My life полностью

On the day after Christmas, I got a pleasant surprise when it was announced that Time magazine would name me “Man of the Year,” saying that I had been given the opportunity “to preside over one of the periodic reinventions of the country—those moments when Americans dig out of their deepest problems by reimagining themselves.” When asked about the honor, I said I was flattered by it but worried about the troubled world, about getting bogged down because there was so much to do, and about whether the move to Washington would be good for Chelsea. Chelsea would do just fine, but my other concerns proved to be well founded.

Hillary, Chelsea, and I spent New Year’s in Hilton Head at Renaissance Weekend, as we had been doing every year for nearly a decade. I loved being with old friends, playing touch football on the beach with kids and a few rounds of golf with a new set of clubs Hillary had given me. I enjoyed attending the discussion panels, where I always learned things from people who talked about everything from science to politics to love. That year, I especially liked one entitled “What I’d Tell the President over a Brown Bag Lunch.”

Meanwhile, President Bush was going out in full stride. He visited our troops in Somalia, then called me to say he was headed to Russia to sign a strategic arms limitation treaty, START II, with Boris Yeltsin. I supported the treaty and said I was prepared to push its ratification in the Senate. Bush was also being helpful to me, telling other world leaders he wanted me to “succeed as President” and that they would find me “a good man to work with” on important problems.