Hundreds book slot to see Hillary

HUNDREDS of people stood in line yesterday morning, some after waiting through the night, for the chance to get Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to autograph her new book.

Employees of a Barnes & Noble bookstore in midtown Manhattan began issuing wristbands, like those issued to ticket buyers at rock concerts, to buyers of her "Living History" at 8:30am for the 11am book signing.

Only 250 wristbands were being handed out, entitling the wearers to meet the senator during the signing.

"I'm a big fan of Hillary's and Bill's," said Greg Packer, who was the first in line, arriving at 9pm on Sunday. Packer, 39, a highway maintenance worker from Huntington, planned to buy two books the limit because Mrs Clinton "has a lot to say."

Just before the signing, Mrs Clinton told reporters at a Manhattan hotel that her critics also could benefit from reading her memoirs.

"I think if people read the book with an open mind they may be surprised, they may learn a few things, they may decide that maybe they weren't given a full picture of what had gone on," Mrs Clinton said.

In spite of the limit on wristbands, the crowd kept growing on a line behind police barricades near a side entrance to the Fifth Avenue store. Those not issued wristbands still hoped they had a chance to meet the senator.

Simon & Schuster, which agreed to pay Mrs Clinton $8 million for the book, printed an astounding one million copies.

Richard Paice, a 36-year-old lawyer, decided on the spur of the moment to join the book signing line at 8:50am. "If you think about it, it's a historic moment. "She's one of the smartest people in modern political history."

He said he had no interest in reading the senator's reaction to the White House infidelities of her husband, President Bill Clinton.

In the book, Mrs Clinton revisits the public and private wreckage from her husband's affair with intern Monica Lewinsky. She concludes that what her husband did was morally wrong but not a betrayal of the public.

In an interview yesterday on NBC's "Today," Mrs Clinton said in response to a question about her husband's dalliance: "I have always believed ... that public officials should be judged on their public actions and that's how a voter should make a decision."

Barbara Walters interviewed the senator for a Sunday segment on ABC, in which Mrs Clinton said her marriage has "been tried and tested and we are at the point now that we're looking forward ... I hope that we'll grow old together."

Time magazine is running excerpts from the book and an interview with Mrs Clinton. In the interview, she is asked if she plans to run for president in 2008, and answers: "I have no intention of running for president."

An ABC poll found 53% of Americans don't want the former first lady to ever run for president.