New Life of Clinton

Former President Bill Clinton said the death of his dog Buddy was the worst thing to happen to him after leaving the White House. When he's not traveling, Clinton stays in Chappaqua and rides 45 minutes to his Harlem office, always returning at night. He's still a night owl, completing paperwork until 1:30 am some nights.

And yet the ex-president's existential predicament remains. What to do? Where to focus? How to channel the legendary energies and appetites? To the extent that Clinton has identified the priorities of his ex-presidency, they are roughly as follows: make money for his family's future, so that "if I drop dead, my wife can continue in public service and my daughter will be all right"; make progress on his book and on building his presidential library in Little Rock (which he visits once a month); make a difference on "nation building" issues like economic empowerment, conflict resolution and community service.

In the United States, many of his nonpaying appearances are connected to promoting the initiatives of his presidency. Last week, for instance, he went to a book party for Sarah Brady, who worked with him pushing gun control. And he hastily arranged a Harlem event to broadcast word that roughly 5 million working people have as much as $5 000 a year in unclaimed money coming to them thanks to the Clinton-era expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit.

Overseas, Clinton still has his fingers in foreign policy. While in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for a February speech, he met for more than three hours with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah to discuss what is now known as the Saudi plan to restart the peace process. The ex-president praises envoy Anthony Zinni, and he's not agitating for a formal diplomatic role, but he joked privately late last year that Bush "could just send me and George (Mitchell) over there, and when it fails, he can blame us!"

That's unlikely, but the White House may be starting to realize he's a tremendous resource in other regions, too. In the meantime, he works his buddy list of heads of state and "formers", staying in close touch with friends like British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien and Nelson Mandela. He has declined to criticize Bush on domestic policy and stayed strongly supportive of the war against terrorism, usually sticking to the informal speak-no-evil rules of the ex-presidents' club.