He's Not the Retiring Kind
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.
Not a bad lineup, made all the more impressive because of Clinton's determination to use the initiative to remain a player on the world stage. "He doesn't think in terms of 'I'm going to pioneer a new way to have a post-presidency,' " says a Clinton confidant. "But that's in fact what he is doing. . . . He wants to make a difference."
For his part, Clinton told U.S. News: "I am going to ask every private-sector and [nongovernmental organization] person who comes to make a specific commitment to take some action." Clinton tells friends that in the 21st century, NGO s will be among the biggest catalysts for change in the world, and he believes he can be a "walking catalyst" himself. The charismatic Clinton is able to get heads of state and CEO s to chat with him and help take on his projects, as he did in convincing pharmaceutical firms to cut prices for AIDS drugs in African and Caribbean countries.
All in all, the undertaking appears to be audacious. At the same time, says a former Clinton adviser, there's a danger that the conference will feature too much "yak-yak" and not enough action. But Joe Lockhart, who was Clinton's press secretary, says the former president "has as good an understanding of the forces of globalization as anyone. . . . And Clinton, like no one else, can marshal a broad array of government and nongovernmental interests to reach his objectives."
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