WEBVTT

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♪ ♪

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(helicopter blades whirring)

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(sirens wailing)

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BILL CLINTON:
Mr. President, Mr. Speaker,
my fellow Americans.

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Again, we are here
in the sanctuary of democracy,

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and once again,
our democracy has spoken.

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NARRATOR:
On January 24, 1995,
President Bill Clinton

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addressed Congress
and the American people.

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Two years into his presidency,
and just months after suffering

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the worst midterm election
defeat in modern history,

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he was chastened and humble.

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And now all of us,
Republicans and Democrats alike,

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must say, "We hear you.

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We will work together to earn
the jobs you have given us."

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(audience applauding)

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♪ ♪

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MARK PENN:
After the midterms,
the president, I think, felt

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that he was almost a hostage
in his own White House.

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He was unhappy
with the White House staff,

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he was unhappy
with the policy direction,

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and so he actually began
a very quiet operation

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to begin to change
his administration.

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NARRATOR:
Beginning in early 1995,

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White House staffers
began to notice

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a change in the president.

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His speeches contained

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unfamiliar language
and cadences.

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In meetings, he'd get up
abruptly and leave the room.

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Many aides felt he was
no longer listening to them.

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ROBERT REICH:
I recall a meeting

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that the president's
economic advisers

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and political advisers
were having

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about how he was going
to spend the next three weeks,

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what themes he was going
to emphasize.

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And I remember somebody
from the back of the room,

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I think it was Erskine Bowles,

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then the president's
chief of staff,

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saying,
"This is all irrelevant."

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Irrelevant?

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We're the staff.

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We are the people
who help the president.

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Why are we irrelevant?

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And he didn't exactly say.

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He said there was some other
force in the White House.

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And again and again,
there seemed to be instances--

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it was almost like in astronomy,

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there's a black hole,
and you can only tell it's there

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because planets begin moving
into its gravitational orbit.

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But you look
and there's nothing there.

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That was Dick Morris.

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Dick Morris was the black hole.

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♪ ♪

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NARRATOR:
Dick Morris,

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an abrasive political consultant
from New York,

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had a history with the Clintons

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that went all the way back
to Arkansas.

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HARRIS:
Other than Hillary Clinton,

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he was the most important
political adviser

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that Bill Clinton had had
over the course of his career.

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He was there for the very first
election to governor in 1978

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and had been with Bill Clinton

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for most of the Arkansas
gubernatorial years.

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NARRATOR:
Morris set up shop
in the White House

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and began to chair
weekly strategy meetings

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that were attended by most of
the president's senior staff.

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HAROLD ICKES:
Clinton typically dominates

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any group or discussion
that he's in.

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In the meetings on the second
floor of the residence,

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which we had every week,

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Clinton would literally
sit there for an hour sometimes,

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hardly saying a word,
listening to Morris.

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MORRIS:
When I first started to work
for Clinton in the White House,

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he had two big negatives:

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a third of the country
thought he was immoral

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and a third of the country
thought he was weak,

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and I basically went to him
and I said,

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"I can't do much
about the immoral,

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but we sure can solve the weak."

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And therefore we embarked
on a conscious strategy

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of making sure people
saw Clinton as strong.

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♪ ♪

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NARRATOR:
The heart of Morris's operation
was his polling,

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which he used to diagnose
where Clinton's weaknesses lay

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and how he could correct them.

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HARRIS:
Polling became
absolutely central.

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How do we present ourselves as
an alternative to Newt Gingrich?

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How are people
seeing the president?

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What sort of policies
would make them feel better

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about Bill Clinton?

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JOE KLEIN:
They polled everything.

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They polled every last word
that came out of his mouth.

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They polled where he should go
on vacation.

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Instead of going
to Martha's Vineyard,

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that elite island
off the coast of Massachusetts,

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they had him riding a horse
in Wyoming.

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I think Bill Clinton's allergic
to horses.

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But that's what the focus groups
said would be

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more, a more acceptable
vacation.

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MORRIS:
One of the big problems

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was the relationship
between Bill and Hillary.

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Voters thought that it was
a zero-sum game,

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that for Hillary to be strong,
Bill would have to be weak.

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And as a result, the perception
of Hillary's strength

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became a perception
of Bill's weakness.

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The polling made me
understand that,

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and when I came back
to work for Clinton,

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one of the first things I did
was to tell Hillary,

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"You can be as influential
as you want to be,

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"but do it in private.

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"Don't sit in
on the strategy meetings,

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"don't make the appointments,

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"don't make everybody
be cleared with you.

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"At the bedroom at night,
tell him what to do,

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but don't let it be seen
in public."

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♪ ♪

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NARRATOR:
Morris's advice hit home.

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After the stunning defeat
in the midterm elections,

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Hillary had received
a large share of the blame.

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ICKES:
She was outspoken, she was
smart, she was hard-driving,

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and some people resented her.

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Remember, during the campaign,

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there was two
for the price of one?

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Well, people aren't electing
two for the price of one.

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They're electing the president.

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GAIL SHEEHY:
She had been caught out
trying to be a co-president.

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That just wasn't gonna fly,

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and that's when she had to begin
to really re-examine,

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again, as she did
as governor's wife,

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"What does the public
want from me in this role?"

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And to take on gradually

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a little bit more of the
traditional role of first lady.

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Well, welcome to the White House

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and to the beginning
of the Christmas season here.

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NARRATOR:
Unsatisfied by her ceremonial
role as first lady,

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Hillary began working on issues
important to her,

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but not alarming to the public.

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She began writing
a book about children

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and traveled abroad with Chelsea
to advocate for women's rights.

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She wrote a weekly
syndicated column,

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and even consulted a psychic
in the White House.

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But it wasn't enough.

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SHEEHY:
She felt, for one of the rare
times in her life,

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completely depressed.

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She said everything that she
was doing wasn't working.

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She just didn't know
what to do anymore,

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because she really wanted
to be in there

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right at Bill Clinton's side,

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fighting all the political
battles that he was doing.

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The president wants to defend
Washington bureaucracy,

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Washington red tape,
and Washington spending,

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and higher taxes to pay
for less out of Washington.

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NARRATOR:
While the Clintons struggled
to find their way back

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from the political wilderness,

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their rival, Republican speaker
of the House Newt Gingrich,

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was dominating politics
in Washington.

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TRENT LOTT:
I think Newt felt like he had

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led a great revolution
and led the House--

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and, and the Senate,
for that matter-- to victory,

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and that he could...
we could be the, you know,

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the driving force in this city,
and that he was, in effect,

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comparable or equal
to the president.

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♪ ♪

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NARRATOR:
Gingrich and his
newly elected army

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of Republican representatives

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quickly passed bill after bill

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from their
"Contract with America."

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Sensing his strength, Gingrich
was intent on drawing Clinton

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into a political showdown

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that would determine, once and
for all, who was in charge.

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♪ ♪

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In the spring of 1995, Gingrich
picked his battleground.

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I think the central issue

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that we challenged
the Clinton administration on

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was on the budget.

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We wanted to balance the budget.

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We thought that was the most
important domestic policy issue

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that existed in the country,

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and it was gonna be ugly, as all
deficit fights inevitably are.

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What you currently have is

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a system designed to be
a centralized bureaucracy.

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NARRATOR:
In May, Gingrich unveiled a plan

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to eliminate the federal budget
deficit in seven years

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through huge cuts
in government spending.

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Most of the cuts
would be concentrated

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in two government
health insurance programs:

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Medicare and Medicaid.

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(cameras clicking)

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Gingrich had managed

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to shift the focus of power
and media attention

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from Clinton to himself.

09:58.164 --> 10:00.399 align:left position:30% line:77% size:60%
CHRIS JENNINGS:
Washington and the media
is all about

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the new flavor of the month.

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And the new flavor of the month

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was not the Clinton
administration.

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You had Newt Gingrich.

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I mean, he was a powerful,
charismatic figure

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who had an answer
to every question.

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There are three themes that
define where we are right now.

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JENNINGS:
And he not only

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wasn't afraid to talk,
he longed to talk.

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His problem was,
over time, he talked too much.