Thursday, November 18, 2004
November 18, 2004
Thousands Attend Dedication of Clinton's Presidential Library
By MARIA NEWMAN
Former President Bill Clinton, accompanied by thousands of soggy guests, stood under a dripping umbrella today and officially opened his presidential library in Little Rock, Ark.
"Welcome to my rainy library dedication," he told the determinedly good-natured crowd.
The audience featured an array of stars from the worlds of politics and entertainment who nonetheless all had to huddle under a colorful panoply of umbrellas and ponchos. But despite the dreary sky, Mr. Clinton was beaming as he listened to words of praise from both Presidents Bush and former President Jimmy Carter, who all hailed his legacy as the 42nd president. (Former President Gerald R. Ford, 91, could not attend for health reasons.)
For his part, Mr. Clinton said he hoped his presidential library would let visitors for years to come see "not only what I did with my life but to see what they could do with their lives, because this is mostly the story of what we, the people, can do when we work together.''
Of the four current and former presidents on the stage, two are Democrats and two are Republicans. Their speeches were sometimes laced with humor, sometimes tinged with nostalgia for their own years in office. But they all talked of the partisanship of politics and the need to heal rifts after the presidential election on Nov. 2 that revealed sharp divisions in the nation.
Mr. Clinton said that at one point during this most recent campaign, he turned to a friend and asked, "Am I the only person in the entire United States of America who likes both George W. Bush and John Kerry, who believes they're both good people, who believes they both love our country and they just see the world differently?''
He said Americans needed to get back to the notion that "our differences do matter, but our common humanity matters more.''
Almost 30,000 people people had been expected to turn out for the event, and while an official count was not available, the rain almost surely kept some away. But those who did brave the chill autumn drizzle were among the first to tour the center and take advantage of the opportunity to steep themselves in the legacy of Mr. Clinton's eight years in office, including the scandal that tainted part of his second term.
The William J. Clinton Presidential Center, at $165 million the most expensive of the presidential libraries, is housed in a boxy, steel-and-glass structure perched over the Arkansas River and has been derided by some critics as a "double-wide'' on stilts.
Inside, it features two million photographs and 80 million pages of documents, as well as a life-sized replica of the Oval Office, interactive displays and several of the saxophones given to the blues-loving former president.
The invited guests included Caroline Kennedy, the singer Barbra Streisand and the actor Robin Williams, and the performers included the Edge and Bono of U2. Also in attendance were Mr. Kerry and his wife, Teresa, and Mr. Clinton's former vice president, Al Gore, and his wife, Tipper. From Israel, there were former Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and the children of Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak and the current foreign minister, Silvan Shalom.
In their remarks, President Bush and his father and Mr. Carter all mentioned Mr. Clinton's rise from humble beginnings to attorney general in Arkansas, then to governor and finally the presidency, aided by his talents for conversing, persuading and leading.
President Bush recounted that a fourth-grade classmate of Mr. Clinton's once observed that in school, "he didn't mean to, but he just took the place over.''
"President Bill Clinton led our country with optimism and a great affection for the American people," Mr. Bush said, "and that affection has been returned.''
Mr. Bush also said that during Mr. Clinton's two terms, the former president "seized important opportunities on issues from welfare to free trade,'' adding that "in all his actions and decisions, the American people sensed a deep empathy for the poor and the powerless.''
The library, the current president said, "is a gift to the future from a man who always believed in the future.''
Both Presidents Bush called Mr. Clinton a "man of compassion.'' The elder Mr. Bush, the 41st president, showed some measure of affection for the man who had both denied him his bid for re-election and who recently campaigned for and advised Senator John Kerry, the man who tried to do to the son what Mr. Clinton had done to the father.
"It always has to be said that Bill Clinton was one of the most gifted American political figures in modern times,'' former President Bush said. "Trust me - I learned this the hard way. And here in Arkansas, you might say he grew to become the Sam Walton of national retail politics.''
On the campaign trail, Mr. Bush said, his opponent "was a natural and he made it look too easy - and, oh, how I hated him for that.''
But the senior Mr. Bush also said that one of the "great blessings'' of becoming a former president is that "onetime political adversaries have the tendency to become friends, and I feel such is certainly the case between President Clinton and me.''
He said that no matter what their political stripes, former presidents are "eternally bound by our common devotion and service to this wonderful country.''
Mr. Carter, who like George H.W. Bush had lost his bid for re-election, in 1980 to the Reagan-Bush ticket, said that Mr. Clinton was "a leader who could inspire other people to go beyond what they thought were their own limits to join him in accomplishing great goals.''
He particularly mentioned Mr. Clinton's efforts to fashion a plan that would bring an enduring peace to the Middle East.
Mr. Carter, who spoke harshly against the current President Bush during the campaign, especially for his handling of the war in Iraq, lavished praise on former President Bush, saying he had had "a career of service to this country that is almost unmatched in history - as a soldier, a legislator, a diplomat, an administrator, vice president and president.''
And Mr. Carter congratulated the current president on his re-election. He said that at the end of this "very difficult political year - more difficult for some of us than others - it is valuable for the world to see two Democrats and two Republicans assembled together, all honoring the great nation that has permitted us to serve.''
The vast library features 14 alcoves that detail Mr. Clinton's administration, including the sex scandal involving a White House intern that led to his impeachment by the House and trial and acquittal by the Senate. That chapter of his tenure is covered in an alcove dedicated to the "politics of persecution."
The library' director, David Alsobrook, acknowledged the difficulties in portraying such a difficult and painful period in the president's life. "His supporters will say, `Oh, why did you give this so much space?"' Mr. Alsobrook told reporters on a special advance tour on Wednesday. "But his detractors will come up and say, `Dave, where is the blue dress?"'
Mr. Clinton, 58, born and raised in Arkansas, is still recovering from open heart surgery two months ago.
As he sat with the others in the rain, he at times looked pleased and humbled by the praise, and at other times appeared to television viewers almost ashen, and wiped his face as if he was tired.
During his remarks, Mr. Clinton called on President Bush to work harder to achieve peace in the Middle East.
"I hope you get to cross over into the promised land of Middle East peace,'' he said. "We have a good
opportunity, and we are all praying for you.''
And while the occasion of the library opening was a chance to look back, some of those who spoke could not help but point out how the past informs the present.
Mr. Clinton talked about the divisions that have split America into what are now popularly called red states (Republican) and blue states Democratic), but that he referred to as conservative and progressive.
"America has two great dominant strands of political thought,'' he said. "We're represented up here on this stage: conservatism, which at its very best draws lines that should not be crossed; and progressivism, which at its very best breaks down barriers that are no longer needed or should never have been erected in the first place.''
He said he had been pained by the deep divisions in the country going into the election, and he hoped that those in attendance would work to bridge the chasms.
"I tell you we can continue building our bridge to tomorrow,'' he said. "It will require some red American line-drawing and some blue American barrier-breaking, but we can do it together.''
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company Home Privacy Policy Search Corrections RSS Help Back to Top
Thousands Attend Dedication of Clinton's Presidential Library
By MARIA NEWMAN
Former President Bill Clinton, accompanied by thousands of soggy guests, stood under a dripping umbrella today and officially opened his presidential library in Little Rock, Ark.
"Welcome to my rainy library dedication," he told the determinedly good-natured crowd.
The audience featured an array of stars from the worlds of politics and entertainment who nonetheless all had to huddle under a colorful panoply of umbrellas and ponchos. But despite the dreary sky, Mr. Clinton was beaming as he listened to words of praise from both Presidents Bush and former President Jimmy Carter, who all hailed his legacy as the 42nd president. (Former President Gerald R. Ford, 91, could not attend for health reasons.)
For his part, Mr. Clinton said he hoped his presidential library would let visitors for years to come see "not only what I did with my life but to see what they could do with their lives, because this is mostly the story of what we, the people, can do when we work together.''
Of the four current and former presidents on the stage, two are Democrats and two are Republicans. Their speeches were sometimes laced with humor, sometimes tinged with nostalgia for their own years in office. But they all talked of the partisanship of politics and the need to heal rifts after the presidential election on Nov. 2 that revealed sharp divisions in the nation.
Mr. Clinton said that at one point during this most recent campaign, he turned to a friend and asked, "Am I the only person in the entire United States of America who likes both George W. Bush and John Kerry, who believes they're both good people, who believes they both love our country and they just see the world differently?''
He said Americans needed to get back to the notion that "our differences do matter, but our common humanity matters more.''
Almost 30,000 people people had been expected to turn out for the event, and while an official count was not available, the rain almost surely kept some away. But those who did brave the chill autumn drizzle were among the first to tour the center and take advantage of the opportunity to steep themselves in the legacy of Mr. Clinton's eight years in office, including the scandal that tainted part of his second term.
The William J. Clinton Presidential Center, at $165 million the most expensive of the presidential libraries, is housed in a boxy, steel-and-glass structure perched over the Arkansas River and has been derided by some critics as a "double-wide'' on stilts.
Inside, it features two million photographs and 80 million pages of documents, as well as a life-sized replica of the Oval Office, interactive displays and several of the saxophones given to the blues-loving former president.
The invited guests included Caroline Kennedy, the singer Barbra Streisand and the actor Robin Williams, and the performers included the Edge and Bono of U2. Also in attendance were Mr. Kerry and his wife, Teresa, and Mr. Clinton's former vice president, Al Gore, and his wife, Tipper. From Israel, there were former Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and the children of Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak and the current foreign minister, Silvan Shalom.
In their remarks, President Bush and his father and Mr. Carter all mentioned Mr. Clinton's rise from humble beginnings to attorney general in Arkansas, then to governor and finally the presidency, aided by his talents for conversing, persuading and leading.
President Bush recounted that a fourth-grade classmate of Mr. Clinton's once observed that in school, "he didn't mean to, but he just took the place over.''
"President Bill Clinton led our country with optimism and a great affection for the American people," Mr. Bush said, "and that affection has been returned.''
Mr. Bush also said that during Mr. Clinton's two terms, the former president "seized important opportunities on issues from welfare to free trade,'' adding that "in all his actions and decisions, the American people sensed a deep empathy for the poor and the powerless.''
The library, the current president said, "is a gift to the future from a man who always believed in the future.''
Both Presidents Bush called Mr. Clinton a "man of compassion.'' The elder Mr. Bush, the 41st president, showed some measure of affection for the man who had both denied him his bid for re-election and who recently campaigned for and advised Senator John Kerry, the man who tried to do to the son what Mr. Clinton had done to the father.
"It always has to be said that Bill Clinton was one of the most gifted American political figures in modern times,'' former President Bush said. "Trust me - I learned this the hard way. And here in Arkansas, you might say he grew to become the Sam Walton of national retail politics.''
On the campaign trail, Mr. Bush said, his opponent "was a natural and he made it look too easy - and, oh, how I hated him for that.''
But the senior Mr. Bush also said that one of the "great blessings'' of becoming a former president is that "onetime political adversaries have the tendency to become friends, and I feel such is certainly the case between President Clinton and me.''
He said that no matter what their political stripes, former presidents are "eternally bound by our common devotion and service to this wonderful country.''
Mr. Carter, who like George H.W. Bush had lost his bid for re-election, in 1980 to the Reagan-Bush ticket, said that Mr. Clinton was "a leader who could inspire other people to go beyond what they thought were their own limits to join him in accomplishing great goals.''
He particularly mentioned Mr. Clinton's efforts to fashion a plan that would bring an enduring peace to the Middle East.
Mr. Carter, who spoke harshly against the current President Bush during the campaign, especially for his handling of the war in Iraq, lavished praise on former President Bush, saying he had had "a career of service to this country that is almost unmatched in history - as a soldier, a legislator, a diplomat, an administrator, vice president and president.''
And Mr. Carter congratulated the current president on his re-election. He said that at the end of this "very difficult political year - more difficult for some of us than others - it is valuable for the world to see two Democrats and two Republicans assembled together, all honoring the great nation that has permitted us to serve.''
The vast library features 14 alcoves that detail Mr. Clinton's administration, including the sex scandal involving a White House intern that led to his impeachment by the House and trial and acquittal by the Senate. That chapter of his tenure is covered in an alcove dedicated to the "politics of persecution."
The library' director, David Alsobrook, acknowledged the difficulties in portraying such a difficult and painful period in the president's life. "His supporters will say, `Oh, why did you give this so much space?"' Mr. Alsobrook told reporters on a special advance tour on Wednesday. "But his detractors will come up and say, `Dave, where is the blue dress?"'
Mr. Clinton, 58, born and raised in Arkansas, is still recovering from open heart surgery two months ago.
As he sat with the others in the rain, he at times looked pleased and humbled by the praise, and at other times appeared to television viewers almost ashen, and wiped his face as if he was tired.
During his remarks, Mr. Clinton called on President Bush to work harder to achieve peace in the Middle East.
"I hope you get to cross over into the promised land of Middle East peace,'' he said. "We have a good
opportunity, and we are all praying for you.''
And while the occasion of the library opening was a chance to look back, some of those who spoke could not help but point out how the past informs the present.
Mr. Clinton talked about the divisions that have split America into what are now popularly called red states (Republican) and blue states Democratic), but that he referred to as conservative and progressive.
"America has two great dominant strands of political thought,'' he said. "We're represented up here on this stage: conservatism, which at its very best draws lines that should not be crossed; and progressivism, which at its very best breaks down barriers that are no longer needed or should never have been erected in the first place.''
He said he had been pained by the deep divisions in the country going into the election, and he hoped that those in attendance would work to bridge the chasms.
"I tell you we can continue building our bridge to tomorrow,'' he said. "It will require some red American line-drawing and some blue American barrier-breaking, but we can do it together.''
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company Home Privacy Policy Search Corrections RSS Help Back to Top
November 18, 2004OP-ED COLUMNIST
A Plague of ToadiesBy MAUREEN DOWD
ASHINGTON
I went to see the magical "Pericles'' at the Shakespeare Theater the other night.
In ancient Greece, the prince of Tyre tires of all the yes men around him. He chooses to trust the one courtier who intrepidly tells him: "They do abuse the king that flatter him. ... Whereas reproof, obedient and in order, fits kings, as they are men, for they may err.''
Not flatter the king? Listen to dissenting viewpoints? Rulers who admit they've erred?
It's all so B.C. (Before Cheney).
Now, in the 21st-century reign of King George II, flattery is mandatory, dissent is forbidden, and erring without admitting error is the best way to get ahead. President Bush is purging the naysayers who tried to temper crusted-nut-bar Dick Cheney and the neocon crazies on Iraq.
First, faith trumped facts. Now, loyalty trumps competence. W., who was the loyalty enforcer for his father's administration, is now the loyalty enforcer for his own.
Those promoted to be in charge of our security, diplomacy and civil liberties were rewarded for being more loyal to Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney than to the truth.
The president and vice president are dispatching their toadies to the agencies to quell dissent. The crackdown seems bizarre, since hardly anyone dared to disagree with them anyway and there were plenty willing to twist the truth for them.
Consider George Tenet, who assured Mr. Bush that the weak case on Iraqi W.M.D. was "a slam-dunk.'' And Colin Powell, who caved and made the bogus U.N. case for war. Then, when he wanted to stay a bit longer to explore Mideast opportunities arising from Arafat's death, he got shoved out by a president irked by the diplomat's ambivalence and popularity.
Mr. Bush prefers more panting enablers, like Alberto Gonzales. You wanna fry criminals or torture prisoners? Sure thing, boss.
W. and Vice want to extend their personal control over bureaucracies they thought had impeded their foreign policy. It's alarming to learn that they regard their first-term foreign policy - a trumped-up war and bungled occupation, an estrangement from our old allies and proliferating nuclear ambitions in North Korea, Iran and Russia - as impeded. What will an untrammeled one look like?
The post-election hubris has infected Capitol Hill. Law-and-order House Republicans changed the rules so Tom DeLay can stay as majority leader even if he's indicted; Senate Republicans are threatening to rule Democratic filibusters out of order.
In 2002, Cheney & Co. set up their own C.I.A. in the Pentagon to bypass the C.I.A. and conjure up evidence on Iraqi W.M.D. Now Mr. Cheney has sent his lackey, Porter Goss, who helped him try to suffocate the 9/11 commission, to bully the C.I.A. into falling into line.
In an ominous echo of the old loyalty oaths, Mr. Goss has warned employees at the agency that their job is to "support the administration and its policies in our work.''
Mr. Bush doesn't want any more leaks, like the one showing that he was told two months before invading Iraq that such a move could lead to violent internal conflict and more support for radical Islamists.
Mr. Goss has managed to make the dysfunctional C.I.A. even more dysfunctional. Instead of going after Al Qaeda, he's busy purging top-level officials who had been going after Al Qaeda - replacing them with his coterie of hacks from Capitol Hill.
Mr. Cheney is letting his old mentor, Rummy, stay on. What does it matter if the Rummy doctrine - dangerously thin allotments of forces, no exit strategy, snatching State Department occupation duties and then screwing them up - has botched the Iraq mission and left the military so strapped it's calling back old, out-of-shape reservists to active service?
Condi Rice and Stephen Hadley did not do their jobs before 9/11 in coordinating the fight against Al Qaeda, and they did not do their jobs after 9/11 in preventing the debacle in Iraq. They not only suppressed evidence Americans needed to know that would have debunked the neocons' hyped-up case for invading Iraq; they helped shovel hooey into the president's speeches.
Dr. Rice pitched in to help Dr. No whip up that imaginary mushroom cloud. Condi's life story may be inspirational. But the way she got the State Department job is not.
Not only are the Bush officials who failed to protect the country and misled us into war not losing their jobs. They're getting promoted.
E-mail: liberties@nytimes.com
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company Home Privacy Policy Search Corrections RSS Help Back to Top
motorshow_04, fight (not again) n orchard liteup
The day went on fine, met up with TM and headed to the MotorShow. It was fine thruout...but i know somehow it would ended just like the usual day outings we have.Its true, when two people have too much time together on their hands, they would naturally pick a quarrel. Ha...guess its nothing new here that i could expect. Is it me? I wonder? Is it him?Sometimes i really wonder, Ipa earlier on was reading on some website on relationships and i struck upon one on the screen thats says "How to identify if you love (or tend to like) bad relationships. The site goes on explaining in detail asking you questions that you could ponder further like, "Are you not satisfied with your existing relationship?" blah blah all that stuff. Well, ask anyone who's in a foul mood and the answer's a natural YEAPI am jus puzzled really, why is that if TM wants something his way and when i agree to that, he wants the other way? Hmmm, it really puzzles me? Of course, threats of "I HATE U", "YOU ARE A LIAR", "Ok lor...lets break up" are the common words hurled when there is a fight looming. I dont know whether he knows me but i guess by now, he's sleeping so soundly and tomorrow is a new day with everything about yesterday forgotten. Sigh,,,or maybe it might signal that the time has come to its terms that we really should seriously spend time thinking through that with such little fights, one fine day, it might loom into something bigger than WW2 haha.
anyway, i am glad we didnt fight further, god knows how much more we have to fight if we continued meeting thru after the evening. glad that ajib is interested to accompany me let steam off at orchard road. had a hearty meal and it was one of the best cos its always good to eat when i am super pissed off. Luckily this nephew of mine is soft spoken with few words, so he kept mum except for things like how does the transport system works, the shopping malls, the bookstore etc...i wish i could bring him to a pub but alas, i know he would not enjoy and hate to see the nitelife here. What you call, a good decent boy of good upbringing with good values. not like me, too rawjak, too much of a social butterfly. its lil wonder why i couldnt seem to find the rite one. Well, look at myself. I remember ajib once said this, "Kak, you're pretty but you would be more pretty if you dont drink, wear the headgear, practice the values we are brought up with..." i felt like a moron really come to think of it, this is my nephew saying all this to his aunt.
Posted by cilipadi at 17:43 in november Link Comments (0)
November 05, 2004
The day went on fine, met up with TM and headed to the MotorShow. It was fine thruout...but i know somehow it would ended just like the usual day outings we have.Its true, when two people have too much time together on their hands, they would naturally pick a quarrel. Ha...guess its nothing new here that i could expect. Is it me? I wonder? Is it him?Sometimes i really wonder, Ipa earlier on was reading on some website on relationships and i struck upon one on the screen thats says "How to identify if you love (or tend to like) bad relationships. The site goes on explaining in detail asking you questions that you could ponder further like, "Are you not satisfied with your existing relationship?" blah blah all that stuff. Well, ask anyone who's in a foul mood and the answer's a natural YEAPI am jus puzzled really, why is that if TM wants something his way and when i agree to that, he wants the other way? Hmmm, it really puzzles me? Of course, threats of "I HATE U", "YOU ARE A LIAR", "Ok lor...lets break up" are the common words hurled when there is a fight looming. I dont know whether he knows me but i guess by now, he's sleeping so soundly and tomorrow is a new day with everything about yesterday forgotten. Sigh,,,or maybe it might signal that the time has come to its terms that we really should seriously spend time thinking through that with such little fights, one fine day, it might loom into something bigger than WW2 haha.
anyway, i am glad we didnt fight further, god knows how much more we have to fight if we continued meeting thru after the evening. glad that ajib is interested to accompany me let steam off at orchard road. had a hearty meal and it was one of the best cos its always good to eat when i am super pissed off. Luckily this nephew of mine is soft spoken with few words, so he kept mum except for things like how does the transport system works, the shopping malls, the bookstore etc...i wish i could bring him to a pub but alas, i know he would not enjoy and hate to see the nitelife here. What you call, a good decent boy of good upbringing with good values. not like me, too rawjak, too much of a social butterfly. its lil wonder why i couldnt seem to find the rite one. Well, look at myself. I remember ajib once said this, "Kak, you're pretty but you would be more pretty if you dont drink, wear the headgear, practice the values we are brought up with..." i felt like a moron really come to think of it, this is my nephew saying all this to his aunt.
Posted by cilipadi at 17:43 in november Link Comments (0)
November 05, 2004
News Home - Help
For Democrats, library a place to raise voices
Thu Nov 18, 6:24 AM ET
By Bill Nichols and Richard Benedetto, USA TODAY
Weeks don't get much better if you are William Jefferson Clinton. For the third time in 12 eventful years, this proud Southern city is bedecked with bunting and banners to welcome the world, this time for today's opening of Clinton's $165 million presidential library.
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Clinton Library Rekindles Memories, Little Rock (AP Video)
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Thirty thousand visitors are expected, the beginning of what Little Rock leaders hope will be decades and millions of dollars of economic benefits. (Related graphic: Tour the library)
Clinton's friends of a lifetime are here. Staffers from two turbulent terms have trekked south for an emotional class reunion. "For a lot of us, we didn't just form a political bond," says Democratic Rep. Rahm Emanuel (news, bio, voting record) of Illinois, who was a White House adviser. "There are lifelong friendships here. This is something to be joyful about."
But with Bill Clinton (news - web sites), nothing, even joy, is simple. Amid all the festivities, participants are mindful that John Kerry (news - web sites)'s defeat two weeks ago has created a dark night of the soul for the Democratic Party. And many Democrats are looking to Clinton and the gathering of the Clintonista tribe to herald a new dawn with the centrist "third way" politics that won him the White House.
"The dedication comes at the perfect time," former chief of staff Leon Panetta says. "Democrats need to think about what it was that Bill Clinton did to get elected president and re-elected to a second term."
What was to have been an elegiac look back has become something closer to a pep rally and encounter session for Democrats yearning to recapture the Clinton magic in a bottle and unseal it just in time for the 2008 presidential race, perhaps even with New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (news - web sites) as the party's standard-bearer.
"I'm tired of looking at maps of red and blue states," the former president said Tuesday in a speech at Little Rock's Central High School. Federal troops had to be used to integrate Central in 1957. "I'm tired of being told that there is more that divides us than unites us," said Clinton, feisty but still thin and fatigued from his heart bypass two months ago.
Right after President Bush (news - web sites) defeated Kerry, many old Clinton hands feared that this celebration would be a wake. If anything, the opposite appeared to be true as Clinton raced from event to event as if campaigning, even though aides say he tires easily and sometimes avoids the crowded parties he has always thrived on.
"He's not one to sit around and whine about the results of elections," former press secretary Jake Siewert says. "There have been very few moments in Clinton's history that have been funereal."
There is nothing but local pride over today's unveiling of the Clinton library on a 30-acre site on the banks of the Arkansas River. Already it has helped transform downtown Little Rock, which was an assortment of a few hotels, aging department stores and vacant storefronts when Clinton ran for president in 1992. Now, some of those vacant storefronts are art galleries, gift shops and chic restaurants.
Officials say the library, the 13th such presidential site, has brought more than $1 billion in development since Clinton announced the project in 1997.
"I thought I owed it to my native state," Clinton said of basing his library here. He lives in New York. "I wanted to make a contribution to the development of this city that I love so much," he told the Chamber of Commerce (news - web sites) on Tuesday.
In addition to gaining a tourist magnet, city administrators expect the area to gain prestige from activities surrounding Clinton's presidential foundation, which will have an office at the library, and the Clinton School of Public Service, an arm of the University of Arkansas. The school will offer a master's degree in public service. Clinton friend and former Arkansas senator David Pryor is the first dean.
Clinton has spent the past four years beginning the work of his presidential foundation, which deals with issues such as global HIV (news - web sites)-AIDS (news - web sites), and finally paying off his legal bills with fees from speeches and a best-selling memoir, My Life. Now he promises to spend more time in Arkansas. The library's third floor has a 2,000-square-foot two-bedroom apartment.
Tucked into a first-floor corner is an exhibit on Clinton's impeachment. It calls the investigation into his financial dealings "The Politics of Persecution." The probe expanded into other areas, including his involvement with Monica Lewinsky, the exhibit says. "Clinton acknowledged that he had not been forthcoming about the relationship," it says.
The biggest thing on display is a bulletproof black Cadillac limousine used by Clinton. Next to it is a video saluting the Secret Service. The second floor highlight is a full-size replica of Clinton's Oval Office.
Today's opening will be a presidential spectacle. Bush will attend with two former presidents: his father and Jimmy Carter. Gerald Ford, at 91, doesn't travel much, his office said. Bono, lead singer of the Irish rock band U2, will perform, as will the band's guitarist, The Edge. Former South African president Nelson Mandela will send greetings by videotape.
Clinton staffers and Democratic brethren began arriving Tuesday - a chartered jet of former aides landed Wednesday - for a rolling party through tonight. Many voice a greater need: a renewed vision for the party that Clinton transformed in the wake of similarly devastating presidential defeats in 1980, 1984 and 1988.
"No question there will be a lot of discussion about what went right and what went wrong in the 2004 election," says David Leavy, National Security Council spokesman in Clinton's second term. "It's clear for many of us ex-Clinton officials that taking the best ideas from the left and from the right in order to chart a third way in American politics that defies easy labeling is the right formula for good governance - but also for successful electoral politics."
In Clintonism, that means fiscal conservatism, hawkish defense policies, centrist solutions for divisive social issues such as abortion and gay rights and an unrelenting focus on programs to improve the economic well-being of average Americans.
"We need to bring the party back to the modern era," says John Podesta, who was a Clinton White House chief of staff. "Clinton was a guy who believed that ideas counted, and the library opening will be a reminder of that."
Bruce Reed, who was White House domestic policy adviser and now heads the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, agrees. "The Democratic Party has a lot to learn from Bill Clinton and his success," Reed says. "He carried a dozen red states in 1992 and 1996. ... His approach is the only winning formula Democrats have had in the last 30 years."
In the fractious Democratic Party, there will be dissenting views about what road to take to 2008 and beyond. Many Democrats warn now - and warned when Clinton was president - that the party cannot forget its roots as a populist champion of the underprivileged, of equal rights and social progressivism. During his failed presidential bid, former Vermont governor Howard Dean (news - web sites) referred to those holding on to those associations as the "Democratic wing of the Democratic Party."
There also is the subject of Hillary Clinton (news - web sites). Most polls find the New York senator to be the leading contender for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008. She is keeping a studiously low profile for the events surrounding the library's opening, but virtually everyone close to the Clintons believes she is considering a run.
That candidacy would undoubtedly reflect Bill Clinton's moderate approach to governing, but many Republicans believe Hillary Clinton, as another senator from a Northeastern state who has a well-documented history of 1960s protest politics, would provide a rerun of the 2004 race.
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, the national Republican chairman during Clinton's first six years in the White House, says the Clinton brand was exposed as traditional liberalism in his first term, then rescued by achievements largely after Republicans captured Congress in 1994.
"I am sure it will be a very nice tribute," Barbour said of today's events. "But I can't see it producing anything for the Democratic Party to rally around. Looking at the Kerry campaign, it looked like the Clinton people took it over. If there was a lesson in doing things the Clinton way, Kerry would have won."
The Clinton faithful acknowledge that his success may have stemmed from his once-in-a-generation political skills as much as his policy framework.
But these Democrats know that with Clinton, they had success. And they want it again.
It's simple, the old master kept saying here this week: Just add some liberal touches with a dash of conservative seasoning.
At the Chamber of Commerce luncheon, Clinton spoke of his love of the architectural flourishes of the 150,000-square-foot library complex - and complained that a British magazine had mocked it as a glorified house trailer.
"I guess that's just me," Clinton said. "A little bit of red and a little bit of blue."
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