William Jefferson Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States, will deliver the keynote address at Netroots Nation in Pittsburgh, PA tonight. I’ll be liveblogging it here starting at 9:20 EDT.
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The introductory speakers are running over time. Lots of talk about health care reform and the rage of the teabaggers…
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, please welcome the 42nd President of the United States… Standing ovation.
“42 percent of Republicans in North Carolina think Barack Obama wasn’t born in America…I’m glad it’s that low.”
Clinton apologizes for his raspy voice: “I’ve been on too many airplanes these days.”
He tells the crowd that he has begun reading blogs as often or more often than other periodicals. He praises the progressive blogosphere: “If you’re taking a side on an issue, you don’t have to pretend you’re not.”
The president has become an activist out of office: “The great thing about not being president anymore is that you can say whatever you want. The bad part is, no one cares what you say anymore…unless your wife is Secretary of State.”
He gives Hillary credit for introducing him to the world of nongovernmental organizations. Defining the world of the 21st Century as a matter of improving the world, he cites programs to provide retrovirals in Africa. He has lobbied pharmaceutical companies to cut the price of a critical tuberculosis medicine for AIDS patients by 60%. “This will save a couple hundred thousand lives a year.”
Bill Clinton isn’t red, he’s green: his presidential library is “the most efficient in the entire system of federal buildings.”
“All of this is important, but politics matters too.” He wants the United States to go to the Copenhagen conference with credibility in battling greenhouse gases.
Mortgage reform. Health care reform. Bill Clinton hitting on all cylinders.
He hails a new relationship with the world. Hillary is returning from a Congo refugee camp, one of the toughest in the world: “more US representatives need to be in such places,” he says, drawing applause.
“We have entered a new era of progressive politics, which if we do it right could last 30-40 years…it is something I have literally spent my entire adult life working for.”
He recollects the midterm elections of 1966, calls it the defining moment when the conservative revolution began: “The Republicans exploited the divisions, exploited the fears, built on resentments…we tried to reverse it, but when Robert Kennedy was killed we lost.”
Calling Nixon “practically a liberal” compared to the Republican presidents to come. Hammering Reagan for exploiting racial and class divisions, he recounts the shift to trickle-down economics. The Republicans enjoyed a slightly larger political base, a fact that only began to change in his own reelection.
Finally talking about the latest Bush, he admits that “compassionate conservatism” was a brilliant campaign slogan: “but once elected, he ran into the old adage that life’s greatest curse is answered prayers.” After the 2002 and 2004 elections — held in the shadow of 9/11 — the Democrats finally became the majority in 2006.
“America is a different place today. We don’t have time for the phony divisions of race, religion, sexual orientation, or anything else…we are too diverse in every way.” Hailing the election of Barack Obama, he says that every parent in America can finally tell their children: “you can live up to your potential.”
The United States, he says, will have no majority race by 2020. “We need an honest, principled debate…”
Yelling breaks out; we have protesters in the building. “Are you one of those health care protesters?” Clinton asks. A standing ovation. “I’ll be glad to talk about that.” Apparently it’s gay activists yelling about Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. He hammers the gay community’s lack of support for his attempt to repeal the policy. He regrets how DADT was implemented, saying that the “don’t ask” provision was ignored by the officer corps.
On DOMA: “I signed it because I thought it should be left up to the states,” he says. The White House had to fight just to keep a constitutional amendment from being sent to the states.
He uses this series of gay issues to illuminate his point: we have to move on. The GOP is sitting around waiting for the president to fail, hoping to terrify moderate Democrats into killing reform, because they know reform will put the GOP out of power for a generation.
The difficulties of reform: it’s complex, making up 16% of the economy. Second, the costs are unclear: “the only things the CBO can count as savings today are Medicare and Medicaid cuts.” Electronic medical records and “best practices” systems are not so easy to quantify. Last, quoting Macchiavelli, he says that the hardest thing to accomplish is changing the way of things.
Clinton favors the public option. Praising Obama’s performance in New Hampshire, he says the president has made a simple-to-understand case for the reform bill: (1) the status quo is bankrupting us (2) talking up popular items in the bill (3) debunking the rumors; he is particularly firm about the importance of living wills. He calls on progressives to pass reform to preserve their majority.
Stepping back in time, he debunks much of the conventional wisdom about the failed 1994 reform effort. His point: pass reform, or the insurance companies will rewrite history to prevent future reform efforts. He feels the same way about climate change: “We will never get China and India in the Copenhagen process without a bill.”
He recommends that cash-for-clunkers be “put on steroids” with the arrival of electric cars: “there should be a six-month waiting list before the first ones roll off the assembly line.” He rattles off ideas to encourage retrofitting buildings for efficiency, to enthusiastic applause. Our emphasis, he says, should be problem-solving.
Clinton raises issues left unfinished under his term, such as AmeriCorps, saying that Obama can finally meet the goals he had in 1992. “Was it worth waiting a long time to get it right? Yes, it is.”
“I’m not afraid of argument,” he says, praising the audience member that yelled about DADT. He wants progressives to redouble their efforts to change America. “We cannot be afraid to argue…we have to be activists.”
The statistic he is most proud of? One hundred times as many Americans got out of poverty in his eight years as in the twelve years of Reagan-Bush. “We are assaulting the inequality and unsustainability that bedevil the world,” he says.
Thank you, and God bless you.
