Mrs. Clinton Draws World Forum Cheers

Two thousand of the world’s most influential people applauded Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday evening as she told them they must do more to share wealth and power with “the billions of men, women and children who are effectively without a voice.”

The first lady’s vigorous 15-minute speech to the World Economic Forum, delivered without notes, was judged by many here as eloquent evidence that the Clinton administration remains in charge in Washington and fully engaged in international affairs.

“Hats off to her. She’s the best ambassador the United States could have,” said Sheila Mathrani, correspondent for an Indian business newspaper, the Economic Times. “What a woman.”

“The charges against her husband are disgusting,” French Ambassador-at-Large Jean-Daniel Tordjmann said. “Yet through it all, she has managed to remain hard--no, resolute. She is a wonderfully resolute woman.”

President Clinton has been under fire since allegations surfaced recently that he had had a sexual relationship with a former White House intern, Monica S. Lewinsky.

The economic forum, an annual event, has brought leading figures from government, business, the media, academia and other fields from around the globe to this ski resort nestled high in the Alps of eastern Switzerland.

In debates and brainstorming sessions, participants have been making jocular or concerned references to the controversy roiling Washington, with Dominique Moisi, a prominent French political scientist, likening it to the plot of a French movie about adultery, where “A loves B who loves C who is in love with D.”

Clinton’s record high ratings in the latest polls, however, appear to have soothed earlier jitters that his presidency might be in peril. In her own way, the first lady, who arrived in Switzerland on Saturday, also appears to have contributed to the impression that it is business as usual in Washington.

As people stood in the aisles of the auditorium to listen, the first lady praised both the role of democratic government and a free-market economy in bettering people’s lives but said that politicians and business people need to pay more attention to the “third leg of the stool”--a vibrant civil society.

Institutions such as the family and religion make “life worth living,” she said, and that can serve as a bulwark against the temptations of instant gratification promulgated by the mass media.

Mrs. Clinton made no comment on the accusations against her husband in her address or in answers to written questions that were passed from the audience to the dais.

Also mum was one of Clinton’s closest political and personal confidants, Washington attorney Vernon E. Jordan Jr., who is also attending the Davos meeting. Jordan has come under scrutiny for helping find a job for Lewinsky.

In a final question, Mrs. Clinton was asked if it isn’t time for a qualified woman to run for the American presidency.

“Yes, and I look forward to voting for her,” she answered to laughter.