Students were able to interact with former White House aides and current Harvard Fellows Ron Christie and Linda Moore Forbes via Skype in the Baker Center’s Toyota Auditorium from 6-7 p.m. on Nov. 6.
“It’s so funny, the Clinton administration seems like it was just yesterday,” Forbes said. “To most college freshmen, this is history. Most college freshmen were born during the first year of the Clinton administration.”
Forbes served during both Clinton terms in the White House Office of Political Affairs. During the first term, Forbes served as special assistant to the president, and in the second term as deputy assistant to the president and deputy political director.
The idea behind the Office of Political Affairs is to maintain the president’s approval rating as well as his image. In addition to working with the White House, Forbes also worked with the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC).
“The DLC wanted President Clinton to change the image of the Democratic Party and to change its agenda,” Forbes said. “We had lost four out of five of the last presidential elections before the president ran. The DLC wanted Bill Clinton to put together a campaign agenda that was all about expanding economic growth and that the private sector was the engine of that growth, espousing traditional American values of community and responsibility and also providing a strong national security for our country.”
For the time, making these values part of Clinton’s campaign was very different for the Democratic Party.
Another interesting change Forbes experienced during the Clinton administration was the boom in technology.
“Technology was exploding,” Forbes said. “I remember carrying around a beeper, using e-mail that was only in the White House and surfing the web at the White House.”
Also present for the Presidential Perspectives event was Bush administration adviser, Ron Christie.
“I’m really psyched to have the opportunity, along with Linda, to speak to you guys tonight and share a little bit of our insights with working in one of the most amazing spaces in the world, and that is the 18-acre complex of the White House,” Christie said.
Shortly after the 2001 election, Christie received a call from Scooter Libby asking him to interview for the office of the vice president.
“I thought ‘who the heck is this Scooter Libby and how the hell does he have my cell phone number?’ He told me they were sending a plane to take me to Washington, that he wanted me to interview for OVP and I didn’t even know what that was,” Christie said.
Christie was hired to be the vice president’s deputy assistant for domestic policy.
After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the focus of Christie’s work greatly changed.
“Shortly after the White House had been evacuated, our entire focus switched from domestic priorities to how do we reopen New York City under 14th Street, how do we get phone service back up, how do we shut down and reopen civilian aviation,” Christie said.
After this, Christie was assigned to the president’s domestic policy board.
Students were able to ask both participants questions, which ranged from what the fellows thought about Obama to how technology affected their duties at the White House.
“I hope those of you listening to us will consider a career in public service,” Christie said. “Linda and I just want to tell you what an incredible opportunity it is and how great it is to give back to your country. It’s just a neat experience to have been through.”
