Personally, I don’t know how much of it is hype and how much of it is real, but stories about Bill Clinton’s bruised feelings (like his dissatisfaction with the theme for his convention speech) have the perverse effect of raising the bar on the expectations for his convention speech. The former president’s convention speech could well be his last high profile speech as an American politician. If it is not received well, it will do lasting damage to his legacy.
I don’t doubt that Bill is having a harder time reconciling himself to the primary loss than Hillary. Hillary was not impeached. It was Bill that had the great emotional need for redemption and acceptance that a restoration would bring. It must be painful for him to realize that there will be no full redemption. In some ways, Bill Clinton is a partly innocent victim of the failures of the Democratic Party as an opposition party during the Bush years.
He’s only partly innocent because it was his wing of the party that was the most egregiously spineless and accommodating. To use but one example, it was Lanny Davis (as the only Democrat serving on President Bush’s Privacy and Civil Liberties Board) who gave the administration a clean bill of health on their warrantless wiretapping programs.
The Bush administration’s poor stewardship of the economy and their atrocious foreign policy have both served to highlight the weaknesses in the Clinton Administration’s policies, while squandering or reversing the strengths. This, too, has done lasting (and not fully deserved) damage to the Clinton legacy. Bill Clinton is very disturbed by the tarnish on his record, and he’s frustrated that he won’t have the opportunity to work on buffing it to a new shine.
But, if you think about it, the best, and perhaps last, opportunity to repair the damage will be in his speech at the convention. A gracious and effective speech can do wonders. Remember Al Gore’s concession speech in 2000? That’s the kind of template Bill Clinton should be looking at when he thinks about the impression he wants to leave for posterity. I know Bill Clinton has one last magnificent performance left in him. I hope he seizes the chance.
Bill Clinton is a tragic hero in the classical Greek sense with both the seeds of greatness and destruction within himself. I think his moment for greatness has passed, and I doubt he will do much to change his mixed-bag legacy with a speech in Denver. And I never thought formal speeches were his strength.
I thought his SOTU’s were masterful. In his prime, he also gave great stump speeches.
I put stump speeches into another category. I think he was best on the stump and much less effective in the more formal settings, even SOTU. Too wordy. I know that’s the common wisdom interpretation, but they always struck me as overly verbose, CW or not.
While his speech may go a long way towards rebuilding a rift in his party, no speech can undo the damage wrought by the Omnibus Crime bill he signed (the forerunner to the Patriot Act, signed in the wake of Waco), signing dumb legislation like the Helms-Burton act (signed in the wake of the CIA’s provocation against Cuba in the Brothers to the Rescue incident), and, no drumroll needed, NAFTA. That was the single worst thing he did as president, bar none. He allowed that bill to be fasttracked with no environmental safeguards, no wage controls, no labor protections. It was a race for the bottom, and he led it.
He also took us to war in Kosovo not – I believe now – because of human rights violations (which were happening on both sides – the Serbian and Croatian regimes both have bloody hands there) – but because of a critical pipeline.
He can’t redeem himself in MY eyes, no matter his speech. But there are plenty who weren’t around, or politically aware, at the time, who can forgive him what they knew.
He also found a way to eviscerate environmental legislation.
PS One of the Lincoln bedroom sleepover guests had lost a major environmental lawsuit at the SCOTUS.
this part of my comment didn’t post.
The lawsuit was filed because the developer (sleepover guest) had destroyed thousands of acres of temporary wetlands in defiance of the CWA. I believe the US EPA was the plaintiff.
Dang. Bill Clinton want to talk about how much better his eight years in office was compared to the last 8 years?
He really has lost his mind. This is not supposed to be an ad campaign for him (and his wife). Obama won. He won based on a promise of change.Talking about the 90s when the 2000s are almost over is completely tone deaf and delusional.
I’m more pissed at him over time. I blame his inability to keep it in his pants for the disaster we’ve endured over the past 8 years. Yes, Gore did not run the best campaign (and why the hell is Donna Brazille an expert on anything after that disaster?), he should have won on his own. But no one can tell me if Bill hadn’t stained the blue dress, then wagged his lying finger at us, the Supreme Court would not have been allowed to steal the election from Gore.
And Clinton also gave us Bob Rubin … but to be fair .. he also gave us Robert Reich
When confronted with adversity the Clinton’s never fail to make the wrong choices and invariably internalize the wrong political lessons. That tenacious heads down approach produced no lasting legacy and came with immense personal and political costs.
Bill Clinton is a partly innocent victim
Don’t kid yourself. It goes back long before the Presidency. He was pulling the same shit in Arkansas. That’s Bill and Hillary – always playing the small ball.
I am very very concerned about what the former president thinks and wants.
perhaps senator obama can offer him a blowjob, a pizza, and a cigar.
Obama’s too skinny for the Big Dog’s tastes.
Scrolling down from the top of the blog I came across the title “On Bill Clinton” – my first shuddered thought was that there was a new picture of Monica riding him…