From the Publisher

By Elizabeth P. Valk

The advent of a new Administration is, quite naturally, a time when many news organizations enact their own changing of the guard in the White House press room. TIME is among those inaugurating a new team, which will be in charge of chronicling the ups and downs of the incoming Clinton Administration. But we are doing so in a way that tries to combine a fresh perspective with historic continuity.

Moving to the White House beat will be Margaret Carlson, who has been deputy bureau chief for TIME in Washington. Carlson started her career at Legal Times, where she made use of her law degree from George Washington University, before moving on to Esquire and the New Republic. Since joining TIME in 1988, she has written in-depth profiles of personalities ranging from presidential candidates Bill Clinton, Jerry Brown and Pat Buchanan to actress Katharine Hepburn and comic Billy Crystal. "The challenge is to find the politics in Billy Crystal and the humor in Bill Clinton," she says. Her most recent subject was the relationship between Bill and Hillary Clinton, in an article that ran in the Man of the Year issue.

Carlson will join veteran White House correspondent Michael Duffy, who wrote this week's cover story on Clinton's Inauguration. Duffy covered the Pentagon and Congress before being assigned to the White House in 1988. A graduate of Oberlin College, he co-wrote the 1992 book Marching in Place, an analysis of the Bush Administration. (His co-author, Dan Goodgame, will be leaving the White House beat to become TIME's economic correspondent.) Duffy thinks Clinton will preside under more pressure than his predecessor. "Bush basically enjoyed a free ride for three years," he says. "But Clinton will have to live up to enormous expectations immediately."

Both Carlson and Duffy think it will be important for Clinton to set the tone for his Administration during the first year. "He'll have to put on his stamp before the honeymoon ends and reality intrudes," says Carlson. In that regard, adds Duffy, "it will be interesting to see how Clinton balances the demands of his party's traditional constituencies with his pledge to be a new- style Democrat." TIME's new team will have to do some balancing of its own. No problem, says Duffy. "We're both very curious about what makes Clinton tick." The trick, says Carlson, "will be to share the agony and ecstasy in equal amounts." Like the new team that will occupy 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Carlson and Duffy are eager to get started.