[A-List] Have cigar will travel

["Keaney Michael" <Michael.Keaney@xxxxxx>]

I couldn't resist including this one. The manner in which Clinton's
speech is reported is so fawning as to make Mills & Boon positively
brusque. More seriously, however, it's indicative of the relative ease
felt about the Clinton administration as compared to its successor. It's
also symbolic of how much the Labour Party conference is intended to
reach a US audience these days (Capitol Hill constituency).


Spellbound by the Great Communicator
Clinton gives masterclass in the art of speech-making

MICHAEL SETTLE
The Herald, 3 October 2002

IT was a masterclass in the art of political persuasion.

For nearly 50 minutes, Bill Clinton, the Great Communicator, teased and
charmed an audience longing to hear a soothing voice of America
different from the shrill, bellicose tones of George W Bush.

Such was the masterly performance that even Kevin Spacey, the
Oscar-winning Hollywood actor sitting in the audience, and used to
giving glittering performances, could only marvel at the feet of the
master.

The former president's speech focused on the two key issues of the week,
which had proved so bothersome for the prime minister: Iraq and public
service reform. With consummate ease, a relaxed Mr Clinton weaved his
magic spell in a wide-ranging address which had as its heart the same
themes of Tony Blair's address just 24 hours earlier: interdependency
and change.

Of course, it all began with a joke, just to put his attentive audience
at ease. A mere reference to himself as "WJ Clinton representing
Arkansas CLP" had the audience laughing uproariously.

With no dramatic gestures or exaggerated intonations, the former US
president referred to the battle between hope and fear. He spoke of how
September 11 was a "microcosm" of how the world had become an
"integrated global community".

Mr Clinton argued: "We must build the institutions that will help us to
integrate. That's why we must stand against the threats, whether they
are from weapons of mass destruction, terrorists, tyrants, Aids, climate
change, poverty, ignorance, disease, which would tatter this world and
prevent us ever coming together as one."

He went further, saying: "We must move from interdependence to
integration because our common humanity matters more than our
interesting differences and makes the expression of those differences
possible."

The Blackpool gathering was already melting to the Clinton charm. The
former president even succeeded in winning over the diehard socialists
when he ate a piece of humble pie.

He acknowledged his country's critics by declaring the US should not
seek to "run the world" and that true interdependence meant there were
times America would not always get its way.

Drawing sober applause, he pointed out the West gave "hardly a peep"
against Iraq when Saddam Hussein was attacking his own people in the
1980s, then "cruelly abandoned" Iraqi insurgents after the 1991 Gulf
War.

The hard lefties were beginning to sit up straight in their seats. On
the threat from Saddam, he stood shoulder to shoulder with Mr Blair,
emphasising the need to go through the United Nations. Yet in a
reference to Kosovo, hinted that if diplomacy failed with Saddam, then
the "last resort" of military use must be considered.

He said: "We will not allow ourselves to be defeated by tyrants with
weapons of mass destruction."

Knowing no doubt that some 40% of delegates earlier in the week had
voted against any military intervention, he warned about responding to
Saddam "in the wrong way".

To another gushing round of applause, he noted: "I don't care how
precise your bombs and your weapons are, when you set them off, innocent
people will die."

He stressed the West should call Saddam's bluff and get the inspectors
in while working for regime change in "non-military ways". In a clear
difference of emphasis with Mr Bush and the White House hawks, Mr
Clinton said: "Of course, we have to stand against weapons of mass
destruction but, if we can, we have to do it in the context of building
the international institutions that in the end we will have to depend
upon to guarantee the peace and security of the world," Mr Blair
applauded energetically.

The ex-president also reaffirmed his view that the "most pressing
challenge" was not in fact Saddam but al Qaeda, and he was critical of
the US withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.

The 42nd American president paid a personal tribute to Mr Blair's
diplomatic efforts over the last few weeks. "I appreciate what the prime
minister is trying to do in terms of bringing America and the rest of
the world to a common position," he said. "If he weren't there to do
this, I doubt if anyone else could."

Having conquered one demon, Mr Clinton took on another. He came to his
friend's aid on the domestic front.

On safe ground, he spoke about the peace efforts in Northern Ireland and
echoed the mantra of the long struggle undertaken by the civil rights
campaigners of America in the 1960s.

"I would like to say to the people of the land I have loved so well:
keep your eyes on the prize and don't turn back."

On more dangerous terrain, he took on the crunch issue of reforming
public services.

The Labour representative from Little Rock calmly and coolly lauded the
third way approach between socialism and capitalism.

"The ultimate case for the third way is that it works: good values, good
vision, good policies. We had eight years of evidence in the United
States and now five years of evidence here that it works."

Without mentioning PFI, he went on: "The message coming out of this
conference is schools and hospitals first, more reform, increase the
pressure for reform, New Labour will be the party of change."

It was stirring stuff for the faithful and the faithful were duly
stirred. Of course, the darling of the democrats did not miss a trick
and derided Iain Duncan Smith's opposition.

After he had left the stage, the audience was in awe and full of
superlatives.

Alan Knight, a union delegate from Stoke-on-Trent, summed up the
grassroots's feeling, noting: "He was great. It's a pity that he's not
president any more. That was a president's speech and I think Tony Blair
will have learned a lot."

------

Clinton: 'New Labour is the party for change'

These are edited highlights from Bill Clinton's speech.

Iraq

"We will not allow ourselves to be defeated by tyrants with weapons of
mass destruction. That will not happen. But we could reduce the future
that we can build for our children if we respond to the challenges in
the wrong way.

"Whatever we do, we have to have a care for the security of our nation,
the character of our people and the future of our children. We must
respond in a way that is consistent with the larger obligation we all
have to build a more integrated global community.

"Of course, we have to stand against weapons of mass destruction, but if
we can we have to do it in the context of building the international
institutions that in the end we will have to depend upon to guarantee
the peace and security of the world and the human rights of all people
everywhere."

Global integration

"We must move from interdependence to integration because our common
humanity matters more than our interesting differences and makes the
expression of those differences possible."

Tony Blair

"I appreciate what the prime minister is trying to do in terms of
bringing America and the rest of the world to a common position. If he
weren't there to do this, I doubt if anyone else could. I am very, very
grateful."

Third way

"The ultimate case for the third way is that it works: good values, good
vision, good policies. We had eight years of evidence in the United
States and now five years of evidence here that it works.

"The third way in the end must lift our adversaries as well as our
friends. The children we must never see because they are too far away,
as well as those just under our feet."

Northern Ireland

"I would like to say to the people of the land I have loved so well:
'Keep your eyes on the prize and don't turn back'."

Reform

"The message coming out of this conference is schools and hospitals
first, more reform, increase the pressure for reform, New Labour will be
the party of change.

"Unless we are good and getting better at home . . . We cannot tell
people to make a more integrated world unless they think we are making
more integrated societies."

Tories

"I understand now that your Tories are calling themselves compassionate
conservatives. I admire a good phrase . . . and I know that all politics
is a combination of rhetoric and reality. Here is what I want you to
know: the rhetoric is compassionate, the conservative is the reality."