The Rediff Special Sheela Bhatt
Ten things you should know before shaking hands with Bill Clinton
- Bill Clinton is a complex character. He had a very complex childhood. To put it as delicately as possible, he is a man of uncertain parentage. He had a troubled childhood because his father left his mother at an early stage. He doesn't know much about his father. His stepfather brought him up. Clinton, the surname, was given to him by his stepfather who was an alcoholic and wife-beater, who left them early. Virginia Kelley, Clinton's mother, brought him up and influenced him deeply.
- This is a man with a great vision for his life. He knew exactly what he wanted. He wanted to be president of the United States of America at 15. Have you seen his picture shaking hands with President Kennedy?
Here is a man who has meticulously worked his way up to being president. It is almost as if he said, 'This is my goal, this is the road, this is the chart and this is the timetable.' This is amazing and quite exciting. In a sense, his were quite transparent ambitions. That is an American trait.
In American politics and society there is a great deal of directness. In India politicians are heard saying, "No, no I don't want power but if my party wants, I am ready to become prime minister."
In America there is no such hypocrisy. The candidate himself tells the public why only he is the fittest to become president. Clinton is the product of this direct system.
- He is a guy who learns from his mistakes and is a fast learner. Like when he was governor of Arkansas at 32, he lost re-election. He called up his advisors, found where his mistakes lay, then won the next election.
When he was governor of Arkansas, Richard Celeste, the current American ambassador to India, was the governor of Ohio. Both have a personal friendship and their closeness is one of the reasons for his India trip. The same way Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott and Clinton were classmates at Oxford and both are Rhodes scholars.
In the midst of talk about sex and his good looks, people often tend to forget what kind of a brain he possesses. He has an intellect to match his job. He is widely read, his capacity to absorb information is amazing. Attend his press conferences, there is not a subject he is unaware of.
The White House press is like a tank of sharks. The subjects vary from China, gun control, Botswana, foreign policy, Rwanda, environment and medicare to education funding. There is not a single subject over which Clinton hesitates. He is never seen looking for a fact or turning to his aides for the figures. He is like a sponge that absorbs information. Run the tapes of the last eight years of his press conferences. He has never been caught off guard.
He loves to read and he is a movie buff. The White House has a theatre, he has recently enjoyed Sam Mendes's American Beauty. The story, we hope, you know. The movie is about a middle-aged man having a marital problem, goes chasing young girls. So, there are lots of jokes about why he likes that movie.
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His wife. It is one of the most complex relationships in the world. They met at the college library for the first time. She was reading in one corner. He was staring at her. She walked up to him and said, "If you are going to keep looking at me like that, you might as well let me know your name." Then they become friends. More than husband and wife, they are intellectual partners. Both have incredible intellectual energy. They are both political beings, they are true political partners.
- His India connection is interesting, too. He doesn't have an attachment to India but he is certainly interested in India. According to unconfirmed reports, when he heard about India's nuclear explosion he punched his fist in anger and said, "Dammit, I'll never be able to visit the Taj Mahal."
There are many explanations of his interest in India. One is the feedback he got from wife Hillary and daughter Chelsea when they visited India in 1994. They gave him fantastic feedback. Two, when Clinton and Talbott were studying at Oxford they had many Indian classmates. That influence seems quite deep. Clinton has studied British colonial history also, which gave him a good idea of India's past. World Bank president James Wolfensohn and Celeste have been lobbying for N Chandrababu Naidu.
- In his personal behaviour, Clinton is considered reckless. That's his negative point. Monica is just the most publicised aspect of this recklessness. It is alleged that there are many cases where he has not been caught. In Indian slang, one can say in the matter of personal relationships and morality, "Thoda dhila hai."
- His political negative is obviously his ideology-hopping. He started out as a liberal radical. But when he realised that that platform, though popular, was not enough to get him elected, he switched to being centrist. Smoothly and smartly he stole ideas from the right. The great show of American politics in the 90s was how Clinton gradually marginalised the Republicans. How he made a monkey out of them. Again and again.
Some Republican leaders burn with anger at him, and that anger is personal. He nicks their ideas all the time. The Republicans and other Clinton-haters know he is much more consummate and silky smooth in his operation. He is very glib and a flexible politician. He is all things to all people.
- Clinton presided over the biggest economic expansion in the history of America and for that matter, in the history of mankind. Whether this is because of his vision or somebody else's is debatable. We could say it is Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's vision. But the fact is that, being president, he selected Greenspan for the job. In a contemporary way we can deny him credit, but posterity might recall here is a man who, at the turn of the century, made his country the powerhouse of economic ideas.
At the last White House media meet, journalists from all over the world were unanimously in saying, "When this man goes away, we are going to miss him badly."
Look at George W Bush. He is a joke compared to Clinton. He is a schoolboy if his shallow knowledge is compared with Clinton's. Al Gore is intelligent and reasonable, but, oh boy, is he dull and boring! Some Americans do feel it is a shame that a man of Clinton's calibre is retiring at 53. Now he will be a most eligible CEO, with a brilliant economic sense, the world's most well-known name and great contacts for lobbying.
- He is a deeply compassionate person. That is the general impression and people do believe it is true. He is a rare president who cries in public. He is open to people's proposals. He is quite affectionate at funerals and in black neighbourhoods.
In America, one index of compassion is the black vote. He gets the majority of black votes. America has never had a black president in more than 223 years of its history. Nobel laureate Toni Morrison once wrote that Clinton is America's first black president. He has mixed well with blacks; he openly identifies with them.
Recently there was a newspaper report about a black cook who worked at the White House. She said she was not allowed to enter through the front gate of the White House because of racial discrimination in the 1940s. She was forced to take the back route. She expressed a desire to enter the White House from the front gate. Clinton responded immediately. He called her up and invited her to the White House to attend a big ceremony.
Just count how many presidents and prime ministers laugh like him in public. He is a humorous guy and, like many men, he is believed to have a short temper.
- Clinton's biggest failure is in not capitalising America's leadership to make this world more equitable. He simply didn't have a vision for that. He failed to reduce nuclear warheads, to push through the CTBT. He perpetuated the same American foreign policy, and it failed him.
Look at the American role in Kosovo and Iraq. Clinton failed as a world leader, but the six per cent growth of the US economy has made him a big success in America.
So here is the man, the president, the husband, the father, the lover -- and a handsome American -- in your country. In the very truest sense, Clinton is one of us. Look at his mistakes. Observe how many times he has faltered. His career is scandal-ridden (remember the Whitewater scandal?). He is not extraordinary. He is a normal human, but he has accomplished so much. Certainly, he is quite a character.
Based on a conversation with a senior Indian journalist in Washington
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