Free Republic

WHEN he ran for president, Bill Clinton's campaign stressed the advantage his wife's experience and feminist credentials would bring to the job of First Lady. But now that Hillary Clinton is preparing a presidential campaign, his time in the Oval Office is as much a handicap as an advantage. Yesterday the New York Times devoted a 2,000-word story on its front page to the state of the Clintons' marriage. Noting, without comment, that the couple have been together for just 14 nights a month in the last two years, the paper speculated on whether or not the baggage from Mr...

Hillary Clinton may be the Democratic front-runner for the presidency but she seems to have a lot to learn about campaigning for the White House.In a weighty speech to journalists at the National Press Club in Washington yesterday, the senator squandered an opportunity to shine before a critically important audience - the journalists who will present her to the public if, as expected, she declares her candidacy for the 2008 nomination. It began well enough. Resplendent in a lemon yellow two-piece and expensively bejewelled, her star power was plain the moment she entered the room. Everywhere, necks craned for a...

It was all kind of fun, Bill Clinton said as he held Labour delegates in awe in the Winter Gardens. "I don't get to do this anymore."Praise God from whom all blessings flow and get out of here Bill - Ivan President Clinton had breezed into Blackpool, grabbed a burger and then schmoozed a starstruck Labour conference with his Hollywood pal Kevin Spacey. How things change. Where once Labour conference would have come to life via a screaming contribution from a protest badge-clad delegate, now they whoop and cheer the arrival of a movie superstar. Yes they love reward without...

Former US President Bill Clinton has stressed the need to strengthen the United Nations and to "call Saddam Hussein's bluff" with tough new inspections demands. He told the Labour conference in Blackpool that although the Iraqi leader posed a real threat to the world, using force against him should be a last resort. His call came after UK foreign secretary Jack Straw told BBC News Online that the UK would press for "much tougher" weapons inspections regulations for Iraq than the "defective" ones agreed by the UN inspectors and Baghdad. Both the UK and the US have said they will...

The international community must use the United Nations' route to settle the Iraqi crisis, former US President Bill Clinton said. President Clinton told the Labour Party conference in Blackpool that the international community could provoke undesirable consequences if it mishandled the crisis over Saddam Hussein. "We will not allow ourselves to be defeated by tyrants with weapons of mass destruction. That will not happen," he said. Yes, Bill, you rather tried to appease them before the defeat occured. Or gave them access to America's secrets for campaign cash. - Ivan "Whatever we do we have to have a care for...