He's Not the retiring kind. Bill Clinton is building on Jimmy Carter's example...

US News & World Report ^ | 9/19/05 | Kenneth T. Walsh

[alessandrofiaschi]

Bill Clinton is building on Jimmy Carter's example and creating a new paradigm for ex-presidents.

They're ba-aack. Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush, America's political odd couple, are teaming up for another big roadshow, this time to raise money for victims of Hurricane Katrina. Last week, they stood shoulder to shoulder with President George W. Bush in the Oval Office, the 59-year-old Clinton now completely gray and looking a bit fragile, and the 81-year-old Bush looking stooped and a bit weary. Later the pair appeared together in Houston, chatting with evacuees at the Astrodome and the Reliant Center Arena. Their goal was to demonstrate unity at a time of calamity.

But the re-emergence of the 41st and 42nd presidents was more than a photo op. The elder Bush and Clinton are pioneering a new, more active role for ex-presidents, who for much of American history have been sad, even forlorn figures, often considered politically useless by their successors, with little or no role in public life.

This week, Clinton will take the concept of an activist post-presidency to another level when he convenes up to 1,000 world leaders at a Sheraton Hotel in New York. His aim, in what he grandly calls "the Clinton Global Initiative," is to bring together the best and the brightest in government, nonprofit organizations, science, religion, and business to accomplish a fourfold mission: End extreme poverty around the world, lessen religious conflict, reduce global warming, and promote good government in new democracies. The initiative will revolve around a series of discussion groups, many of them led by Clinton. Among the expected participants are British Prime-Minister Tony Blair, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch, General-Electric Chairman Jeff Immelt, and investor George Soros. (...)

[alessandrofiaschi]

... to the totally unelected and unaccountable, would-be Chief of the Global Platonic, anti-capitalist, New World Order!

Maybe many of us haven't read this long article.

[Rokke]

Bill Clinton is building on Jimmy Carter's example....and becoming a grey haired, senile old coot that will go to his grave trying to recover some semblance of a legacy after failing to create anything other than pathetic irrelevance while in office.

[DoughtyOne]

The initiative will revolve around a series of discussion groups, many of them led by Clinton. Among the expected participants are British Prime-Minister Tony Blair, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch, General-Electric Chairman Jeff Immelt, and investor George Soros. (...)

I wonder if Bush understands that this is at the very least an attempt by Clinton to run U.S. Foreign Policy from the private sector.  As such, it is illegal, and actionable.  Clinton is a private citizen.  That is all he is.

What's as distrubing as anything I've seen about this, is that at least one administration offical is actually going to attend this fiasco in the making, there-by lending credibility to the shenanigans.

When Bush gave Clinton a pass on the criminal acts he perpetrated during the previous eight years, he laid the ground-work for Clinton to do great harm to this nation.  That's the way I see it.

Since then Bush has actually pulled Clinton into situations where he represented the U.S. abroad.  Honest to God, what the hell was he thinking?  Now this!

Is the right trying as hard to destroy this nation as the left?  Sometimes I truly think it is.

How many tens of billions, if not hundreds of billions will our nation sign on to spend to fulfill Clinton's humanitarian efforts?  It nauseates me to contemplate the answer.

Let's say the federal government doesn't lay out any funds for this effort.  Okay, then the private sector will.  And who will wind up paying for that?  You and I.

[Salamander]

Get 'im a boat.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

Bill Clinton is building on Jimmy Carter's example ...

Ahh, a legacy at last. Just what we need, a broken down coke head Communist meddling in world affairs.

[fatteddy]

i say eat some more big mac's bubba!!!! i'll buy as many as you want!!! xtra cheese!

[Graymatter]

He's only doing it because of her, and he'll probably drop dead doing this crusade so she can pick up the torch and run with it, Keeper-of-the-Flame Hillary.
However, the best-laid plans...
I just don't think Bubba's death is going to offer any coattails she'd find useful. The best eulogy he can hope for is in 5 words: "The less said the better."

[MNJohnnie]

Gee Billy why did you not do anything about those issues during your 8 years as Pres? Operation Find a Clinton Legacy enters a new phase I see.

[MNJohnnie]

The idea that you add to the stature of an ex-Pres by tapping him to do things is nonsense. Look at all the attention Jimmy gets and Bush has totally froze him out. I think what Pres Bush is doing is making a meaningless PR gesture towards "Bi-Partisanship" and it taps Clinton into doing doing something good. Clinton can get money out of people who would slam the door in Bush's face. Considering that it was at this event that Tony Blair basically announced Kyoto dead should make even the Hardest Right Bush hater admit it was a good thing. This is just another Clinton PR stunt that went BOOOM in his face. Clinton is NOT going away no matter how much we wish it. Using his antics as yet another reason for a Bush bashing is silly. "Conservatives" really need to relearn Reagan's 11th Commandment

Thou shall speak no ill of other Republicans"

All this constant Bush bashing by the Hard Right does is give propaganda aid and political credibility to the Hate Bush left. It does NOTHING to advance the agenda.

[chgomac]

"The idea that you add to the stature of an ex-Pres by tapping him to do things is nonsense."

hehe....let's keep him busy raising money for charity instead of Hillary.....send him to official funerals......and assign a trusted chaperone , good old dad, to keep him on the message. I think it is brilliant!

[Jimmy Valentine]

Except Clinton is not as healthy as Mr. Peanut.

Since that heart operation, Clinton looks like Death warmed over.

[EQAndyBuzz]

"He's Not the retiring kind. Bill Clinton is building on Jimmy Carter's example..."

Yeah, we noticed. Sad, huh?

[DugwayDuke]

"End extreme poverty around the world, lessen religious conflict, reduce global warming, and promote good government in new democracies."

Sounds like one of those "Miss America' answers to the question of 'what will you do if you're selected as Miss America?' "Well, in my year as Miss America, I'll work to end world hunger, cure cancer, make peace in the Middle East, etc., etc."

[RedEyeJack]

The Clinton years... eight years of embarrassing personal indulgence with nothing accomplished for which he cab truthfully take credit (the balanced budget that he now brags about was shoved up his ass by Newt G. and the Republican congress elected in '94)

Bill Clinton: "Hey, everybody, PARTY, PARTY, PARTY... let the good times roll!!!"

[Bahbah]

Sounds like one of those "Miss America' answers to the question of 'what will you do if you're selected

LOL. That is the best description I have seen so far of this incredibly inflated, yet still empty, rhetoric.

[Trteamer]

"Conservatives" really need to relearn Reagan's 11th Commandment

Thou shall speak no ill of other Republicans"

All this constant Bush bashing by the Hard Right does is give propaganda aid and political credibility to the Hate Bush left. It does NOTHING to advance the agenda.

What agenda? Who's agenda? The RINO agenda?

I campaigned and voted for conservative ideas, not for holding hands with leftists. It's time for the hard right as you call us to hold the RINO's feet to the fire and demand accountability.

Let me list a few items on the RINO agenda that have me steaming:

No energy policy.

No enforcement of immigration laws.

Out of control spending.

Being the majority and bending over backwards to cater to the minority.

Sorry pal, it's going to be ugly for the RINO's when it come primary time. The "Hard Right" as you call us is totally pi**ed off and the day of reckoning is coming quickly. It's about time we had some elected officials in the GOP that listen to the base.

[Hardastarboard]

When Bush gave Clinton a pass on the criminal acts he perpetrated during the previous eight years, he laid the ground-work for Clinton to do great harm to this nation. That's the way I see it.

And did a great deal of harm to the rule of law in this country, by over-turning the rule of accountability of leaders that dates back to the 13th Century (the Magna Carta).

[sgtbono2002]

I always though Bush's Father lost the election to Clinton because he really didnt want to be elected again. He sure didnt fight very hard. Never mind . My mother always said you are judged by the company you keep. If this is the best Company the President and his Father can keep shame on them.

Clinton does indeed look bad, not a picture of health.Maybe Mother Nature will do us all a favor.

[Reactionary]

"The elder Bush and Clinton are pioneering a new, more active role for ex-presidents..."

They sure are. The new "active role" is that, when it comes to 3,000 murdered Americans, both political parties are behind the coverup.