....Mr. Bush's graciousness today was hardly surprising. He remembers well, his aides say, Mr. Clinton's equally charitable comments about 41, the senior President Bush, when his portrait was unveiled nearly a decade ago. Ms. Cahill recalled that ceremony as a "similarly nonpartisan, historical moment'' and said "and everyone rose to the occasion." [NY Times] Amid concerns that Bill Clinton makes John Kerry look like a bloodless cadaver, he has canceled plans for a book signing at the Democratic National Convention in July:

''My Life," Clinton's 957-page autobiography, will appear in stores on June 22, with 1.5 million copies printed. Representatives of the Clintons talked about hosting a signing party at the State Room, the 33rd-floor ballroom at Sixty State Street formerly known as the Bay Tower Room, said Elaine Twombly, director of catering and sales manager at the State Room, but the idea was ultimately dropped.

Currently there is a party at the State Room organized by friends of the Clintons, which the Clintons are expected to attend during the DNC, but signing books is not part of it, Twombly said.

....Clinton's book has been selling well in preorder at stores and on the Internet.

At Amazon.com, the book is already selling seven times as many preorders as Rodham Clinton's autobiography, said Kristin Mariani, spokeswoman for Amazon.com. The book is also the highest ever preorder title in the biography and memoirs category on Amazon, Mariani added. [Boston Globe]

And June 22 is just around the corner:

Starting at midday on Friday, Time Warner Inc.'s AOL.com will offer audio excerpts of the book as read aloud by Clinton, and Infinity Broadcasting Corp. will air excerpts on the radio.

"We love them," AOL Executive Vice President for Programing Jim Bankoff said of the excerpts, which he said the online company obtained in a "cashless exchange."

He would not reveal clues about the excerpts' content, except to say, "It's a nice assortment."

Clinton has said the memoirs are broken into two parts — one ranging from his childhood to his election as president in 1992, and the second covering the White House years — the last term of which was dominated by the sex scandal involving the president and White House intern Monica Lewinsky and impeachment. Clinton, only the second president to face an impeachment trial in Congress, was acquitted by the Senate.

AOL expects "tens of millions" of people to listen to the excerpts or a question-and-answer session with Clinton next week.

Clinton's first print interview in connection with the book reportedly has gone to Time magazine, said a spokesman for the book's publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Bertelsmann AG's Random House unit. Time hits newsstands on Monday but is typically released to the media on Sunday.

....Clinton will appear in bookstores in New York on Tuesday to autograph copies of the book. Once it is released, Clinton is set to appear in interviews with Oprah Winfrey (news), NBC's "Today" show and ABC's "Good Morning America." Next Thursday, for anyone still curious, Clinton will answer questions in a Town Hall format broadcast online by AOL online and by Infinity on radio.

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