Bill Clinton Gives Obama a Lesson

In “Back to Work,” the book that he has just published, Bill Clinton provides his recipes to restore America’s economic health by getting back to work.

In 2004, Bill Clinton wrote “My Life,” a book that bore no resemblance to him, although it told the story of his presidency and the long path that he took to get there from Arkansas. The former president of the United States is, indeed, not the kind of man to wallow in his past, nor to bemoan the past as an excuse to take things easy. When I interviewed him in July 2004, he admitted that he did not like to look back on the past. Besides, he told me, his favorite song while he was at the White House says it all — “Don’t Stop (Thinking about Tomorrow).”

This time, the book that he has just written is in perfect harmony with his urge to look ahead to the more challenging future that awaits his country. Entitled “Back to Work,” it is a program on what needs to be done for the United States to regain the economic and political influence that it had just a few years ago — as it was under his presidency. “A lot of Americans,” he writes, “are not prepared to accept their country abandoning its economic, political and security leadership.”*

Being Critical of Obama

This is clearly an implicit way of criticizing what Barack Obama has not done. Without ever naming the president, he reiterates Steve Jobs’ criticism of Obama for having his eyes too glued to the obstacles that prevent progress, and not enough on progress itself.

Even on a tactical level, he laments Obama’s inflexibility, which is at times dogmatic. “We can reinvent this country all over again and recover our economic status,” writes Clinton. “But to do this, ideology will have to be put aside and cooperation (with the Republicans) privileged over conflict.”* And at the risk of shocking a lot of his Democratic friends, Bill Clinton acknowledges that there are positive elements in the program of the tea party, those conservative extremists who want less government and less taxes.

Influence

Besides, to restart the American machine, with its nine million unemployed (the same percentage of the population as in France, but with less social “shock-absorbers”), he proposes two measures that are sure to be approved by Republicans: a 10 percent decrease in corporate tax and a 5 percent ceiling on funds held by Americans abroad, which would come back and be reinvested in the American economy to create jobs.

Could “Back to Work” be a sign that the “comeback kid” has not said his last word and that he is considering a new candidacy, at the age of 65, against an outgoing president, whose secretary of state is Hillary Clinton, his wife? He denies it, although he is in favor of amending the Constitution to allow a former president stand for election a third time, after handing over the reins for four years. But what is sure is that, considering the influence Bill Clinton still has within the Democratic Party, Barack Obama would do well not to neglect his advice on rekindling American leadership.

*Editor’s Note: These quotes from “Back to Work,” while accurately translated, could not be verified.