President Clinton will give jet-setting whole new meaning
President Clinton will give jet-setting whole new meaning
JAKARTA (Reuter): U.S. President Bill Clinton's Asian trade mission involves 20,500 miles (33,000 km) of travel, but he will give new meaning to the term "jet-setter" if he follows through on tentative travel plans for early December.
That schedule, administration officials say, calls for Clinton to fly to California on Dec. 3 for a Democratic Party fund raiser hosted by Hollywood producer Steven Spielberg, back to Washington on Dec. 4 for a ceremonial event and probably on to Hungary that night.
Though no final decision has been made, Clinton is likely to attend a Budapest summit of the 53-nation Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) on Dec. 5 and return to Washington in time for a congressional Christmas party that night.
Tuesday, Dec. 6 and Wednesday are supposed to be normal work days for the indefatigable president, but his planning schedule calls for him to leave Washington again Dec. 8 to attend a Dec. 9-11 summit of western hemisphere leaders in Miami, Florida.
A presidential visit to Haiti is penciled in for Dec. 12, but Clinton would leave from Washington even though Miami is closer because he has a commitment in the U.S. capital on the night of Dec. 11.
Deputy White House counsel Bruce Lindsey says Clinton is able to sleep well while flying "but he has pretty good accommodations". Air Force One, the presidential jetliner, has a large stateroom that includes a double bed.
But Clinton confessed on Monday that even he is not immune to the disruption of normal biological rhythm caused by travel known as "jet lag."
Asked if he was experiencing jet lag on this trip, which began with a one-day visit to the Philippines and ends with a three-day stopover in Hawaii, Clinton replied: "Just a tad."
"I think I'm still somewhere between Jordan and Jerusalem," he added, referring to his whirlwind trip to the Middle East less than two weeks ago.
Clinton criticized then-President George Bush in the 1992 presidential campaign for spending too much time traveling abroad, but he will eclipse Bush's record of six foreign trips in one year -- the most ever by a U.S. leader -- if he goes to Hungary and Haiti next month.
The separate trips would give him a total of seven.
U.S. presidents often draw larger, friendlier crowds outside the United States than they get at home, making foreign travel attractive to them. Because of the opposition Republican takeover of Congress in last week's election, which is likely to stalemate his domestic agenda, Clinton might wind up focusing on foreign policy more and more.