RANDOM ACCESS

RANDOM ACCESS

"The Perfect Machine"
Bill Clinton As President of the Century

Why is Bill Clinton the best President we've had in decades? This question, (laughed at on its face by most Republicans), has several answers. For me, a non-partisan Independent, this question was answered via the radio. It was just a couple of weeks ago, on the day of the Presidential election, and Clinton was making a flurry of phone calls to radio stations urging voters to go out and vote for Al Gore. This by itself surprised me, given the rumors we've been seeded with of the distance between Clinton and Gore. So maybe I was softened up by what appeared to be a rather telling gesture of "bigness" on Clinton's part. Election be damned, the guy could have just went to Brunai and got lap dances (okay, so the lap dances probably happened anyway). Still, Clinton sucked it up, and got on the stump one last time for the automaton we all know as Al Gore.

Clinton's entire presidential career and political ethos was brought into sharp relief when he called New York's WBAI radio station. Calling WBAI (known for it's harsh critique of government and wide support for Ralph Nader), Clinton was either engaging in a supreme act of media courage, or simply didn't know what he was getting into. It goes without saying that you would never have heard Reagan or Bush on WBAI. Either way, the President displayed why he has emerged as a winner despite his rocky White House tenure. Roving reporter Amy Goodman, known for her uncompromising and left leaning reporting, brought the ruckus to Bill-and he lived. Not only did he live, he thrived. Dispensing quickly with the President's agenda of Gore promoting, Goodman lobbed an unrelenting barrage of questions at Clinton that most mainstream journalists would consider touchy subjects. Good questions, but touchy none-the-less. But in rapid succession, Clinton answered the questions regarding the death penalty, Puerto Rican human rights issues, and a myriad of economic points. Clinton rocked. I was surprised.

I'd assumed that while Clinton did well on mainstream outlets, he'd get his ass handed to him by the savvy indie media reporters like WBAI's Goodman. I was wrong. And in the process it was revealed just how good a President we are losing. Few presidents of the last few decades have had such a firm grasp on such a wide range of issues on the global and local scale. At one point in the conversation, Clinton got testy, and accused Goodman of being combative and somewhat disrespectful. Sure she was a little combative, but putting the Pres. through his paces isn't disrespectful, it's just called being a smart reporter. But since Clinton was extending himself on election day for Gore, he probably had little patience (understandably) for those who wanted to make his call about his now waning presidency.

It was a telling stain on the usually fair minded WBAI, that the rest of the station took the opportunity over the course of the next few days to rip Clinton apart as if he was wrong for even calling the station. WBAI's ever self-congratulatory talk show host Utrice Leid tried to diss Clinton, but the only thing she could come up with a mistake Clinton made by identifying the East Coast's large Nigerian population as being in Rhode Island when it is in fact in Staten Island. Ooooo, BAD President! Hey, I may not be charged with running the most powerful nation in the world, but I'm from New York City, and the Nigerian piece of info is news to me. Such exacting criticism of Clinton made me wonder, how many of these people could do better? How many of us could even "match" Clinton's performance and grasp of the issues? Not many. We can rip him now, but in about two years, we'll all probably long for The Days of Clinton. Bye, bye big guy.

ONE BIG PARTY
[how bad will the hangover be?]

[AIRLOCK]