Citizen Clinton | The Press

(Washington) The voice is muted and the hand trembles, but the charm of William Jefferson Clinton still operates.

Thursday evening, the 42^e president gave a talk in front of an audience seduced in advance who applauded him at regular intervals.

We were 100 meters from the White House, in the Constitution Hall of the “Daughters of the American Revolution”. The women’s association promotes “education and patriotism” and recruits only from direct descendants of soldiers or heroes of the War of Independence.

We don’t do more Washington, DC

The building decorated with neoclassical columns welcomed the inevitable stop of the most recent book tour national, the one for the book launch Citizen : My Life After the White House.

There were nearly 1,000 people, some of whom paid $150, to hear Bill Clinton answer questions from Senator Cory Booker. The New Jersey politician, a Rhodes scholar like Clinton, admires him so much that there were more compliments than questions.

Still: These days, it’s hard for Democrats to think of the Clinton years without nostalgia. Two electoral victories, sustained economic growth, a world without the Cold War, the economic advancement of African-Americans…

The former president was careful not to come out too strongly against the man who defeated his wife in 2016, and who has just been re-elected.

“I’m worried to see as president a guy who doesn’t even read his daily briefings,” he said, however.

The first time Bill Clinton gathered his cabinet and staff at the White House, he said, he did just the opposite.

“I told them, ‘If you think you’re here to tell me what you think I want to hear, I might as well close the door. No one will be demoted or fired because I disagree. Your job is to tell me what you think is best, not what makes me happy.” »

This audience, still in shock from the electoral result, applauded very loudly.

I later re-listened to his 1992 acceptance speech at the Democratic convention. He was obviously referring to John F. Kennedy. I realize that the 32 years that separate us from Clinton’s election are exactly the number of years that separated her from that of JFK.

Clinton never had the lyrical flights of Obama. His speeches were not punctuated by the kind of historical inspiration of the first black president. But the heart spoke as much as the brain and knew how to touch. “I still believe in this place called Hope », he concluded simply, because his hometown in Arkansas is indeed called Hope.

Many Democrats believe they need “a new Clinton.” But they said that about Kennedy too. The future is not based on reincarnation. But quoting Robert Kennedy in his book, who himself cited the Ulysses from Tennyson’s poem, is still relevant: “It is not too late to seek a new world”.

The work he defends is of course a pro domo plea, it is the law of the genre. He recalls the success of his foundation in providing generic drugs to Africa, particularly for AIDS, by reducing the mortality rate.

That did not prevent him on Thursday from calling on the richest man in the world, who says he wants to “save humanity”. With his wealth and influence, he is in a unique position.

No need for Clinton to talk too much about Trump. In contrast, it is enough to speak of his successor, George W. Bush, with whom he shared almost no ideas. Over time, the two developed an amazing friendship and collaboration.

Clinton says that in 2001, tension was very high between the Bush administration and China, which had seized an American spy plane. Clinton was supposed to give a conference there, but there was talk of canceling it. He decided to call Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State. He reminded him that the Republicans had bankrupted him with the Starr investigation, and that he made a living from his speaking engagements. He offered to deliver a message from President Bush to the Chinese president (basically: give the plane back and let’s be friends again), with whom he had a good relationship… which he did.

Subsequently, Clinton collaborated with Bush during his presidency on post-disaster fundraisers.

He is proud to say that during the commission of inquiry into the September 11, 2001 attacks, Republican John Lehman apologized to him for having believed “everything that [s]we left saying to [lui] “. Lehman had reviewed thousands of pages of briefings on terrorism during the Clinton presidency. The president’s annotations were everywhere, showing his seriousness.

“September 11 was a bipartisan failure,” said Clinton, ex-president for 24 years, but who, at 78, is two months younger than the one who has just been elected.

In his book, as in his 1992 speech, Clinton talks about Haiti, where he has visited 38 times. Faced with the current deterioration, he wonders if “all of this” (the financing of aid, the intervention forces, etc.) was worth it. He answers “yes” despite everything, because for him the way to “keep score” in all circumstances is based on three questions: Are people better off after you leave than when you arrived? Do our children have a better future? Do we come together or do we fall apart?

It’s tempting to give up. Humiliating people and their dreams is easy to do, he says, like Trump who he accuses of talking about a “shithole country”. “Helping them succeed is often long and difficult. » Which is also a way of highlighting his humanism: don’t stop believing…

“My definition of hope has changed over time,” Clinton said. True hope is difficult. He is often injured and even has to be resurrected from time to time. When I asked Mandela how he survived 27 years of prison and mistreatment, he replied: “They can take everything except my mind and my heart. I decided not to give it to my tormentors, and you shouldn’t either.” »

“I think of people who have overcome incredible difficulties. The faceless man I met after an earthquake, and who greeted me. I try to remember that there is someone out there who has every reason to give up, but who keeps going, who sees each day as a gift. »

The audience rose to their feet when he finished. In front of the garage exit, there were about twenty of them in the chilly evening with their cell phones waiting to see the Secret Service SUV pass with Citizen Clinton on board.