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George Stephanopoulos Visits Chapel Hill
By Tim Nelson

He used to help answer the questions for President Clinton. Now he asks them for ABC News.
George Stephanopoulos sat down with Carolina Week when he came to town Tuesday to talk about his switch to the other side of the camera. And, of course, politics.
"There is a difference between being inside that room where decisions are being made and being outside the room reporting on it," said Stephanopoulos.
Now, he is the one on the objective side of the news.
"Learning how to ask incisive questions that both carry information and elicit information is tough," he said. "It's not that I don't have my opinions. I just keep them private."
But when the former senior adviser to President Clinton turned ABC News analyst came to town Tuesday, he let Carolina Week do the asking, opening up about what it's like no longer being the president's right-hand man.
"I miss it, I kind of wrap it up and put it on the shelf, look at it every once in a while but don't yearn-to be there," he said. "I also feel very lucky. I mean now I still get to be involved in a different way. Now when a president comes up and gives a State of the Union, I get to give my opinion about it to millions of people."
And what about last week's address?
"What was interesting to me about the speech was that, you know the entire approach, just to wrap everything now around the issue of security, whether it's the war on terrorism or protecting our homeland or even trying to define all our various domestic challenges as a matter of domestic security," said Stephanopoulos. "I think it was very effective."
So was the lecture Stephanopoulos delivered Tuesday. Titled, "Politics: The Art of the Impossible, A View from Washington", it drew a packed crowd to Memorial Hall. But Stephanopoulos would not share his view about a possible democratic nominee for president in 2004.
"You know so much can happen between now and 2004 it's just perilous to even think about making a bet, so I'm not gonna do it."
Fair enough. But what about North Carolina's junior senator?
"He's very impressive," Stephanopoulos said. "He certainly will be the freshest democrat who will be looking at the race in 2004 but he's not alone."
One of Edwards' opponents may be Al Gore, who brings us back to Stephanopoulos' White House days - and that other side of the camera. It used to be he'd worry whether the right speech got loaded into the teleprompter for Bill Clinton. Now he's the one reading it. Sort of.
"It sounds silly but you know the hardest thing for me in television now is actually reading, reading the teleprompter," he said. "I'm no good at it, I just can't do it. I can't do it in a way that looks natural."

 
   

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