Clinton Sets Forth His Vision in New Campaign Book

A campaign book published under the name of President Clinton will be released next week outlining Clinton’s vision of a hoped-for second term and the nation’s future.

Random House Inc. will print a very large initial run of 400,000 copies of the 192-page hardcover volume, titled “Between Hope and History: Meeting America’s Challenges for the 21st Century.”

Publication of the work was announced simultaneously by White House officials here in Wyoming, where the first family is vacationing, and by Random House in New York.

The project, which has been a tightly guarded secret in the White House and the publishing industry for months, ties together a number of themes that have been familiar in Clinton’s speeches for years--economic opportunity, personal responsibility and limited government.

At a photo opportunity late Wednesday, Clinton described the book not as a laundry list of reelection promises but as an overview of his philosophy of governing. He also indicated that the book is intended to make the political case for his reelection.

“It makes the argument about why I think the direction we’re going in is right, why we are better off than we were, and what I hope to do,” Clinton said astride a horse at the Jackson ranch where he is staying. “It’s just something I wanted to say,” he added.

Aides insisted that the timing of the announcement was dictated by Random House, not timed for release during the Republican National Convention underway in San Diego this week. They also asserted that Clinton finished his revisions to the manuscript only last weekend.

Clinton describes the book in the introduction as a “conversation . . . with the American people about our destiny as a nation.” He repeats his assertions from this year’s State of the Union address that “the era of big government is over” and that the nation is entering an unprecedented “age of possibility,” according to a press release from the publisher.

Although Clinton’s name appears on the cover as author, the text was stitched together by professional ghost writer William Nothdurft of Seattle, assisted by White House speech writer Don Baer and senior policy advisor Bruce Reed. Aides said that Baer and Reed worked on the project in their off hours and will not be paid.

Clinton will not accept any royalties from the book, following advice of government and private lawyers who said that he should not profit from his government service or from a project with obvious political overtones.

“The president will not make any money from this book,” Random House publicist Mary Beth Roche said. “We will.”

Random House paid Nothdurft a fee for his work. Customarily, a ghost writer’s earnings come from the named author’s advance against sales. Nothdurft also helped Vice President Al Gore with his book on reinventing government.

The cover price is $16.95 and excerpts will be available on Random House’s Internet Web site, the publisher said.

Although Clinton is avoiding public comment on politics during his vacation, he is fully involved in his reelection campaign. The reelection machinery in Washington and the Democratic rapid response operation in San Diego have been fully staffed and operating around the clock on instructions from the president.

White House political director Doug Sosnik briefs Clinton regularly on the GOP convention while Deputy Press Secretary Mary Ellen Glynn feeds him reams of faxed news clippings from San Diego.

And with help from Bruce Lindsey, Clinton’s friend and deputy White House counsel, the president has been working on his planned train trip to the Chicago convention, which begins Aug. 26, and a bus trip immediately following.