Clinton says Obama 'off to a good start'

WASHINGTON - Former President Bill Clinton said yesterday he thinks the country will surmount the current economic crisis but sees the threat of terrorism and global instability as a longer-term problem.

Clinton also gave President Obama high marks for the $787 billion economic stimulus bill, which Obama plans to sign into law today.

"I think he's off to a good start," Clinton said. "I think he's got a good team."

He said he thought Obama's White House handled the stimulus issue relatively well, "given the fact they had to do it in a hurry." Clinton also said he believes the massive bill, which combines spending and tax cuts, will be "our bridge over troubled waters."

He confirmed he has talked to Obama about the job, although Clinton said he didn't want to be too specific. He said he talked about "nuts and bolts" issues of the presidency and how to keep things from "falling through the cracks." Asked his perspective on how the country fell into such economic hard times, Clinton responded in an NBC "Today" show interview by asking rhetorically: "Did any of them seriously believe that if I had been president and my economic team had been in place the last eight years, that this would be taking place?"

In another interview, Clinton was asked which president he would most identify with.

"I'm not sure," he told CNN. "One guy wrote a book saying that I was most like Thomas Jefferson, but the times in which I governed were most like Theodore Roosevelt's. . . . We had - he had - enormous success. The country was better off when he quit than when he started."

ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON - When Tom Daschle stepped down two weeks ago as director of the White House Office on Health Reform and withdrew his nomination to be secretary of health and human services, it left a gaping hole in President Obama's leadership team, one that healthcare advocates say has stalled what they hoped would be speedy action on high-priority measures.

"The health agenda isn't being addressed and the health agenda was certainly a big part of the campaign and a big part of the transition," said Kevin Robert Frost, chief executive of the Foundation for AIDS Research.

Administration advisers are refusing to discuss who might replace Daschle, the former South Dakota senator who failed to pay more than $100,000 in back taxes.

Frost acknowledged what Obama aides are quick to point out: The administration has been focused on passing a $787 billion stimulus package, which includes money for health and science.

"The problem is the ripple effect," Frost said.

Not only does the department lack a Cabinet secretary, but Obama has yet to nominate anyone to run critical agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"The department is really starting behind," said Tommy Thompson, who began his tenure as President Bush's HHS secretary on Feb. 2, 2001.

WASHINGTON POST