What He Will Do

He was not a born king of men. . .but a child of the common people, who made himself a great persuader, therefore a leader, by dint of firm resolve, patient effort, and dogged perseverance. . . He was open to all impressions and influences, and gladly profited by the teachings of events and circumstances, no matter how adverse or unwelcome. There was probably no year of his life when he was not a wiser, cooler, and better man than he had been the year preceeding. -- HORACE GREELEY ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN

EARLY LAST JANUARY, ON A cold, windy morning, Bill Clinton drove around Little Rock reveling in his good fortune. The Secret Service cocoon had yet to come and not a vote had been cast, but Clinton was already being hailed as the Democrat to beat. Dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt and with a University of Arkansas baseball cap tilted back on a head of hair considerably less gray than it is today, Clinton wheeled his state-owned sedan around town and laughed at the presumption of comparing himself to Lincoln. "Yet, you know," he said, "if you think about it, that description kind of gets at me some, don't you think?"

Greeley's observation is contained in Lincoln on Leadership, a slim volume of 188 pages. Clinton, a quick study, could have devoured the book's central tenets in a few hours. But he carried it around for weeks, dipping in and out, rereading its advice, "learning a little," as he put it. "He keeps talking about it," said his aide, George Stephanopoulos, at the time. "It's like a private bible about how to govern."

The epigraph of the book's first chapter quoted Lincoln's reason for relieving General John Fremont of his Missouri command during the Civil War: "His cardinal mistake is that he isolates himself and allows nobody to see him," Lincoln wrote. "That's it," said Clinton as he drove. "The key to being an effective political leader is getting around. Lincoln was always out and about picking up information. He wasn't a prisoner in the White House. He was one of the few Presidents to regularly visit working sessions of the Congress. I do that too, with the legislature here. You've got to go find the facts for yourself, and many of the good ones come from outside your inner circle. If I make it, the hardest thing will be to keep reaching out. A strict, formal structure just won't cut it. There's too much you miss if you don't forage around yourself."