Clinton pleads for ‘home improvement’

Analysis:

The second story on Clinton’s talk in Grand Rapids at the Econ Club’s annual dinner had more substance that the front page story. Why do you think the Press chose to put the more substantive information in the region section instead of the front page? This story mentions that Clinton visited the grave site of former President Gerald Ford, but most of the article dealt with what Clinton has been involved in since he left the oval office.

The Press article mentions that Clinton has been focused on “investing in the needs of the world’s poor and sick,” but never says how Clinton is accomplishing this other than providing funding through his foundation. The story also says that Clinton stressed the need to invest in “energy efficiencies, health care reform, and greater access to public education.” He was also cited as saying that “$40 billion dedicated toward combating AIDS and other diseases could affect 2 billion people, comparing the cost to the $100 billion spent on the war in Afghanistan and $500 billion on the war in Iraq.” Unfortunately, the story does not mention that his party, the Democratic Party recently voted to provide the Bush administration with over $100 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The story goes on to say that US approval in the Muslim world improved after providing aid for relief in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, although the Press story provides no source for this “approval rating.” There is another poll that is cited from Gallup on Clinton’s popularity since the Monica Lewinsky affair. In fact, this was the only mention of anything from the eight years that Clinton was in office. Why do you think that the Press writer did not bother to compare his current work or comments with Clinton’s record as President? Clinton is also the only source cited in the story.

Story:

As expected, former President Bill Clinton put partisan politics aside during his speech Monday to the Economic Club of Grand Rapids.

He leaves most of that to the presidential campaign of his wife, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton.

But the 60-year-old former president delivered an impassioned plea for investing in the needs of the world’s poor and sick, in keeping with the second career he has carved out since he left office in 2001.

Before his speech, Clinton made an unscheduled stop at the grave of former President Ford at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum. He paused for a minute or two inside the gated site north of the museum.

“I liked him and admired him very much,” Clinton said.

In his speech to an audience of about 2,100 at DeVos Place, he also called for “home improvement” in America.

That included new economic investment in energy efficiencies, health care reform, greater access to public education and changes in “school culture” to transform troubled public schools.

Clinton noted that $40 billion dedicated toward combating AIDS and other diseases could affect 2 billion people, comparing the cost to the $100 billion spent on the war in Afghanistan and $500 billion on the war in Iraq.

“You cannot kill, jail or occupy everybody that might be against you,” he said.

In a speech that obliquely mentioned Hillary Clinton three times, it was about as close to an overt political statement as he made.

He noted an unexpected benefit from his partnership with former President George H.W. Bush when the two traveled to nations hit by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

Before that, approval of the United States in largely Muslim Indonesia was at about 30 percent, Clinton said, a number that doubled to 60 percent as U.S. aid to the region eventually surpassed $1 billion. Approval for Osama bin Laden went down during the same period, he said. He called that reversal “stunning and very inexpensive.”

Clinton’s partnership with Bush the elder dovetailed with his own rising popularity with the American people, even as the rating of President Bush has sunk to historic lows.

A February Gallup poll found 63 percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of the former president, the highest since 1998, before Clinton’s relationship with intern Monica Lewinsky was revealed.

Clinton and Bush the elder cemented their post-White House alliance with fundraising appeals after Hurricane Katrina.

At the same time, Clinton embarked on advocacy work around the globe through the William J. Clinton Foundation, where he has directed much of his energy toward fighting AIDS and other diseases in Africa.

In his speech, he noted: “One billion people never get a clean glass of water, 2.5 billion people have no access to sanitation and nearly 1 billion people go to bed hungry every night.”

Global growth has simply left much of the world behind, he said.

“The population is growing in the poorest places quicker than the economy can keep up with it,” he said.

Officials at the Economic Club declined to say how much they paid for his appearance.