I first heard about this sitting in an endovascular surgeons office at the Cleveland Clinic yesterday with a colleague of mine waiting for a meeting to begin. All I could make out from the scrolling subtitles was something about a wagging finger. The video can be seen here. From the tidbits I picked up passing through the airport (for some reason it seems the Cleveland Airport has a contract with Fox to only show Fox News) I was left with the impression that Clinton had gone ballistic and lost his cool.
And then I watched the unedited video. The interview is 15 minutes long. One of the ground rules was that they would spend half the time talking about Clinton’s Global Initiative. It started innocently enough and then less than 5 minutes into the interview Clinton was asked by the Fox (not so fair and balanced) commentator Chris Wallace why he didn’t do enough to get bin Laden. And then the rest of the interview was on that. Granted, Wallace glibly asked him if he wanted to get back to the global initiative after he got a nice long explanation by Clinton on his factual record on bin laden, but it was too late. Instead of talking about the Global Initiative for the first 7 minutes, he launches into a political hot button.
However, I found myself smiling as I watched Clinton look like the Old Clinton. It was a relief. I remembered how it was to have an articulate President who was not afraid to show his intelligence. Clinton saw the ambush, took the hits and came back firing with reason, logic, and facts.
The State Of . . . Clinton’s remarks has alarmed Condi Rice. In comments to the New York Post, she takes issue with Clinton’s remarks that he did more than the right wingers who are criticizing him now and that he left a comprehensive plan for taking on Al Qaeda. Rice said that the current administration in 8 months than Clinton did in his years and that he did not leave a comprehensive plan. However, Clinton did not say the White House was criticizing him. His criticizers come from conservative commentators and some senators who criticized his actions in Somalia. That was the group he was talking about. I doubt Clinton will respond and I hope he doesn’t. He isn’t running for anything and I think he will have a hard time getting is viewpoint out now that he doesn’t have the bully pulpit.
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