When he wants to learn about foreign policy, he often seeks out another Rhodes scholar, Time magazine editor at large Strobe Talbott. Clinton’s deputy campaign manager, George Stephanopoulos, is a Rhodes scholar. So is campaign-issues director Bruce Reed. If the conventional wisdom proves right, even Clinton’s running mate in November will be a Rhodes scholar Sen. Bill Bradley of New Jersey.
Why does Bill Clinton surround himself with so many Rhodes scholars? Probably because he is one himself. The Rhodes scholarship is a true brotherhood of the upwardly mobile. Old Rhodeses exchange no secret handshakes, or even knowing winks, but they do share a sense of high purpose and, some would say, self-importance. The 32 American college grads packed off to study at Oxford every year since early in this century are chosen, in the grandiose phrase of the scholarship’s founder, Cecil Rhodes, to be “the best men in the world’s fight.” (Since 1977 they have also been women.) Not all fulfill that promise, but quite a few have won public prominence. When John F. Kennedy became president, he brought a dozen Rhodes scholars to Washington to serve in his administration. Today four Rhodes scholars serve in the U.S. Senate (David Boren of Oklahoma, Paul Sarbanes of Maryland, Richard Lugar of Indiana and Bradley).
Candidates for a Rhodes scholarship are no longer required to be good at “manly outdoor sports,” but they do have to show “moral force of character to lead” and “literary and scholastic attainments.” Mostly they have to be able to talk-glibly and knowingly through two grueling days of interviews that winnow the field down from some 1,200 eager college seniors.
Clinton (Georgetown ‘68) helped nurse Bob Reich (Dartmouth ‘68) through a bout of seasickness on the boat to England in 1968. They began what Clinton and his clique somewhat pretentiously call “the Conversation.” The topics vary, but the Conversation boils down to a discussion of how to save the world. Talbott and Magaziner were also at Oxford with Clinton, agonizing over Vietnam and civil rights. The Conversation has continued, off and on for 25 years, and if Clinton is elected, America is likely to hear excerpts in the State of the Union Message.
Rhodes scholars are protective of their own. When Clinton was accused last winter of having been a draft dodger, Reich, Talbott and another Rhodes, Richard Stearns, a Massachusetts state judge, all used their own high public profiles to leap to Clinton’s defense. Clinton was clearly planning a political career when he wrote his draft board in October 1969, while at Oxford. " For years I have worked to prepare myself for a political life characterized by both practical political ability and concern for rapid social progress. It is a life I still feel compelled to try to lead," Clinton wrote, thanking Col. Eugene Holmes for allowing him to drop out of ROTC. The letter reflects “the difficult combination of slick ambition and earnest, almost naive idealism” typical of Rhodes scholars, wrote New Republic columnist Michael Kinsley, another Rhodes.
Having been told of their grand promise at an early age, Rhodes scholars are sometimes cursed with the need to live up to expectations. A Rhodes scholar, in the familiar saying, is a young man " with a great future behind him." The fear of peaking too early makes some Rhodeses wary of taking chances. Clinton stands apart from his fellow scholars at least in this respect: just by running for president, Clinton is willing to risk the one thing that is unforgivable to many Rhodes scholars-failure. Who’s Who Among the Scholarly Clique
