I think they’re the best-qualified people that I interviewed, on balance. I sure do. I think I did a pretty good job. I think it’s a very talented cabinet. I think that this diversity issue is very important; I’ve always believed that if you looked hard enough, you could find really gifted people who came from different walks of life and different experiences.

Well, first of all, I don’t know if it’s true. And secondly, if I knew who it was, I’d fire him. I think people who are quoted anonymously are gutless. And people who leak who are on my payroll ought to have the guts to have their name in the paper.

I went to the public schools, except for two years when I went to Catholic school when I was a kid. My wife always went to the public schools, and Chelsea has always gone to the public schools. It’s not me setting an example. I’ll be glad to set an example. But I had to make a decision as the father of an only child who’s about to be 13, going into Washing-ton, D.C. And we made a decision based on what we thought would give her the best chance to have a normal childhood in a world in which the children of people like me aren’t treated normally.

I think the more successful the public school system is, the less segregated out people will be. I think every major school system in the country could stand improvement, and I’m going to do what I can to help them.

I’ve tried to make it clear that I intend to present early to Congress campaign [finance) reform and lobby reform, which I talked about all during the campaign. We have required our cabinet members to sign commitments to refrain from lobbying, far more extensively than any president in history has ever imposed. And we have lobbying requirements and restrictions even on our transition staff. That’s the first time that has ever been done. Now you can’t eliminate all the lobbying. [It’s] a constitutional right. It’s freedom of speech. It makes the system work.

The problem with Washing-ton is that we’ve become paralyzed because of the dominance of lobbying and organized interest groups. What I’m going to try to do is restrain the things that I think are excessive. It’s going to be difficult for us to pass the kind of health-care reforms we need and the kinds of budgetary changes we need, unless we can pass campaign-finance and lobby reform.

Yes.

Yes. Political reform is important. I have to come early with these bills and try hard to pass them, and I intend to do that.

The deficit is a lot bigger now than it was. So the question is, Do I meet my commitment if I hit that dollar figure or not? The problem is, I also have other commitments. We’ve got a commitment to increase investments, to do something about the health-care problem and to reduce the deficit substantially. I believe that it’s very difficult to do one without the other.

I could say, OK, well, the deficit’s out of hand. I’m not going to worry about it. Let’s try to grow out of this recession. Just grow. We’ll invest. The problem is, there’s no guarantee that you’ll get the growth. If, on the other hand, you try to solve the deficit only by raising taxes and cutting spending, and there is no new increase in investment, it is almost certain that your economic growth will be much slower, which means you might have a problem in Congress the president did in 1990 where they had a budget deal that everyone thought would work, but it didn’t materialize.

And it didn’t materialize for two reasons. One is, the economic growth is very low, so the revenue didn’t come in. The second reason was that health-care costs had exploded.

So we are confronted with an unprecedented economic dilemma, but it’s entirely consistent with what I said in the campaign. I’m going to go out there and do my best to meet the investment targets, cut the deficit and deal with the health-care issue.

I don’t think presidents should rule out. I don’t think, based on what I know today that [using ground troops] is a good idea. And I don’t think we should go in there unilaterally. As you know, all during the campaign, I talked a lot about how there were a lot of steps that we could take. I think we have to continue, to turn up the heat, push the peace proposals and keep as many people alive as possible. I’ve been open to more rigorous action there, not only because of the horrible things that have been done, but because they have been done in the name of ethnic cleansing, an idea which the West and the United Nations as a whole should stand up against.

There’s plenty of ethnic tensions around the world, and there are ethnic tensions wherever different ethnic groups exist. We cannot permit this idea to prevail.

There is no difference between suffering. [But] before you commit the ground forces of this country, you do have to ask whether you can see the end of their involvement. If you put young Americans in harm’s way, the president has to know that there is a reasonable chance of achieving the objectives set forward.

I think that Colin Powell and the others at the Pentagon deserve some credit for pointing out that the military situation is far more complicated there, certainly than in Somalia, and maybe even than Iraq. But I don’t want to rule in or rule out any specific options right now.

We have to fulfill that one; we’ve got four years. But I think we can do it quickly. I think there are two things that I will try to do. One is, we ought to try to provide greater security, law and order for those people. We need to move the police-officer initiative as quick as we can.

Two is, we ought to provide some hope, which means investment infusion, jobs, the opportunity for jobs, the opportunity for economic growth. That’s why I want to try to pass that whole economic package that I recommended in the campaign.

I haven’t signed off on the office plans. Let me tell you this about the Hillary deal. There’s been a lot of stuff written about that by very smart writers, most of them women, who have said a lot of interesting things. It’s an easy question for me. It’s my job, it’s my duty to the American people, to take advantage of the most talented people I can find. She certainly qualifies there, and I would be derelict in my duty if I didn’t use her in some major way within the confines of what is proper.

Darn right, just like the Peace Corps was. It’s about the future. My feeling about this is that if I come out here with this sort of comprehensive deficit reduction so you’re squeezing consumption across the board, then we need to have the symbolic value of giving large numbers of young Americans-and some that may not be so young-the opportunity to participate in making that future through national service.

I think the American people will go along with any of these things if it’s perceived to be fair. I had a meeting yesterday on health care. And I’m going to have another meeting on the economy and try to sign off on our final target numbers before the Inauguration. So we’ll be able to really hit the ground running.

Our strategy is not much of a mystery. I want to pass an economic program, a budget, a health-care program, national service and political reform, and I want to do it all as quick as we can.

An astonishing number of average American citizens say, Don’t be afraid to ask us to sacrifice. Just make it fair. If you give me marching orders, give them to everybody else too. One guy said exactly that. He said Give me marching orders, just make sure you give them to everybody else, so we’re all walking.