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On every trip, I marveled at the number of...On every trip, I marveled at the number of citizens from all over America who just showed up to help Then we flew on to Denver, where we welcomed Pope John Paul II to the United StatesI had a productive meeting with His Holiness, who supported our mission in Somalia and my desire to do more in BosniaAfter we finished, he graciously received all the Catholics on the White House staff and on my Secret Service detail who had been able to come to Denver with meThe next day I signed the Colorado Wilderness Act, my first major environmental legislation, protecting more than 600,000 acres of national forests and public lands in the National Wilderness Preservation System Then I went on to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to speak to my old colleagues at the National Governors Association about health careThough the ink was barely dry on the budget plan, I wanted to get started on health care and thought the governors might help, because the rising costs of Medicaid, state employees health insurance, and health care for the uninsured were a big burden on state budgets On the nineteenth, my forty-seventh birthday, I announced that Bill Daley of Chicago would become the chair of our task force on the North American Free Trade AgreementSix days earlier, with Canada and Mexico, we had completed the side deals to NAFTA on labor and rolex ladies environmental rights, which I had promised in the campaign, as well as one protecting our markets from import surgesNow that they were in place, I was ready to go all out to pass NAFTA in the CongressI thought Bill Daley was the ideal person to head the campaign for itHe was a Democratic lawyer from Chicagos most famous political family; his brother was the citys mayor, as his father had been before him, and he had good relationships with several labor leadersNAFTA would be a very different fight from the budgetA lot of Republicans would support it, and we had to find enough Democrats to go along over the objections of the AFL-CIO After the Daley announcement we finally flew off to Marthas VineyardThat night the Jordans hosted a birthday party for me, with old friends and some new onesJackie Kennedy Onassis and her companion, Maurice Tempelsman, came, along with Bill and Rose Styron, and Katharine Graham, the publisher of the Washington Post and one of the people I most admired in WashingtonThe next day we went sailing and swimming with Jackie and Maurice, Ann and Vernon, Ted and Vicki Kennedy, and Ed and Caroline Kennedy SchlossbergCaroline and Chelsea climbed up on a high platform of Maurices yacht and jumped into the waterThey dared Hillary to follow suit, and Ted and I urged her onOnly Jackie encouraged tiffany heart link necklace her to take a safer route to the waterWith her usual good judgment, Hillary listened to Jackie I spent the next ten days hanging around Oyster Pond, catching crabs with Hillary and Chelsea, walking on the beach that bordered the pond and the Atlantic Ocean, getting to know some of the people who lived in the area year-round, and reading The vacation ended all too quickly, and we returned to Washington to the start of Chelseas first year in high school, Hillarys campaign for health-care reform, Al Gores first recommendations for savings through his National Performance Review, and a newly redecorated Oval OfficeI loved working thereIt was always light and open, even on cloudy days, because of the tall windows and glass door toward the south and eastAt night the indirect lighting reflected off the curved ceiling, which added light and made it comfortable to work at homeThe room was elegant yet inviting, and I always felt comfortable there, alone or in large groupsKaki Hockersmith, a decorator friend from Arkansas, helped us with a new, brighter look: gold curtains in blue trim, gold high-back chairs, couches upholstered in gold-and-red stripes, and a beautiful deep blue rug with the presidential seal in the center, mirroring the one on the ceiling overheadNow I liked it even better September was also the gucci leather handbags biggest foreign policy month of my presidencyOn September 8, President Izetbegovic of Bosnia came to the White HouseThe threat of NATO air strikes had succeeded in restraining the Serbs and getting peace talks going againIzetbegovic assured me that he was committed to a peaceful settlement as long as it was fair to the Bosnian MuslimsIf one was reached, he wanted my commitment to send NATO forces, including Utroops, to Bosnia to enforce itI reaffirmed my intention to do so On September 9, Yitzhak Rabin called to tell me that Israel and the PLO had reached a peace agreementIt was achieved in secret talks the parties held in Oslo, which we were informed of shortly before I took officeOn a couple of occasions, when the talks were in danger of being derailed, Warren Christopher had done a good job of keeping them on trackThe talks were kept confidential, which enabled the negotiators to deal candidly with the most sensitive issues and agree on a set of principles that both sides could acceptMost of our work lay in the future, in helping with the immensely difficult task of resolving the tough issues, hammering out the terms of implementation, and raising the money to finance the costs of the agreement, from increased security for Israel to economic development and refugee relocation and compensation for the women louis vuitton handbag PalestiniansI had already gotten encouraging signs of financial support from other countries, including Saudi Arabia, where King Fahd, though still angry about Yasser Arafats support for Iraq in the Gulf War, was supportive of the peace process We were still a long way from a comprehensive solution, but the Declaration of Principles was a huge step forwardOn September 10, I announced that the Israeli and Palestinian leaders would sign the agreement on the South Lawn of the White House on Monday, the thirteenth, and that because the PLO had renounced violence and recognized Israels right to exist, the United States would resume its dialogue with themA couple of days before the signing, the press asked me if Arafat would be welcome at the White HouseI said that it was up to the parties directly involved to decide who would represent them in the ceremonyIn fact, I badly wanted Rabin and Arafat to attend and urged them to do so; if they didnt, no one in the region would believe they were fully committed to implementing the principles, and, if they did, a billion people across the globe would see them on television and they would leave the White House even more committed to peace than when they arrivedWhen Arafat said he would be there, I again asked Rabin to comeHe accepted, though he was still a bit on edge about purple fendi bags it10:42 PM - Monday, May 3, 2010
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