Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States, spoke with TIME’s Rick Stengel about his new book, Back to Work, and how to fix the economy. Excerpts from that conversation follow.
Bill Clinton
What Jed Bartlet Would Have Thought of Barack Obama
Barack Obama is still all about message discipline these days. What was once “Win The Future” is now “Pass The Bill.” And when it comes to deficit reduction, the catch phrase is “Fair Share,” to be repeated at rallies, in formal addresses and in background comments from senior aides. Ain’t nothin’ new, of course, about “Fair Share,” a …
Political Vindication in Obama’s Bin Laden Speech
This is an exciting day–I can’t remember ever feeling jubilant about someone’s death before–and it’s probably lame to start dissecting the politics. Especially since the basic politics are no-duh obvious: This is a really great day for President Obama. But since this is supposed to be a blog about politics, and the dissections have …
The Assasination Attempts Against George W. Bush and Bill Clinton
Marc Ambinder has written an amazing piece about the operations of the U.S. Secret Service. You should take the time to read it all, and not just because he highlights two under-documented moments from recent presidential history: Apparent attempted assassinations of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush on foreign soil.
During a speech Bush
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Bill Clinton Takes Back The White House
Count this among the greatest miscalculations of President Obama’s career: “I’m going to let him speak very briefly,” Obama said Friday, upon introducing Bill Clinton in the White House briefing room for his triumphant, self-adulating return.
Clinton, a former president who still pines for the limelight, did not speak very …
(Over?)Learning the Lessons from Gingrich
Michael Grunwald and I teamed up to write this week’s cover story, a profile of the speaker-in-waiting, John Boehner.
It was striking in trying to coax Boehner into speaking to us – he never did – how much he wanted to avoid the limelight. The victory, his staff said, was not about him, but about a movement and about Barack …
Dems’ Efforts to Get Meek to Drop Out: Too Little, Too Late?
A guest post from TIME’s Miami bureau chief Tim Padgett
So how desperate are the Democrats to keep control of the U.S. Senate? The answer is fairly clear in a story that appeared Thursday evening on Politico.com that quotes spokesmen for former President Bill Clinton claiming he tried to convince Democratic Florida Congressman …
Jerry Brown: “I Did Not Have Taxes With This State” UPDATED
The rap on the California Democrats’ great gubernatorial hope, Jerry Brown, is that he is refreshingly his own guy. He says what he thinks, when he thinks it. And this may be one of his top selling points against his Republican rival, Meg Whitman, who campaigns like a corporate robot, always on message, always bland, working voters like …
Bill Clinton Re-Emerges in Colorado
After a much ballyhooed endorsement e-mail for Andrew Romanoff in June, Former President Clinton went dark in Colorado’s contested Democratic Senate primary: no more e-mails, no campaign events, no fundraisers, nada. The initial gesture was assumed to be simple reciprocity for Romanoff’s support of Hillary Clinton in ’08 and Clinton’s …
Bill Clinton to the Rescue?
On the heels of his successful campaigning for Arkansas Senator Blanche Lincoln, helping her return from the dead to eke out a primary victory earlier this month, Bill Clinton has become very popular. The former president has over a hundred requests from congressional candidates on his desk. He’s especially in demand in the South and …
The Elena Kagan Files
The Clinton Library just released online more than 46,000 pages of documents concerning Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan and her work as a White House lawyer in the 1990s. Critics (and supporters) will be combing through these in advance of her upcoming Senate confirmation hearing, but if you want to have a peek on your own, the files are here.
Bill Clinton Linked to Joe Sestak Job Offer
According to a Greg Sargent exclusive followed by a Peter Baker story, Rahm Emanuel asked Bill Clinton to approach Joe Sestak about not running in the Senate Democratic primary in Pennsylvania. Obama endorsed Arlen Specter and, according to Sargent:
The White House maintains that Clinton’s overtures to Sestak merely constituted an
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Bill Clinton
was a hit at last night’s 125th annual Gridiron Dinner, where he filled in for Barack Obama as the main speaker. The punchline of the evening was his prediction for the health care bill:
“It may not happen in my lifetime, or Dick Cheney’s, but hopefully by Easter.”