For Hillary Clinton, it's none too soon to begin contemplating her potential first days in the Oval Office. "I don't think it's presumptuous; I think that it is sensible to say I intend to be elected president, I'm going to run a winning campaign against the Republicans, and here are some of the things I'm going to do on day one, day two, day three," Clinton said in an interview with Monitor editors and reporters Friday.

"I don't think there's enough time between the election and the inauguration to understand what the Bush administration has done to our government. We have to start now."

On her list: Out with the "gag rule," which bars the federal government from giving money to international family-planning groups that provide abortion counseling or help women receive abortions. And out with what Clinton described as President Bush-era damage to environmental regulations.

On the legislative front, Clinton would immediately ask Congress to send two Bush-vetoed bills to her desk for her signature: one to increase funding for embryonic stem-cell research, the other to expand a children's health insurance program.

"I think a lot of presidencies get off to a slow start because you win, you've invested everything in the election, and then you lift your head up and you look around, and there will be a lot of surprises with an administration of the opposite party," said Clinton, a Democrat. Many of Clinton's planned early-day changes - such as reversing "a lot of the war on science that the Bush administration has conducted" - can occur through executive orders, she added.

If Clinton wins her party's nomination, expect to hear far more about her governing priorities, especially those she believes can be swiftly enacted: "I think making that a theme of my general election campaign will really send the message that I am ready to govern, I am ready to lead on day one," she said.

'A job to do'

In a wide-ranging interview that touched on gender, her New York Senate campaigns and the role her husband would play in a potential second Clinton administration (confidant and goodwill ambassador, she said), Clinton stressed her desire to work with Republicans and rejected characterizations of herself as polarizing or divisive.

"Among the Republicans there was a concern that when I got to the Senate I wouldn't talk to them, I wouldn't work with them," Clinton said. "Lindsey Graham was the impeachment manager against (President) Bill (Clinton), and people thought that I would snub him or something. How ridiculous. We have a job to do."

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama wouldn't face snubbing, either, she said. Asked whether Clinton would hold Obama's decision to challenge her in the primary against him, she said no, before proceeding to recount her commitment to bipartisan governing.

"I think politics is about addition, not subtraction," she said.

But as she does on the campaign trail - Clinton's stump speech includes versions of the line "You have to find common ground, but you also have to stand your ground" - Clinton also emphasized her willingness to forgo bipartisanship to defend her legislative priorities.

"Some of the fights in the '90s were important fights," she said. "I think standing up against Newt Gingrich to get the right kind of welfare reform was the right thing to do.

"I want to make the changes we have to make, and I think I know very well how to do that," Clinton added. "But sometimes that's not possible. And you know, if I take on immigration, there are people who have their own television programs who are going to call me all kinds of things, and that may be 'polarizing.' But not to take it on would be irresponsible."

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