Ted Sorensen: Bill Clinton Wasted His Skills In Office

Ted Sorensen, former chief speechwriter and special counsel to President John F. Kennedy, has not hesitated to approve the comparisons that have been made between Barack Obama and his former boss. Kennedy's closest living aide told the London Telegraph last October: "There's a sense in this country that Washington badly needs to be changed. The election of Obama will not only change the players in Washington, it'll change the game itself."
In a series of videos for the website Bigthink.com Sorensen discusses such topics as what the Clinton-Obama rivalry says about the future of the Democratic party and how this election compares to the election of 1960.
In the following video, Sorenson discusses Bill Clinton's skills as a communicator and how, in the eyes of Sorensen, he squandered those skills while in office.

Bigthink

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Comments

[DownwithFearMongers]

05:30 PM on 02/01/2008

REPUBLICANS WANT HILLARY TO WIN.ARE YOU SO BLIND THAT YOU CANT TELL WHY.

[dr4Will]

04:47 PM on 02/01/2008

screw you clinton hating jerks---get a life!!

[repearwo]

03:46 PM on 02/01/2008

Yes, Poor Bill, all he succeeded in doing in his eight years (did I say eight years, the first two term Democrat since FDR, and one of three two term Presidents in the last 60 years)was to get the Deficit reduced and head government spending in the right direction, pass NAFTA (which Democrats hate but will be a landmark positive step toward a balanced world economy), resolved an ethic conflict without going to war or losing American Soldiers, gave Americans a sense that America had goods days ahead, and fought of the rabid right wing attempts to sink his Presidency. We should all spend our time so unproductively.

[KeysDan]

03:38 PM on 02/01/2008

I encourage Mr. Sorenson to enjoy the rekindled fires of the past, and the refurbishment of Senator Edward Kennedy during the Democratic primary season. Should Senator Obama receive the Democratic nomination, it is likely that Senator Kennedy will then be coaxed into campaigning for the Senator in Outer Mongolia.

[Tator]

03:21 PM on 02/01/2008

I don't believe that for a minute. His best skill was molesting women around him. Ask Kathleen Willy, Anita Brodrick.....

[demlover1]

02:25 PM on 02/01/2008

Way to alienate the Democratic base who loves Bill Clinton (which is much of the party). Go ahead, the more you bash Bill Clinton the more you push Democrats to back McCain. What a brilliant strategy.

[realpolitic]

02:15 PM on 02/01/2008

Mr. Sorenson is so right about U.S participation in Kyoto and the land mine ban treaty. In fact, it is egregious not to ban land mines as so many children in third world countries are missing limbs as a testament to the lethality of such mines. Also, Clinton should have worked to bring into alignment the drug sentencing laws that unfairly incarcerate black offenders for longer sentences. I do not agree at the moment about the International Criminal Court Treaty. Such participation would hand conservatives another rallying cry.

Overall, it is very welcome to hear some idealism again in the political arena and to get away from Bushian sound bites and cynical fear mongering.

[Democrab]

12:08 PM on 02/01/2008

I personally hope the Bill Clinton gets to "squander" more of his abilities on this country. We need it badly.

Writing speeches doesn't really qualify anyone as an expert on political matters anyway.

[getalife80]

11:53 AM on 02/01/2008

This is true. Clinton got a few things right and a few things wrong(who doesn't), but he was extremely talented guy who could have done so much more. He wasted 8 years.

[JimK2]

10:45 AM on 02/01/2008

Obama has never ran against an opponent except Allen Keys. Obama has won every election on technicalities by his opponent being disquified, leaving he (Obama) the only choice on the ballot or confidental psychiatric medical records being released to the plublic, or like Blair Hull who was falsy charged (by rummor spread by Obama team) that he threaten to kill his wife during an argument, after he was arrested for battery years earlier, although charges were never filed. Nevertheless, the damage to Hull’s campaign was done. And then there is Jack Ryan who flames out and forced to drop out, in a major sex scandel. Not one or two election's but every one of the 5 elections Obama has won stinks. Obama is part of the currupt Chicago Daly political machine. Obama sure does not believe in democracy and counting the votes and will do anything to win.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-070403obama-ballot,1,57567.story?page=1&ctrack=1&cset=true
http://maroon.uchicago.edu/online_edition/viewpoints/2006/11/14/remember-blair-hull-barack-obama-does
http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2007/04/david_axelrod_o.html

[Bibbo]

10:35 AM on 02/01/2008

How banal and boring is the final versdict on the Clinton phenomenon.
A man with an outsized personality who was blessed by genetics with natural ability in both native intelligence and communication skills.This is the "stuff" of which greatness is made. There however is a another ingredient thats not "genetic" but based in human choice(will) and thats character.All three ingredients(brains,communication skills,character) give the mix from which greatness springs. Sadly for all-The the good for the country that could have been was squandered by selfish a narcisisstic man to whom "much was given"..

[duboisist]

10:19 AM on 02/01/2008

Ted Sorenson is who the Obama campaign brings out to talk about the future?
Will somebody please tell me WHAT THE Obama campaign stands for?
They make outlandish claims in favor of Sen. Obama and against Sen. Clinton. When they get caught being illogical, inconsistent, and/or doing plain old political pandering they blame the Clinton campaign, blame their victims or another marginalized group, or explain how the rest of us are to stupid to know what they meant.


I could not care less about what Ted Sorensen says if his other leg was in the grave too. If Ted Sorensen would have gotten his way there would have never been a civil rights, women's rights or any other movement for justice that has happened in America, or anywhere else in the world, in the past 50 years. He wanted to maintain the status quo to keep those who had power in power and anything that threatened the status quo was a nuisance.
I don't want to go back to Ted Sorensen's "good old days" because they weren't that good for me.

[Wulfstan]

10:14 AM on 02/01/2008

The Hillary Obama Show is just like American Idol.
It disgusts me.

These corporate stooges are totally unprogressive.

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/usa/2008/02/the_american_economy_faces_the.html

[LuckyDay]

09:26 AM on 02/01/2008

Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan have a lot in common. They both enjoyed irrational exuberance by adoring fans who closed their eyes to their many shortcomings and failures. Reagan was the great communicator who lulled his public to sleep so they could not see the tax increases he put into effect under the guise of revenue enhancers, his arms sales, his deregulation of the savings and loan industry and everything else. The Republicans still worship him. Clinton talked so damned much that you just wanted to stuff oily rags in his mouth. Clinton was a great at strutting around and profiling.

[vbond]

06:56 AM on 02/01/2008

THE REAL AUDACITY OF HOPE.

If you do not believe that a mass and sustained social movement is necessary to deal with the unprecedented crises ahead, almost anyone left in the race will do, and will be far better than Bush.

If you do believe that the political and governmental change that we need will require unprecedented social change, then Obama is, literally, the only hope, and even he is not a sure thing.

Ted Sorensen is eloquently right about Bill Clinton, and he is right about Barack Obama.

I would only add - in sympathy with Clinton - that he had neither the intention nor the skills to motivate, assemble and deploy the kind of citizen engagement that we need.

Rhetoric alone would not have done the trick for Clinton, and rhetoric alone - no matter how inspiring - will not do it for Obama.

Clinton's other disadvantage is that he did not have the kind of palpable national crisis that is necessary to enable the social changes that were and are required to transform our country.

We will never know how he would have responded to 9/11.

Unfortunately, this nation's only national crisis under Clinton was Clinton himself.

Obama certainly does not lack the intention to motivate and direct us to change this nation.

This is the essence of his vision for America: citizen engagement on an unprecedented scale.

He also will not lack for crises.

I only hope that he - and we - are ready when they come.