mr. edmonds: well, it is. when you are president, you have in strongest bully pulpit the world, and you can articulate the values that you think most represent the country and the values that you most admire and are most committed to , and i was fortunate to work for a president who exemplified the highest values, i thought, as far as the economy, as far as, you know, bringing the country together, and just in so many areas, education, health care, all of those important issues. even if you did not have a specific policy to change things, you could use your voice to move the conversation along. and president clinton did that exceedingly well, especially on the issue of race. he was the first president who -- i do not know if anyone else did -- he created an office in the white house called the "office of one america," and he used that office to focus and initiative on race, which was very effective in changing people's attitudes about race and bringing the country together as one america. so -- the bully pulpi

mr. edmonds: that is a very good question. yes, you bring your whole life experience to the job and, hopefully, your life experience is compatible or somewhat resonates with your principal or the president. for myself, i grew up in a very working-class family, lived in projects in baltimore, and have always been interested in civil rights and public policy and just current events. i was a vociferous reader as a child, which was one of the things that sort of mitigated some of the things that i saw around me, was to always be reading and to be trying to, you know, emulate some of the values i saw in literature. so again, that is one of the things that sort of brought the president and i together, because he had a similar background, growing up somewhat in a working-class environment in the south, and, you know, and also, having those values of trying to lift himself up, as well as lift those around him up. and we shared that commitment. so, yes, you bring your whole life story to the job, but you also remember that you are not