For BJ has just stepped on his own legacy-building team's carefully crafted, exquisitely choreographed photo-op -- the "Clinton Global Initiative" (I can't help laughing at the narcissism in that name!).
The "Clinton Global Initiative," timed to coincide with the opening session of the UN, successfully attracted the do-gooder glitterati, the jet-set, and the cameras. Even Laura Bush was conned into providing a "contribution."
And now it is all overshadowed by this jolt of reality, the REAL Bill Clinton, a pustulent, menacing, mean, purple presence being beamed onto the TV screens and computer monitors of the world. (I just heard on Fox News that the Wallace interview has racked up almost 900,000 views on YouTube, today alone!)
Yes, we have seen the REAL Bill Clinton before. Most memorably he showed up in the infamous "I did not have sexual relations with that woman" press conference. There was also his taped deposition --the one where we learned that "it depends on what the meaning of is, is." There we saw Clinton in all his arrogant, narcissistic glory.
But we were supposed to forget all that, and to think that Bill Clinton had "matured." After all, he's had a "brush with death," as he put it, with his heart surgery. The CGI media blitz was calculated to make the world see Clinton as a great "statesman" now.
But that flimsy image is now burnt to ashes. The slickest PR team ever assembled (next to the one that pulled off the Camelot myth for JFK) must be near suicidal today.
"pustulent"
If you had to reduce Bill Clinton to one word, this would be a good one.
At the beginning of the interview couldn't help but get vision of a "Lobbyist For Sale" sandwich on him.
CGI is terribly appropriate for that man. "Clinton Got Impeached"... "Crafty, Gross Ignoramus"... And, of course, the original: "Computer Generated Imagery"