Clinton's Triumph - Interesting Take From A RW'er

[Oilwellian]

By Ralph Peters

January 19, 2004

I NEVER thought I'd give Bill Clinton a standing ovation. But last week in Qatar I did just that. Our former president gave the most perfectly pitched, precisely targeted speech I've ever heard to a hall filled with Muslim intellectuals and officials. And they listened. Clinton's lecture closed a worthwhile, if often exasperating, conference on the future of the Middle East's relations with America. Sponsored by the Emir of Qatar and organized by the Brookings Institution, the event brought together a combination of the usual suspects and outside ringers for vigorous, open discussions.

A few of the sessions did manage to move a fragile half-step beyond the "everything that isn't Israel's fault is America's fault" mantras that sedate Middle Eastern societies. Still, by the closing luncheon, I'd had about enough of Muslim "authorities" whose versions of their own history had collapsed into easy myths and for whom the Koran had become a document to be used as selectively as the phone book.

Enter Bill Clinton.

Now, after serving in Washington during the Clinton administration and hearing our former president chatter for checks more recently, my expectations were that he would do no harm, but little good.

I was wrong.

As soon as he took the podium, Clinton began taking stands as brave as they were necessary. With virtuoso skill, he led the audience where they needed to go - while convincing them it was where they had wanted to end up all along. His sense not only of what required saying, but of how best to express it to that complex, contrary audience was almost supernatural.

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http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/16081.htm

[Ellen Forradalom]

1. Clinton was a better President than this nation deserved.

The fella who wrote this article certainly makes some bizarre assertions. "A president who's popular abroad is probably failing America." "he former president excites the sort of irrational, positive feelings people once directed toward JFK."

[Oilwellian]

3. Yes, this guy contradicted himself often

But he IS a rightwinger. :D

[calimary]

2. Nice damning him with faint praise on the domestic front.

They just CAN'T admit he was NOT a bad president. They just can't. They'd cut off their own heads before they'd do that. I'm surprised this schmuck finds anything even in this case actually to praise Clinton for. Must have been something he ate.

Folks like this Peters guy have to do a LOT better than this. And frankly, folks like him are probably unreachable. He no doubt finished writing this, sent it off, and then lit another stick of incense to his lord and savior, george "he who must not be trashed" bush.

edit for grammar

[mike1963]

4. I find myself hoping he will be Sec'y of State at some point.

The sooner, the better.

[cprise]

5. This part is telling...

"Perhaps we need a division of labor, a good-cop, bad-cop approach, in American foreign policy."

Dude, that's the difference between you and Dick Cheney. Dick controls much of our foreign and domestic policy because he always knew this is what the New Democrats are all about.

The things he admires Clinton for make me feel FILTHY.

[peacetalksforall]

6. So mad - so glad

So mad that there is a politician who can think on many levels - and who can analyze, create, solve, present, persuade with psychology and consideration and knowledge of cultures and that they have conducted a 14 year character assassination .

Then there is the Resident who can only do....what others tell him to do and say. Whose only thoughts are of revenge, pomposity, lies, insults, swagger, indelicacies of international relations and deals for profit, private profit for self and buddies.

So glad that someone kinda praised Clinton in a RW propaganda mouthpiece, the NYPost. Amazing!

[countmyvote4real]

7. Very interesting article and in the NYP no less

I'm a cable news junkie and this is the first I've even heard of this event. While I can understand that the media whores might have been distracted by the Iowa caucus and upcoming NH primary as well as Mars, Michael Jackson and Scott Peterson along with occasional updates on Iraq, I don't understand why or how this was left out of th mix. I'm sure they were invited. And I'm sure they could get their hands on some footage from a home grown Middle Eastern network. I guess they didn't think it was interesting or sensational enough for a domestic audience.

Putting the writer's POV aside for a moment, this is something we should know about. Especially as it relates to the * administration's daily Iraq failures and casualties. When you add the epiphany of the writer, this is remarkable. Dare I say, sensational?

Thanks for posting.