Posted by Tony from ? (167.88.192.30) on Friday, October 04, 2002 at 12:35PM :
What a pro
Clinton shows what a loss he is to the US
Leader
Thursday October 3, 2002
The Guardian
There is no single definition of what makes a great
political speech. Probably the accolade is handed out
too readily. Yet no one who was present at Blackpool
yesterday afternoon was in any doubt that they had
just heard one. In an intimate, almost conversational
tone, speaking only from notes, Bill Clinton delivered
the speech of a true political master. Those who have
only thought previously of Mr Clinton as a source of
entertainment - the way that far too much reporting of
him in this country depicted him - will have been
stunned and, one hopes, just a little ashamed. For this
was the speech of a truly serious political leader, and
if it went on five minutes longer than it needed to do, it
was still a performance of the highest possible class.
If one were reviewing it, five stars would not be
enough.
Two big things will endure from what Mr Clinton had to
say. The first and more immediate is his radically
different and much more responsible approach to Iraq
than that of the Bush administration. His calls to keep
the priority on al-Qaida, to focus on the United Nations
route for dealing with Iraq, to prefer non-military ways
of achieving regime change, and to see military action
as only a last resort offered a more profound and far
preferable route to the current president's. His
comments that the west has a lot to answer for in Iraq
and that innocent people will die in any attack were
wise reminders of what is at stake.
But the wider legacy of Bill in Blackpool is the
unfaltering message of optimism that he delivered
about the Labour government and about Tony Blair. At
times, it was even as if Mr Clinton was calling on Mr
Blair to rescue America from Bushism. Those who
thought Mr Clinton would avoid controversy were
proved wrong. If the delegates came away feeling
good about themselves, they had every right to do so.
What a speech. What a pro. And what a loss to the
leadership of America and the world.
-- Tony
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