Stephanopoulos: Professor Next. Politician Someday? - Dec. 4, 1996

Analysis: Stephanopoulos Goes Out In Style

By Bill Schneider/CNN

WASHINGTON (Dec. 20) -- The Clinton White House seems to generate burn-out. A lot of staffers have left exhausted and depressed, their best years behind them, their reputations tarnished.

This week, we saw the exception to that rule, a fellow who entered the White House four years ago as a bright young thing, and who leaves the White House now...as a bright young thing.

Some have left the Clinton Administration in disgrace, like Dick Morris, and some in serious trouble, like Webster Hubbell.

Some have been fired, like David Watkins, and some thwarted, like David Gergen.

Some were brought down by controversey, like Bernard Nussbaum, and some by personal tragedy, like Vince Foster.

But here's one staffer who's leaving the White House on good terms, with his wits about him and his career on a roll. At age 35, George Stephanopoulos is leaving his job as senior advisor to the president. Senior advisor? This guy doesn't look like a senior anything. But he talks like a grizzled old veteran.

"I've had a great run: two presidential campaigns, four years here in the White House," he said earlier this fall. "I am probably going to move on to other things, but I want to take a week and think about it on the beach."

So what's he going to do? A little teaching at Columbia University, his alma mater. Some public speaking. Maybe a magazine column. And some work as a political analyst on TV. Uh oh! Is he up to the grueling labor of punditry? Let's see:

"Part of the reason [voter] turnout has dropped is that Washington and politics have felt more alien to people," Stephanopoulos said in one post-election interview. "People have felt more removed from the political system and I think that that is unfortunate, because I don't believe it's true. The fact is that every Decision does have an impact."

Hey, this guy's pretty good.

And there's one more thing. This week, Little, Brown and Co. announced that Stephanopoulos will be writing a book for them, for a cool $3 million. What kind of book? The publisher describes it as "his personal reflections on his five years with Bill Clinton." He's writing his memoirs, at age 35.

"Four years in the White House and two presidential campaigns is an awful long time," Stephanopoulos said. "In politics, every year in the White House is like dog years, six years off your life."

But will his book give us all the dish on Bill and Hillary? Don't bet an it.

"There has been an awful lot of time and money spent looking at the president over the last four years," Stephanopoulos said. "The American people saw through those investigations. They voted for the president. And despite all of this time and attention, nothing has turned up because the president and the first lady did nothing wrong."

Now wait a minute. Stephanopoulos says he kept no diary and no notes while he was in the White House. How's he going to write this $3 million book? He says he has a very good memory. His friends in the White House attest to it. So do his enemies in Congress, who point out, ironically, that Stephanopoulos used the expression "I don't remember" 31 times in his Senate deposition on Whitewater.

Others have raised the issue of his possible conflict of interest as a television commentator. Stephanopoulos was involved in many matters currently being investigated by Congress and the Whitewater independent counsel. How's he going to talk about them on TV?

While he figures that problem out, he can console himself with $3 million. That's half a million more than Morris got for his book on the Clinton Administration, which may be exactly the point Stephanopoulos wants to make. Stephanopoulos didn't disgrace himself. He's got money, celebrity status and, a lot of people suspect, political ambitions. He's managed to use the White House as a springboard to a bigger career. That's rare these days, rare enough to qualify as the political Play of the Week.

Stephanopoulos has one more thing going for him. Clinton press secretary Mike McCurry talked about it with the White House reporters. "George now becomes the most eligible stud muffin in New York," McCurry said.