“No matter what you may think of me” — with that unscripted aside, still president Bill Clinton handed off his party and his legacy to his “partner” Vice-President Al Gore. The Clinton Speech was everything that the nation has come to expect from the President. Bullish, optimistic and delivered with the practiced fervor a of popular Baptist preacher.
Typical too was its audacity in thinking that the audience outside the Staples Center would somehow look past the dark side of his behavior in office. It wasn’t so much passing the torch as beating the drum for his administration’s economic accomplishments. It was for a caring/sharing politician the ultimate caring/sharing moment — as he credited Gore with being an equal partner in the decision-making that led to the longest economic expansion in American history.
But it was for the most naturally-gifted politician of his time not an occasion for saying good-bye — saying thanks, yes — but not good-bye. Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow — and don’t go singing yesterday quite yet.
(Hosted by Michael Goldfarb)
Guests:
Mario Cuomo, Former Governor of New York
Robert Dallek, Presidential Historian, Professor of History at Boston University
Bill Curry, Former Advisor to the Clinton White House, Delegate at the Democratic Convention
Bob Zelnick, Professor of Journalism at Boston University, author of Gore: A Political Life.