Hail to the Chief (Salesman)! : Clinton nails down huge deal with Saudi Arabia

The Constitution provides a partial job description for the President. He is the commander in chief of the armed forces as well as the nation’s top diplomat. He appoints judges, ambassadors and other officials. As head of state he plays a major ceremonial role. Unmentioned by the Constitution, the President is the de facto leader of his political party. Also unmentioned, but of increasing significance: The President has become the top lobbyist and salesman in boosting America’s role in the global economy.

President Clinton this week had a chance to display his skill in that part, and clearly he relished it.

Clinton announced that Saudi Arabia will buy 50 or more airliners from the Boeing Co. and McDonnell Douglas Corp., a deal worth $6 billion and tens of thousands of jobs, a fair number of them in Southern California. The final decision by the Saudis came after a year of intense competition between U.S. and European plane makers in which French and British political leaders made personal appeals to King Fahd. So, too, by phone and letter and through personal emissaries, did Clinton.

Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador to Washington, suggested the deal is an effort by his country to show it is a strategic asset by helping to maintain the U.S. aerospace industry. Saudi Arabia, a key beneficiary of the American-led rollback of Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, is also a large buyer of U.S. military aircraft and other weapons.

Purists might question whether the dignity of the presidency is reduced when the chief executive gets personally involved in lobbying for U.S. industry. Our view is that it’s perfectly proper, simply another instance of the President acting to promote the general welfare.