Amid complaints that he hasn't been publicly enthusiastic enough about Barack Obama, Bill Clinton gave the Democratic nominee a poignant introduction today at CGI, and one that seemed in direct response to claims that McCain is doing more to stop business-as-usual to deal with the financial crisis. Relating their meeting in Harlem on Sept. 11, Clinton said:
As you might imagine, he's pretty popular in Harlem. And he declined to do more than go outside and wave to people because he thought it was wrong to campaign on 9/11. We talked for an hour and a half, and I'm not exaggerating, 80 percent of the conversation had nothing to do with politics and had everything to do with the responsibilities of the next president for the welfare of the citizens of the United States and the rest of the world.
Clinton then said Obama asked him a question that he himself would never have thought to ask in 1992: How can the United States better use its soft power to help people around the world? "He's the first candidate for president ever to ask a former president that question out of the box, and it's a very good thing to do. Unfortunately for him," Clinton joked, "I had a very long-winded answer."
--Dana Goldstein
