I think they both will be pretty well read regardless.

HARRIS: Well, we know how Clinton time does work with Bill Clinton. We have seen that happen for four (ph) or so. Mark Leibovich, thanks much. Appreciate it. Good luck to you and we'll see how things shape up with the books.

LEIBOVICH: Great.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired June 5, 2003 - 11:48   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Senator Hillary Clinton's memoirs of her turbulent White House years goes on sale on Monday, but already excerpts from the book describe the heartache and humiliation of her husband's affair with Monica Lewinsky.
Mark Leibovich is a political writer for the "Washington Post," and he joins us this morning to talk some about what we may be seeing in this book. Good to see you, Mark. What do you think? It is going to be worth the wait or what?

MARK LEIBOVICH, "WASHINGTON POST": What is the what? I didn't hear you.

HARRIS: Do you think it is going to be worth the wait or what?

LEIBOVICH: Oh, I don't know. I mean, I think probably. Certainly the buzz factor, which is hard to measure, but certainly palpable is pretty high, certainly in D.C. and around the country. I mean, the first leaks from the book have generated a lot of interest.

HARRIS: All right. Have you been surprised at all -- with these leaks at least -- surprised at all about the level of things that we are seeing being admitted or talked about here?

LEIBOVICH: Not particularly. I mean, I think the news that's been broken yet is virtually nil. The information that's new to people is the emotion that Hillary Clinton is talking with about a subject that she's been largely silent on for a long time.

HARRIS: And in that -- let's talk about that for a second here. She talks about how she wanted to wring Bill's neck, and she goes on and talks -- somewhat explicitly about what exactly happened in that conversation when he admitted it to her finally. And this is the first time we've actually seen Hillary Clinton talking about her emotions on something like this. What do you think about that? Doesn't that go a long way towards -- I don't know, I guess humanizing her a bit to a lot of the folks out there that may not like her very much?

LEIBOVICH: Right. Yes, absolutely. I think it's almost a cliche at this point to say that Hillary Clinton is a -- quote -- "polarizing figure."

Now, I think she is a polarizing figure not so much because of who she is or what she does or what she stands for but largely because there are just people on the left and on the right who have very, very passionate feelings about her, and there is probably about 35 percent on either side of the spectrum who are going to love or -- love or hate her no matter what.

And the things that sell books are somewhat different from the things that get people elected to higher office. So we'll see. I mean, I think the emotion seems very genuine. It's hard to be anything but sympathetic to a woman in a position she is in, and I think the whole country would probably sympathize to some degree.

HARRIS: All right. Well, since you bring in the numbers of people on either side of this whole thing, let's take a look at this poll that we've got here.

CNN "USA Today" Gallup Poll asks the question, "Is Hillary Clinton qualified to be president?

As you see here, the numbers came in, Yes, and those who would vote for her, 33 percent; and yes, but would not vote for her 17 percent; and no, not qualified.

But we had -- I believe, with the other numbers that we also had from this poll, the numbers I wanted to talk about, people basically -- we don't have that graphic? OK. That was the wrong one there. But anyway, people's opinions, as you see, pretty much have been set in stone for some time. Do you think that what's going to happen with this book is that enough minds are going to change that, maybe, perhaps her political ambitions may end up changing and going higher?

LEIBOVICH: Maybe. There is certainly a lot of speculation that she is going to run for president one day, if not in 2004, 2008. And what is interesting about Hillary is that, like her or not, she's a rock star. I mean, her name comes up really unprompted even in hard core Republican settings as this bogeyman or bogeywoman. And in the Democratic primary circles, there is certainly a lot of hankering and speculation about whether she would ever consider running this time around and, frankly, it's overshadowed a lot of the people who are running now. But Hillary Rodham Clinton is obviously someone that people know and have a lot of strong opinions about. I don't know if the book will change any minds, but I certainly think it will be read.

HARRIS: Do you think that she wrote this book specifically to launch a presidential campaign in 2008?

LEIBOVICH: I think she wrote this book for a lot of reasons. One, to sell books, and I think, clearly, this is a public figure with a political future, and everything she does is going to be done to some extent through the lens of where she sees herself two years out, four years out, six years out, and so forth. So I mean, I think -- clearly there are political calculations that go into it, but I also think it's a commercial venture also.

HARRIS: At some point then, there is going to be a battle of commercial ventures because President Bill Clinton, his book is going to be coming out pretty soon as well. His comes out after hers. How do you see that battle shaping up out there in the book stores across the country? Do you see her basically beating him out on this one or what? LEIBOVICH: Oh, I have no idea. I guess it would be revenge in some ways. No. I mean, Bill Clinton, I don't think, is anywhere near being done with this. I don't think the publication date is -- I think it's years away, and Bill is notoriously late on things. So no one is holding their breath for them to go direct one shelf to another shelf on Barnes and Noble. I think they both will be pretty well read regardless.

HARRIS: Well, we know how Clinton time does work with Bill Clinton. We have seen that happen for four (ph) or so. Mark Leibovich, thanks much. Appreciate it. Good luck to you and we'll see how things shape up with the books.

LEIBOVICH: Great.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com