Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, October 25, 1993 TAG: 9310250070
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"Clinton needed to spend more time thinking through a foreign policy," Roberts said Friday while in the Roanoke Valley. "Up until this point, our foreign policy involved the Soviet Union and containing communism. Without that, we are inventing a policy as we go."
Roberts, whose job titles include senior political analyst for National Public Radio and correspondent for ABC News, said Clinton started the fall in good shape, but was not prepared for the crises in Somalia and Haiti.
"During the campaign, the American people told him not to focus on foreign policy, to focus on domestic issues." Because of this, she said, Clinton had no definitive plan to use in foreign emergencies.
The retirement or defeat of many veterans in last fall's congressional elections also has hindered development of a foreign policy in the Clinton administration, she said.
"This is the first time in 12 years there has been a Democratic administration," Roberts said, "and now that [former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff] Colin Powell has left, there is almost no one with the breadth and depth of experience Clinton can turn to."
Roberts was in Salem to speak at Roanoke College's Associates Evening, a dinner honoring donors who contributed $1,000 or more.
Roberts is the only journalist who can say that her parents served 50 years in Congress. Her father, Hale Boggs, a Louisiana Democrat, was the House majority leader until his plane was lost over Alaska in 1972. Her mother, Lindy, took over her husband's duties until she retired in 1990.
Roberts is also one of the most prominent female journalists in the United\ States. She was the first woman to become a regular panelist on ABC's "This Week with David Brinkley" and has had an unusual perspective on the changes that led 1992 to be called "The Year of the Woman."
The success of so many female campaigns last year, Roberts said, was 20 years in the making. "It was a culmination of women who were prepared to run, and open seats to occupy. These women had the experience to succeed in their bids."
Roberts said Mary Sue Terry's gender has neither helped nor harmed her campaign for governor of Virginia. "There is a theory out there that I don't share: That if all things are equal, women have an advantage in political races these days. Terry has blown her lead because she has run a bad campaign."
Asked if she thought the news media had become vulture-like in their political coverage, Roberts said: "If you look back to the Hearst papers, when they were making things up, we look pretty good. There were some accusations that the media was too liberal, because for 12 years there has been a Republican administration. But we'll criticize whomever is in office. You watch!"
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB