President Clinton

THE carrot dangled in front of the PLO is that if Yasser Arafat could get his people to agree on a peace settlement with Israel, President Clinton has promised to take him to Martha's Vineyard next summer.The offer was personally made by the president to the PLO leader over the telephone. Reports indicate that Bill told Yasser, "You've been bargaining in good faith and therefore you deserve a vacation on the Vineyard."Yasser, who watches CNN day and night, responded, "Can I stay in Bob McNamara's house?"

Washington. -- Before President Clinton and his Pentagon advisers make their next decision regarding America's tragic involvement in Somalia, they ought to read these lines written by Alexander Pope 282 years ago:Of all the causes which conspire to blindMan's erring judgment, and misguide the mind,What the weak head with strongest bias rules,Is pride, the never-failing vice of fools.Bush-administration officials erred in December when they began a mission of mercy without seeing that top U.N. officials had a self-glorifying political agenda.

PRESIDENT Clinton should deliver the State of the Union address to Congress on time Jan. 19. If members are too embarrassed to invite Mr. Clinton to the Capitol, he can send it on paper as did 19th century presidents. Then there's nothing to stop him from addressing the American public on television.The worst idea yet came from senators of both parties who said Mr. Clinton should delay his speech, so as not to mingle with them while under impeachment.Nonsense. President Clinton has been good about carrying out duties while under a cloud.

THE DEPARTURE of Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin could have been cause for alarm. He is, after all, the heaviest hitter on Team Clinton, the chief architect of much that has gone right. Had Mr. Rubin departed during the impeachment scandal, it might have destabilized Wall Street.But Mr. Rubin waited. It was known he wanted to get back to private finance. So Wednesday, calm confidence greeted President Clinton's announcement of Mr. Rubin's resignation and the the nomination of his deputy, Lawrence H. Summers, as successor.

The residents of "Sesame Street" became the stars of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. yesterday.Big Bird played in the White House sculpture garden. A Muppet named Alice Snuffleupagus met Clinton aide George Stephanopoulus.The characters were invited to the White House by first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton as the White House stepped up its effort to save federal funding for public television. The first lady urged Democrats and Republicans to cooperate to preserve educational shows for children. Referring to the way episodes of PBS' "Sesame Street" are "brought to you by" letters and numbers, Mrs. Clinton said: "I like to think of what we do in Washington as being brought to you by both the D's and the R's. But that's something we still have to work on."

IN THE LONG trek to welfare reform, the only thing harder to find than defenders of the status quo is consensus on how to change it. The goal of bills passed in recent days by the House and Senate is to increase self-sufficiency, but whether the measures will address the heart of the problem remains to be seen.No reform of welfare is worth the paper it is printed on unless it addresses the numbing dependency ingrained in families, especially over several generations. When Americans talk about the failures of the welfare system, they are not begrudging poor people food to eat or access to a doctor when sick.

With one sentence, President Clinton signaled his determination to carry on the Middle East peace round begun by President Bush and complete President Carter's work of brokering an accord between Israel and its neighbors. The sentence, in a press conference with President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt: "As I have made clear, the United States is prepared to assume the role of full partner when the parties themselves return to the negotiating table for serious discussions."In the code understood by participants, this means the Clinton administration is willing to lean on Israel to make concessions.

LIKE THE CHESHIRE CAT, a balanced budget agreement between President Clinton and Republicans in Congress is vanishing slowly, beginning with the tail and ending with a grin that is starting to resemble a sneer at the long-suffering American public. Each party will profess fealty to the notion that by year 2002 the government won't spend any more than it takes in. But to believe that, in the Wonderland of Washington, is to believe six impossible things before breakfast.Republicans and Democrats are too busy setting election-year traps for one another to give two hoots about their much-touted fiscal frugality.

If you pass the Brady bill, I'll sure sign it.-- President Clinton.With this short sentence in his address to Congress last month, President Clinton altered prospects for passage of the handgun-control proposal named for James Brady, the White House press secretary wounded in 1981's assassination attempt against President Reagan. The proposal had been bottled up for years by President Bush's insistence that it be tied to broader crime legislation. No longer. Mr. Clinton is ready to sign just as soon as Congress gets a simple, clean bill to his desk.

WASHINGTON - On Nov. 1, 1800, John Adams traveled the long road from Philadelphia to the new federal city of Washington, D.C. For the nation's second president, it was moving day. As he stepped out of his carriage and stood before his new home, then known as the presidential palace, he encountered a half-built structure with scaffolding across the basement floors, walls without plaster and only one of the three staircases built. Next month, the White House will celebrate its 200th anniversary.