Clinton Vows to Lead in Bold Style of F.D.R.

Bill Clinton, buoyant on the eve of his swearing in as the nation’s 42nd President, vowed Tuesday to lead in the bold style of Franklin D. Roosevelt and declared: “I desperately want to make a difference.”

Clinton, who served 12 of the last 14 years as governor of Arkansas, told the nation’s governors that he did not run for President “to warm the seat” and wants to “be about bold experimentation.”

As Washington made final preparations for today’s swearing-in ceremonies, which begin at 8:30 a.m. PST, Clinton continued a frenetic pre-inaugural pace, addressing the governors at a luncheon, visiting the graves of former President John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy at Arlington National Cemetery, attending two Kennedy Center salutes to young people--where he shared a stage with famous Muppet character Kermit the Frog--and capping the day at a nationally televised entertainment extravaganza.

And he somehow found time for a 2.8-mile run with a dozen of his friends, spent about two hours putting the finishing touches on his inaugural address and once again had to assess the actions of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

Although new air battles broke out over northern Iraq on Tuesday, Iraqi officials said that in a gesture of goodwill, starting about 12 hours before Clinton is sworn in, Iraq will cease attacking U.S., French and British planes. Iraq also agreed to allow U.N. inspectors to fly into Iraq without restriction. The incoming Administration greeted the news with caution and some skepticism.

As events swirled around Clinton, President Bush spent a notably muted final full day in office, performing only a few ceremonial duties and receiving updates on U.S. military operations in the Persian Gulf and Somalia. An aide said Bush was “very upbeat . . . lighthearted” and lunched for a final time with Vice President Dan Quayle in the Oval Office.

At the luncheon of 100 current and former governors, Clinton, accompanied by his wife, Hillary, and Vice President-elect Al Gore and his wife, Tipper, quipped that “for as long as I can remember, all of us have been telling other people how to be President--now we’re going to find out if we were right.”

In a more serious vein, he said that he would seek to emulate Roosevelt, who led the nation out of the Depression of the 1930s with a series of ambitious government initiatives.

“We ought to be about bold experimentation,” Clinton declared. “We ought to try things and, if they don’t work, we ought to stop them and try something else.”

Saying that he faces “daunting challenges too great for any person’s mind to comprehend,” he urged that the governors put aside any political differences and support him with “true friendship, which means constructive criticism.”

Clinton promised to keep the door of the White House open to the governors, but declared: “You’ve got to walk in. And remember this, telephones are two-way instruments. I’m going to do my best to stay in touch with the American people and to stay in touch with you.”

The Clintons and Gores shook hands around the room with the guests, including former Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, the Democratic presidential nominee in 1988, and former New Hampshire Gov. John H. Sununu, who was Bush’s first chief of staff.

Earlier, the Clintons, accompanied by more than a dozen members of the Kennedy family, paid a solemn visit to the graves of two of the President-elect’s heroes: the slain former President and his brother.

Although the cemetery stop obviously was well-planned, it was not listed on Clinton’s public schedule. At the grave sites when they arrived were members of the Kennedy family, including Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), the lone surviving brother; Ethel Kennedy, Robert’s widow; Rep. Joseph Kennedy (D-Mass.), son of Robert, and John F. Kennedy Jr.

As a teen-age delegate to Boys Nation in 1963, Clinton shook President Kennedy’s hand in the Rose Garden of the White House and it marked “a turning point for Bill Clinton,” biographers Charles F. Allen and Jonathan Portis wrote in their book about Clinton, “The Comeback Kid.”

“He had entertained thoughts of becoming a Baptist minister or possibly a musician or teacher,” they wrote. “Now he knew he would become a politician.”

Clinton has said he was impressed as a college student by Robert Kennedy’s opposition to the Vietnam War and his call for social justice.

On Tuesday, the Clintons first visited the grave of Robert Kennedy, who was assassinated June 5, 1968, in Los Angeles after winning the Democratic presidential primary. At the grave, marked by a single white cross, Clinton knelt with Ethel and Sen. Kennedy for several poignant seconds. Neither appeared to speak. Each placed a white rose on the grave.

Moments later, after reading and remarking about inscriptions of President Kennedy’s words carved in marble near his grave site, Clinton walked alone up steps to the perpetual flame that marks the grave in the chill morning air. With Sen. Kennedy and John Kennedy Jr. looking on from a distance, Clinton placed another white rose on the marker and knelt for several seconds, head bowed, as if in prayer.

At a Kennedy Center event for children, Clinton told a rapt audience that as a youngster, he stamped his feet, hit walls and threw baseball bats when angry but his grandparents taught him to “take a deep breath and count to 10.”

“Sometimes there are things worth being angry about,” he said, but “if you let your anger get control of you, that’s bad.”

Clinton began his day with his regular jog, emerging from the Blair House, across Pennsylvania Ave. from the White House, at 7:44 a.m accompanied by about 10 fellow alumni from Georgetown University’s class of 1968.

He donned a black “City Year” sweat shirt from a youth volunteer organization in Boston and, accompanied by a friend from childhood, Paul David Leopoulos, ran east by the White House past the inaugural stands that are in the final stages of construction and headed down 17th Street.

The entourage, a strange sight as it skirted rush-hour traffic, turned toward the Washington Mall, looping around the Lincoln Memorial before returning to Blair House.

Leopoulos said later that Clinton, who has never been at a loss for words during the pre-inaugural activities, talked about a number of subjects as he jogged, including Hussein and the allied raids on Iraq, and noted that an Arkansas architect had designed the inaugural stand near the White House.

“He’s fine,” Leopoulos said of Clinton. “He’s very confident.”

The President-elect spent two hours at Blair House working on his inaugural speech. Although aides said he has done most of the writing himself, he had some research assistance and the help of two aides, speech writers David Kusnet and Michael Waldman.

The speech has been described as about 2,400 words, or 20 minutes long. Clinton studied past inaugural speeches in crafting his own but aides said his would be highly personal and would mesh with the overall theme of the inauguration: “An American Reunion: New Beginnings, Renewed Hope.”

In preparation for today’s ceremonies, thousands of police and federal officers will gather before dawn and throw up a heavy security shield around the Capitol grounds. On Capitol Hill, where Clinton and Gore will preside at a traditional congressional luncheon after their swearing-in, Capitol police said that all deliveries of food, equipment and other items were completed shortly after midnight and access to the area would be tightly controlled.

Invited guests attending the inauguration will have to pass through metal detectors. The devices were being set up to screen members of the public in standing-room-only areas as far away as the East Wing of the National Gallery on the Mall.

Manhole covers along the inaugural parade route from the Capitol to the White House have been sealed as a security precaution, and all buildings along the avenue have been under inspection for weeks. Building managers have been directed not to use balconies or rooftops or to even open windows during the parade. Sharpshooters and other federal agents will be positioned on some rooftops.

Clinton’s extraordinary five-day inaugural program, which ends with a Presidential Open House on Thursday morning, has brought hundreds of delegations from every part of the country to Washington.

Throngs of Clinton admirers have swarmed the streets here, laughing and talking loudly over screeching traffic noises, pointing at monuments and toting large, colorful inauguration buttons.

And everywhere, American flags and red, white and blue bunting flutter in the sunny, icy air. On downtown streets at night, it seems everyone is in black tie or fur.

“It’s one big party,” said Mike Fore, bell captain at the ritzy Willard Intercontinental Hotel.

The festivities have drawn a huge number of television, movie and music industry luminaries and, as Los Angeles residents know so well, the stars bring out crowds.

Times staff writers Robert Jackson, David Lauter and Constance Sommer contributed to this story.

RELATED COVERAGE: A5-A8

Inauguration Ceremony Begins at 8:30 a.m. PST

Here are the main events. All times are Pacific Standard. Some TV times reflect tape delays:

TODAY

5 a.m.: Prayer service, Metropolitan AME Church

President and Mrs. Bush receive the Clintons at the White House

8:30 a.m.: Inaugural ceremony

Invocation by the Rev. Billy Graham

Gore is administered the oath of office by Supreme Court Justice Byron R. White

Clinton is administered the oath of office by U.S. Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist

Clinton delivers inaugural address

11 a.m.: Clintons and Gores leave the Capitol and head for the inaugural parade reviewing stand in front of the White House

11:30 a.m.: Inaugural parade begins, following route along Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House

4 p.m.: Inaugural balls

TV Coverage

C-SPAN: Coverage begins at 5 a.m. and continues throughout the day. Parade coverage, 11:30 a.m.

ABC: Swearing in, 7-10 a.m. Parade, 11 a.m.

NBC: Swearing in, 7-10 a.m. Recap of day’s events and coverage of inaugural balls, 10-11 p.m.

CBS: Swearing in, 7-10 a.m. Special report on festivities, 10 a.m-1 p.m. and 2-4 p.m.

CNN: Swearing in, 7 a.m. with updates throughout the day. Wrap-up of day’s activities, midnight.

KCET: Coverage begins at 7 a.m.

MTV: The MTV Rock ‘n’ Roll Inaugural Ball, 9 p.m.-midnight

THURSDAY

6-9 a.m.: Open house, White House (ticket required)

11 a.m.-2 p.m.: Reception for Arkansans, White House

Inaugural hot line: For questions about the week’s events, call (800) 462-8493 (touch-tone phones only)

The Presidential Oath

The oaths of office that Bill Clinton and Al Gore will take today. The language of the presidential oath is specified in the Constitution . The vice president takes the same oath as other high-ranking federal employees.

* Presidential Oath: I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

* Vice Presidential Oath: I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter, so help me God.