Ex-prez won't leave the stage

the Boston Herald ^ | Friday, May 30, 2003 | Rachelle G. Cohen

[presidio9]

Half the people came to worship Bill Clinton. The other half came to see if the old guy really still ``had the juice'' and the former president, who always seems to crave adulation, needed to win them all over.

And he's good, dammit, really good. Who else could make eye contact with several hundred people for a couple of hours during a speech and ``conversation'' at the John F. Kennedy Library Wednesday.

``It's amazing how he does that,'' said one young woman. ``I would swear he was looking right at me.''

He was lean (what, are there no McDonald's in Chappaqua?) and he was loose (``I don't care, I'm not runnin' for anything,'' he said and then proceeded to crack wise and say of the 2000 election results, ``At least it gave our Supreme Court a rare opportunity to stand up for minority rights.'')

But the man who once convinced the better part of this nation that he felt their pain wanted his audience to feel just a little of his own in his post-presidential phase.

In answer to a question from historian Michael Beschloss, Clinton said, ``I think I was well suited to the times in which I served because I have a high pain threshold. . . Because of my upbringing I had a particular tolerance for it.''

And while he conceded it was probably OK for historians and biographers to poke around in the private lives of presidents, especially long after they're gone, he added, there's a ``big difference if you have to deal every day with those trying to turn a public person into a private pinata.''

Well, pinata-boy is doin' OK these days. Sure, he misses the perks and he misses the work (``I loved being president,'' he said.), but he added, ``I think I was surprised at how happy I was to have my life back.''

Yeah, we know where we could go with a statement like that, but Clinton clarified that it meant hanging out in the local coffee shop in Chappaqua with the regulars. Whatever. . .

And even Clinton noted that financially he was doin' just fine, thank you very much. Of course, he did so in the context of arguing against the tax cut that President Bush was signing into law that day.

You just can't keep an old triangulator from triangulating, so Clinton beat up on the Republicans ``for whom tax cuts are ideological, almost theological.'' He called this particular one ``grossly unfair'' because it gave some money back to ``rich people'' like him and because ``these tax cuts are too small in the short run to do any good and too big in the long run.''

And then as if Dick Morris were still whispering sweet political nothings in his ear, Clinton added that he, of course, liked the child tax credit and ending the marriage penalty.

Would anyone be surprised that in a column in Thursday's New York Post, commenting on the skill with which Bush will have it both ways on the tax cut, Morris wrote, ``How can a Democrat oppose expanding the child-tax credit, lowering the tax rates on the two lowest brackets and repealing of the marriage penalty?''

Yep, even when it comes to parsing a complex issue like the tax cut, the guy's still a master - just as he is at playing elder statesman while skillfully turning the knife on the Bush administration.

``It never occurred to me that I was in sole possession of the truth,'' he professed about his White House years, then added, ``But we now face those who have exclusive claim to the truth.''

Charming and ruthless, flawed and beguiling, Clinton continues to fascinate because he remains that bundle of contradictions. That and because he remains on the stage. The coffee shop in Chappaqua aside, it's where he really lives.

[Leisler]

``It's amazing how he does that,'' said one young woman. ``I would swear he was looking right at me.''

[TheBigB]

``It's amazing how he does that,'' said one young woman. ``I would swear he was looking right at me.''

Do you have big bazooms, dear? If so, then he was.

[Piquaboy]

He makes me physically ill. This piece of human debris won't ever go away as he is too full of himself. Its all about Me! Me! Me!.

[texasbluebell]

This disgusting thing was once president of our country. How did we ever deserve this?

[Publius6961]

Ex-prez won't leave the stage

Somebody lost the "hook"??

[Destructor]

As much as I wish that Bill Clinton would shut up, and fade away I know that he never will. On the bright side, every time he opens his mouth it hurts the Dimocrats!

[Lazamataz]

He makes me physically ill. This piece of human debris won't ever go away as he is too full of himself. Its all about Me! Me! Me!.

He craves your very reaction.

Deny him that.

[T Lady]

Since Billybob enjoys the stage so much, why doesn't he just go into the movies? There's plenty of work for playing hard and loose with the facts in Hollyweird-they always do.

...Clinton would fit right in with that crowd; just consider it a returned favor for all the Lincoln Bedroom visits.

-Regards, T.

[smith288]

Man..that pic about sums it up...accept he needs to have a woman by the hair and dragging her.

[goodnesswins]

Maybe, maybe....even Hollyweird has standards? LOL.

[texasbluebell]

Yep, dragging her to the astroturf in the back of his pickup truck...

[LADY J]

"But the man who once convinced the better part of this nation that he felt their pain wanted his audience to feel just a little of his own in his post-presidential phase."

Another lying reporter. He never had the better part of the nation vote for him.

[Dems_R_Losers]

``It never occurred to me that I was in sole possession of the truth,'' he professed about his White House years,

Classic. Like he even knows what the truth is.

[presidio9]

I got the sense that the article was lampooing Clinton. The Herald is, I believe, owned by Rupert Murdoch. It has a charachteristically conservative editorial policy.

[Russ]

I didn't get that sense. In fact, this article probably deserves a Barf Alert.

[Cedric]

....This disgusting thing was once president of our country. How did we ever deserve this?....

We acted like spoiled, petulant children and turned our backs on an upstanding, high-caliber, former war hero because he capitulated to a venal George Mitchell plot to break the "read my lips" pledge, and because he wasn't Ronaldus Magnus. Things were so good back then we thought we'd indulge ourselves by electing a man-child charlatan "for kicks". We got what we deserved!!!

[mhking]

"Heil Clinton?"

[Dr. Eckleburg]

Yesterday on Hugh Hewitt's radio program Hewitt said he thinks Clinton will run for governor of California after the Davis recall succeeds, and that he will win.

OMG.

[bandleader]

ABSOLUTELY!HEIL CLINTON,SEIG HEIL!!!!!!!!!