he got around to Hillary and me

Kroft, unbelievably, asked me again. His only goal in the interview was to get a specific admission. Finally, after a series of questions about Gennifer Flowers, he got around to Hillary and me, referring to our marriage as an arrangement. I wanted to slug him. Instead, I said, Wait a minute. Youre looking at two people who love each other. This is not an arrangement or an understanding. This is a marriage. Hillary then said she was sitting in the interview with me because I love him and I respect him and I honor what hes been through and what weve been through together. And you know, if thats not enough for people, then heck, dont vote for him. After the early mud wrestling, Kroft grew more civil, and there were some good exchanges about Hillarys and my life together. They were all cut out when the long interview was edited, down to about ten minutes, apparently because the Super Bowl shortened the program. At some point during the session, the very bright, very hot overhead light above the couch Hillary and I were sitting on came loose from its tape on the ceiling and fell. It was directly above Hillarys head, and if it had hit her, she could have been burned badly. Somehow I saw it out of the corner of my eye and jerked her over onto my lap a split second before it crashed on the spot where she had been sitting. She was scared, and rightly so. I just stroked her hair and told her that it was all right and that I loved her. After the ordeal, we flew home to watch the show with Chelsea. When it was over, I asked Chelsea what she thought. She said, I think Im glad youre my parents. The next morning I flew to Jackson, Mississippi, for a breakfast organized by former governor Bill Winter and Mike Espy, both of whom had endorsed me early. I was uncertain whether anyone would come and what the reception would be. To my immense relief, they had to get extra chairs for a larger-than-expected crowd that seemed genuinely glad to see me. So I went back to work. It wasnt over, however. Gennifer Flowers gave a press conference to a packed house in New Yorks Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. She repeated her story and said she was sick of lying about it. She also acknowledged that she had been approached by a local Republican candidate who asked her to go public, but she declined to name him. Some of her tapes were played at the press conference, but except for proving that I had talked to her on the telephone, a fact I hadnt denied, the content of the tapes was anticlimactic, given all the hoopla about them.