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American Morning
Jeff Greenfield Waxing Presidential
Aired February 07, 2003 - 08:17 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Now more on the tale of the post presidency. Bill Clinton weighing in now on Iraq and North Korea, also the shuttle tragedy and what it's like now to be on the outside looking in. Last night the former president spent an hour with Larry King here on CNN.
And Jeff Greenfield watched and listened to every word. Here's Jeff now with a look at what was said last night.
Good morning to you -- Jeff.
JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SENIOR ANALYST: Good morning.
HEMMER: Did not appear to be much distance -- much difference between the former president and the current president regarding Iraq. Did you see much of one?
GREENFIELD: No, I think the president was very careful to offer words of support, but I think it was interesting the way he did it. He focused on Secretary of State Colin Powell and Clinton argued once again for an international rather than a unilateral response.
Let's take a brief listen here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAM J. CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I still hope the United Nations can act together on this and I think there's a still a chance we can. And, you know, there's still a chance that Saddam Hussein will come to his senses and disarm.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GREENFIELD: Now on North Korea, Clinton was publicly counseling a private diplomatic approach to defuse what he sees clearly as a very grave situation.
A short listen here, too, please.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: The president and the administration have said they want to handle it diplomatically. But I think you have to be firm in public and absolutely brutal in private. You cannot let them become a nuclear arsenal, because the pressure on them to sell these bombs will be overwhelming. They have no other way to make money.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GREENFIELD: So, Bill, that's what he had to say on that.
Now on the domestic side, I think it was very interesting, he was much less supportive, especially on the tax cut. And what's interesting about this I think is that he showed why as a political matter Bill Clinton is what Joe Klein once called "the natural." Ever since Bush announced the tax cut, Democrats have been accused of class warfare when they've attacked it. But if you listen, you'll see how Clinton uses very earthy examples, very simple, understandable language to explain why he's against that tax cut.
Let's take a listen here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: Everybody else is being asked to sacrifice for this war on terror, and you and I are getting a tax cut out of Social Security retirement fund of middle class people.
KING: You keep saying you and me.
CLINTON: It's not right. We don't need it and you know it's not right. It's just not right. It can't be justified and it's not good economics.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GREENFIELD: Now it's that touch of a little humor and that very down-to-earth argument that makes Clinton still a politically effective voice.
HEMMER: And where is he finding that voice and knowing that his age, a fairly youthful former president, he's not going anywhere, he's going to be around for a while, his voice goes in which direction now -- Jeff?
GREENFIELD: Well, I think that's a very key question. And we know what he's not going to do, Bill, he's not going to do a talk show, because he said so last night. And I guess he's not going to be playing sax behind the Rolling Stones, but it's a very strange position for him. In purely political terms, he was the most successful Democratic president since Franklin Roosevelt, the only one to get two terms.
But I spent a lot of time these last weeks talking to Democrats about the state of their party and so many of them who like Clinton draw a contrast between Clinton and Ronald Reagan. Some of them celebrated his 92nd birthday last night. Reagan left the Republican Party with an ideology and a focus and Republicans are basically a Ronald Reagan party. I don't think Clinton did that for Democrats in part because of the scandal and in part because his victory seemed more tactical and not linked to a larger -- a larger vision. Now that's something I'm sure he would reject.
Right now there's an interesting piece in the "Atlantic Monthly" about this very issue by Jim Fallows who makes the point Clinton's a moneymaker, he's a fund raiser, he's a humanitarian and a legacy builder. And I think what actually may lie ahead for him is the role of king maker, or to be more accurate, queen maker. If Hillary Rodham Clinton does run somewhere down the line, and a new poll out shows she's way ahead of every other Democrat, if she chose to run, even this time, I must say Mrs. Clinton's got one heck of a political strategist right by her side.
HEMMER: Yes, I would say with a lot of experience, too. But for a while, Jeff, you know the reality was the Democrats wanted Bill Clinton essentially go lie in the corner for a while. Is that chilling out period now over?
GREENFIELD: Well, I don't know. I mean I think it's just -- it's just this very peculiar situation where Democrats recognize that Bill Clinton won two victories for them in terms of the White House but also, because of his own conduct, left them as a party unable, we saw this in 2000, to build on the record that he had helped create. It's just a very peculiar situation. He's very popular with Democrats and yet they have some distance between him and the party.
HEMMER: Jeff, thanks. Jeff Greenfield at the CNN Center examining the interview of last evening.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired February 7, 2003 - 08:17 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Now more on the tale of the post presidency. Bill Clinton weighing in now on Iraq and North Korea, also the shuttle tragedy and what it's like now to be on the outside looking in. Last night the former president spent an hour with Larry King here on CNN.
And Jeff Greenfield watched and listened to every word. Here's Jeff now with a look at what was said last night.
Good morning to you -- Jeff.
JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SENIOR ANALYST: Good morning.
HEMMER: Did not appear to be much distance -- much difference between the former president and the current president regarding Iraq. Did you see much of one?
GREENFIELD: No, I think the president was very careful to offer words of support, but I think it was interesting the way he did it. He focused on Secretary of State Colin Powell and Clinton argued once again for an international rather than a unilateral response.
Let's take a brief listen here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAM J. CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I still hope the United Nations can act together on this and I think there's a still a chance we can. And, you know, there's still a chance that Saddam Hussein will come to his senses and disarm.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GREENFIELD: Now on North Korea, Clinton was publicly counseling a private diplomatic approach to defuse what he sees clearly as a very grave situation.
A short listen here, too, please.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: The president and the administration have said they want to handle it diplomatically. But I think you have to be firm in public and absolutely brutal in private. You cannot let them become a nuclear arsenal, because the pressure on them to sell these bombs will be overwhelming. They have no other way to make money.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GREENFIELD: So, Bill, that's what he had to say on that.
Now on the domestic side, I think it was very interesting, he was much less supportive, especially on the tax cut. And what's interesting about this I think is that he showed why as a political matter Bill Clinton is what Joe Klein once called "the natural." Ever since Bush announced the tax cut, Democrats have been accused of class warfare when they've attacked it. But if you listen, you'll see how Clinton uses very earthy examples, very simple, understandable language to explain why he's against that tax cut.
Let's take a listen here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: Everybody else is being asked to sacrifice for this war on terror, and you and I are getting a tax cut out of Social Security retirement fund of middle class people.
KING: You keep saying you and me.
CLINTON: It's not right. We don't need it and you know it's not right. It's just not right. It can't be justified and it's not good economics.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GREENFIELD: Now it's that touch of a little humor and that very down-to-earth argument that makes Clinton still a politically effective voice.
HEMMER: And where is he finding that voice and knowing that his age, a fairly youthful former president, he's not going anywhere, he's going to be around for a while, his voice goes in which direction now -- Jeff?
GREENFIELD: Well, I think that's a very key question. And we know what he's not going to do, Bill, he's not going to do a talk show, because he said so last night. And I guess he's not going to be playing sax behind the Rolling Stones, but it's a very strange position for him. In purely political terms, he was the most successful Democratic president since Franklin Roosevelt, the only one to get two terms.
But I spent a lot of time these last weeks talking to Democrats about the state of their party and so many of them who like Clinton draw a contrast between Clinton and Ronald Reagan. Some of them celebrated his 92nd birthday last night. Reagan left the Republican Party with an ideology and a focus and Republicans are basically a Ronald Reagan party. I don't think Clinton did that for Democrats in part because of the scandal and in part because his victory seemed more tactical and not linked to a larger -- a larger vision. Now that's something I'm sure he would reject.
Right now there's an interesting piece in the "Atlantic Monthly" about this very issue by Jim Fallows who makes the point Clinton's a moneymaker, he's a fund raiser, he's a humanitarian and a legacy builder. And I think what actually may lie ahead for him is the role of king maker, or to be more accurate, queen maker. If Hillary Rodham Clinton does run somewhere down the line, and a new poll out shows she's way ahead of every other Democrat, if she chose to run, even this time, I must say Mrs. Clinton's got one heck of a political strategist right by her side.
HEMMER: Yes, I would say with a lot of experience, too. But for a while, Jeff, you know the reality was the Democrats wanted Bill Clinton essentially go lie in the corner for a while. Is that chilling out period now over?
GREENFIELD: Well, I don't know. I mean I think it's just -- it's just this very peculiar situation where Democrats recognize that Bill Clinton won two victories for them in terms of the White House but also, because of his own conduct, left them as a party unable, we saw this in 2000, to build on the record that he had helped create. It's just a very peculiar situation. He's very popular with Democrats and yet they have some distance between him and the party.
HEMMER: Jeff, thanks. Jeff Greenfield at the CNN Center examining the interview of last evening.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
