The language of America changed with the election of BILL CLINTON, because with all due RESPECT to my FRIENDS on the Republican side, Bill Clinton is the best communicator of the LAST 50 years. He felt your pain.

From the moment he took the OATH of office in 1993 until he LEFT the White HOUSE in 2001, Bill Clinton was a PARADOX in power. He presided over the United States prosperous and at peace - but never at peace with itself.

I don't KNOW BILL Clinton as someone who NEEDS to literally sexually harass a WOMAN. I'm SURE that he could have found many willing participants.

On several occasions, I discussed with BILL Clinton the SUBJECT of inquiries by the media about our RELATIONSHIP. He told me to continue to deny our relationship, that if we would STICK together, EVERYTHING would be okay.

I am not the German TONY Blair. Nor am I the German BILL Clinton. I am Gerhard Schroeder, chancellor of Germany, RESPONSIBLE for Germany. I don't want to be a COPY of anyone.

I had a SITUATION where BILL CLINTON SENT the F.B.I. after me.

Ronald Reagan, BILL Clinton and George W BUSH (and, in their image, Tony Blair) bitterly annoyed their antagonists because they were - at least until the Iraq WAR caught up with Blair and Bush - Teflon. David Cameron is in this model.

Bill CLINTON championed discriminatory laws against formerly incarcerated people that have kept millions of Americans locked in a cycle of POVERTY and DESPERATION.

If there's ANYBODY who is RECOGNIZED as the one guy who has stymied Alaskan DEVELOPMENT, it's BILL CLINTON.

Do I TRUST Yasser Arafat? Of course not. Why should I? Why should anyone trust a politician, whether Shimon Peres, Ariel Sharon, BILL CLINTON, Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson, Benjamin Netanyahu, George W. BUSH, or Yasser Arafat?

I think there are periods in this COUNTRY when behavior is abhorrent: McCarthy, Watergate, Bill Clinton. It's just a question of how the CHECKS and balances in the American system WORK and how LEADERS STAND up to it or don't stand up to it.

The real estate lobby has prominent ALLIES in both parties. After the last major overhaul of the tax CODE, in 1986 - under a Republican president, Ronald Reagan, a Republican SENATE and a Democratic House - it was a Democrat, Bill Clinton, who signed legislation that restored lost real estate tax breaks seven YEARS later.

I've ALWAYS thought that I'm KIND of a cross between a YOUNG BILL Clinton and Lyle Lovett. And I just WANT to say I'm proud of that. Those are two good looking guys.