BOSTON–Former Clinton adviser George Stephanopoulos told attendees at the 15th annual Catalog Conference & Exhibition here June 3 to expect statesmanship, scandal and a struggle for succession to dominate the rest of Clinton’s second term in office.
Stephanopoulos, the first national nondirect marketing keynote speaker to talk to a catalog conference, said that partisan politics would prevent Congress from addressing many of the issues affecting the country this year but that the economy is strong enough to survive a stalemate on some of the matters at hand.
Stephanopoulos, who now is an ABC commentator and visiting professor at Columbia University, warned that continued negative publicity from the Monica Lewinsky scandal may affect Al Gore’s chances at succeeding Clinton as president. He predicted that Gore’s strongest competition could come from Steve Forbes and Dan Quayle, saying of the latter, “This may seem like a backhanded compliment, but he’s not as dumb as everyone thinks.”
While the speech had little to do with direct marketing, neither did the string of questions that the audience sent to the podium. Catalog attendees generally asked Stephanopoulos to assess the chances different politicians have for the next presidential election. As to his own political aspirations, Stephanopoulos said he would like to be involved in public policy, but was vague on specifics.
