Having Just Watched PBS Clips of Clinton's Farewell Intro at the 2000 DNC:

It featured a ton of clips from world leaders commending President Clinton, talked about how much they respected him and America.

It also showed him and Hillary going to Belfast, to Africa, and other places and being greeted by these huge crowds waiving American flags. And you can see these people truly loved him and respected America.

The most startling clip is voiced over by Nelson Madela, in a speech at the White House. He's talking about the standing ovation that President Clinton got when he delivered a speech to the UN in the midst of the impeachment.

And then I turn and see what we have become. I remember the reaction that * got this year at the UN, especially in contrast to Chirac's reaction.

We've gone from being revered and respected to being feared and hated. And it makes me sick.

People should be reminded of all this....but, you know how it goes....you won't see any candidate using any of these clips....

The closest we have is Clark, and the crowds of grateful Albanians.

I'll take that.

Bush ran as the anti-Clinton, but Clinton was popular, not just around the world, but here at home as well. It would seem to make no sense, yet Bush was able to make it work to a degree.

One of the first responses the commentators made was "If Al Gore had anywhere near the support and revered following that Bill Clinton has, he would be leading * right now."

. . . was that we greatly overestimated what exactly Bill Clinton's popularity meant. I truly believe that we confused "popularity" and "celebrity" with success in politics.

It shouldn't come as much of a surprise that Bush could successfully run a sort of anti-Clinton campaign, because Clinton's "popularity" didn't translate directly into returns at the polls. His popularity ratings were always much higher than his popular vote totals, which tells me that there was some major disconnect between what people thought of him and what they thought of him when they voted.

of not really having to run against Clinton. Clinton would likely have defeated him in a humiliating fashion that would have been really fun to watch. Gore was a much weaker candidate, and as such he was easier to run against as a sort of Clinton baggage surrogate. That's my take on it anyway.

. . . but a friend of mine who works for a major polling organization told me that there was a very good reason why Gore minimized Clinton's role in the 2000 campaign. Apparently they determined through extensive polls that in the 2000 campaign Gore stood a better chance against Bush than Clinton would have.

It's absolutely fucking tragic.

I love that man!:-)

Natch.