EXCLUSIVE: Bill Clinton Says Obama’s Speech Was “Terrific” And Struck Right Tone Of Optimism
Bill Clinton — who recently urged President Obama to show more optimism about the future — hailed Obama for getting the tone right in his speech last night, praising Obama’s effort as “terrific” and a “real success” that struck just “the right balance.”
In a phone interview with me just now, Clinton offered his first public comments on the speech, saying Obama succeeded in telling “the American people that we’re gonna get out of this and it’s gonna be alright in the end.”
In the interview, Clinton also threw a bit of support to embattled Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal, saying he’d done “the best job he could with a hard hand to play.” And Clinton also commented on Obama’s vow last night to tackle health care reform this year, saying he thought Obama had a “better than 50-50 chance of getting it done.”
Speaking of Obama’s speech, Clinton said: “I think he drew the right balance — he didn’t sugarcoat anything, he didn’t say it’s gonna get better tomorrow.”
“I think people appreciate the fact that he’s not jerking them around and [is] just telling them the way it is,” Clinton added. “But they do wanna know that we are gonna get out of this. And he said we were, and that our commitment to clean energy, and energy independence, and energy efficiency would lead the way, followed with health care and education reforms…It was a real success.”
“When he ran for President he was always relentlessly upbeat and I think that he’d really been focusing on trying to make sure the American people understood how wide and deep the crisis was, which I understood,” Clinton said. Referring to his own earlier interviews, Clinton said he’d previously thought “Obama should always say in addition to that, `we are gonna get out of this.’”
“And he did that last night really well,” Clinton said.
Clinton praised other aspects of the speech, saying Obama had done a good job selling the stimulus and bank bailout efforts.
“He explained what he was trying to achieve with the stimulus and strongly defended it in a way that I thought was important,” Clinton said. Obama, Clinton added, had convincingly argued that the stim package isn’t “just supposed to create jobs, it’s also supposed to save jobs by giving money to state and local governments” and to “put money in people’s pockets.”
“To have the President directly explaining that, I thought was important,” Clinton said.
Clinton also said Obama had explained well that the bank bailouts are “for the benefit of average Americans, middle class Americans, small business people, people who needed jobs. It wasn’t about the banks, it was about the American people” and “would not have unjust enrichment.”
In other aspects of the interview:
* On health care, Clinton said that he thought the public mood had shifted in favor of reform since his ill-fated efforts in 1993, and said Obama would be able to make good on his vow last night to tackle health care reform this year, along with rescuing the economy.
“They should try to do it now,” Clinton said of last night’s promise. “There’s a willingness to take a fresh look at all this, and so I believe he should try, I’m glad he’s going to, and I think it’s a better than 50-50 chance he’ll succeed.”
* On Jindal’s response, Clinton said of the Republicans that Jindal is “their future.”
“He’s a smart guy. While he basically espouses their social conservatism, he is not negative in the way he deals with people, and he’s policy oriented,” Clinton said.
Clinton added that Jindal’s speech foundered because the Republican party line right now is untenable. “They’re on very weak ground with their blanket opposition to the stimulus,” Clinton said, adding with a chuckle: “He did the best job he could with a hard hand to play.”
Clinton said much more in the interview, talking more about health care and about the future of the Republican Party, and we’ll bring you more of it tomorrow.
Update: You can read much more from my interview with Clinton right here.
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Clinton does know how to smooth over the public. Its a shame with the whole monica scandal. With out that his name would be popping out of a lot more democrats mouths. heres some more context
http://www.newsy.com/videos/obama_s_state_of_the_nation_reaction/
Jindal is “their future”.
Ouch!!! The party of Jindal will surely dwindle.
Bad choice of words there with the “popping out of more mouths”. LOL! What he did was NOTHING! Absolutely insignificant compared to the raping and pillaging the Bush admin has done the last 8 years. People are listening. At least the ones who want to. Some NEVER will and the Republicans can keep them.
he really seemed to think that Jindal has a major role in the GOP’s future…or at least he thought that such pols are the party’s only hope….more on what he said about the GOP tomorrow.
Congrats on your exclusive, Greg. Looking forward to the rest tomorrow. Clinton is right on health care. Most Americans weren’t ready for a big change back in the ’90s, and the Repubs won the framing. Jesus, think how far back on our heels we were after ‘92. Now the **** is hitting the fan for everybody, from big biz down to us folks, and it’s duh, we coulda had a V-8. Guess we still can.
I don’t know tech, but God, it’s impressive to hit submit and see one’s comment pop up. It’s almost disconcerting!
“* On Jindal’s response, Clinton said of the Republicans that Jindal is “their future.” ”
Danp zeros in on the most interesting part of the interview, for my money. There’s no question but that that’s exactly what Clinton meant by that comment.
If Jindal or Palin is the GOP’s future they’re in real, deep trouble.
I look to what the GOP calls their “rising stars”…it’s a sad day for the Repubs when they have to rest on the likes of Palin and Jindal.
I’m sorry, I just don’t see Bill Clinton’s opinion relevant in anything. I wish the media would ignore him, he has the same reckless traits as mosst Republicans and it hurts America’s good virtues from Obama. Clinton could never do what Obama’s doing, he thought he was smooth, perhaps to some it worked, but definitely not to most.. Both Clinton’s are all about stagecraft and still don’t get it.
I was listening to NPR today and heard one small business owner of a telecom company speak of her healthcare going up. These are the same small businesses that the Republicans were supposed to be helping with their “empowering tax cuts.” She has one employee and this year, even with a $1500 deductible, she estimates it will cost her company $10,000 for health care coverage (one employee folks). Now, any of you Republicans out there that can defend such a cost for basic healthcare need your heads examined — quickly — get a mental health exam.
God Bless Bill Clinton, all he had was a high *** drive and people wanted to crucify him for it. What a crock! I’d rather have a Casanova in the White House Yosemite Sam and the last 8 years of liars and lobbyists who sold America down the river for their love of “Money.” Does anyone remember those secret meetings between Republicans and the Energy Companies — probably not. I bet they were planning our $4.00 a gallon demise then. Bill Clinton was a wonderful productive President who worked hard for this country and George Bush was a 12 percenter by the time he left office — a total loser.
With all due respect, why are we constantly going to Bill Clinton for HIS opinion on what Obama is or is not doing? I don’t mind once in awhile but this every time Obama makes a comment is getting a bit old. I got the impression Clinton wanted to lay claim that Obama pushed HOPE because, he, Bill Clinton, said he should. Excuse me? At each and every speech about the economy, after telling us what is wrong and how bad it is, Obama ALWAYS reminds us America’s better days are ahead of us.
The Clinton’s LOST. Hillary is Sec of State — not President. Follow HER and ask Bill how SHE is doing.
I must say, I am THRILLED with the bumbling Republican response. Keep agoin’, folks, and expose your lunacies. What REAL solutions have you offered? What real platforms have you got that are worthy? Small government? Hypocrisy. Fiscal responsibility? LOL. I’m going with BETTER government, and REAL fiscal responsibility. I just hope the Dems don’t make the mistakes that teh Repubsi.e., let power get to their heads and lose their credibility. Everyone stay clean and do their jobs, please. If only Bill had done that, we probably would never have had another Bush in the White House.
With all due respect, why are we constantly going to Bill Clinton for HIS opinion on what Obama is or is not doing?
Maybe because he is the greatest living American politician? His accomplishments in office dwarf the accomplishments of any of the other ex-Presidents around. I’m very damn interested in hearing what he has to say about any and everything, thank you very much. If you’re not, you don’t have to listen, but you’ll be missing something vital if you go that way.
I found Greg Sargent again!
And why doesn’t it surprise me that I found him doing GOOD journalism. Thank you.
We listen to Bill Clinton because Bill Clinton already did this:
He presented his economic plan.
Not one Republican voted for it, they all called it “socialism” and they all warned him that he would take ALL the blame when it failed.
It didn’t.
Instead, it was wildly successful.
And the pathetic Right wing Republicans went berserk.
They preferred our nation to FAILl, rather than wanting success for President Clinton (or ANY Democratic President).
So they impeached him.
Oh, and then tried to take credit for Clinton’s economic expansion.
LOL!
I do trust Obama; but if this has Clinton’s stamp of approval, I KNOW it’s going to work.
p.s. Keep up the good work, Greg.
We listen to Bill Clinton because Bill Clinton already did this:
He presented his economic plan.
Yeah, it somehow makes me feel better to have the Big Dawg weigh in on this. I guess because he has been here, sort of. His Bush Recession wasn’t as bad as this, but still – I always feel that Clinton knows what he’s talking about in this regard.
By the way – good job on the phone interview, Greg. You’re moving it to another level. I bet it makes a difference when you say it is the WaPo calling, not a blog. LOL!
The FUTURE IS THE ERIC CANTOR/ SARAH PALIN NATION : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysLilRLEBjM
Jindal obviously is a smart guy/pol but he just needs to be himself. The speech wouldn’t have been that bad if he stopped if he really delivered from the gut.
> $10,000 for health care coverage (one employee folks).
Why is that surprising? Apparently you had no idea what health insurance costs if you pay for it yourself. Welcome to the real world.
The difference between Obama’s speech, delivery etc. and Jindal’s speech, delivery was like hollywood casting: Obama as the hero: Handsome, eloquent powerful oratory skills vs Jindal: Physically unattractive, creeping around corners, stilted sing songy speech pattern, wow! If Jindal is the future of the Republican party and plans to run in 2012 he better get ready for primetime. His real first name is Piyush, ( and to think they gave Obama a hard time about his name), also, he might want to find the official copy of his birth certificate, and be ready to explain how he converted to catholicism from Hinduism. However, despite his supposed academic credentials, the big elephant in the room that everyone is ignoring is that he will have a hard time becoming president in this country: Obama has raised the bar. People are image conscious and Jindal is too ugly, Also, the Republican party will never support him in the end because he is too dark for their tastes.
Speaking of Bill Clinton:
It is opined that Bill Clinton committed racist hate crimes, and I am not free to say anything further about it.
Respectfully Submitted by Andrew Y. Wang, J.D. Candidate
B.S., Summa *** Laude, 1996
Messiah College, Grantham, PA
Lower Merion High School, Ardmore, PA, 1993
(I can type 90 words per minute, and there are probably thousands of copies on the Internet indicating the content of this post.)
_________________
“If only it were possible to ban invention that bottled up memories so they never got stale and faded.” Off the top of my head—it came from my Lower Merion High School yearbook.
I think at the end of the day Clinton was a great president for US, even with all his shortcomings in place. And that’s not just my opnion, look what famous peers said about Bill Clinton:
http://www.tributespaid.com/quotes-on/william-shakespeare
sorry this one of course: http://www.tributespaid.com/quotes-on/bill-clinton