Open Letter to Bill Clinton

You are facing one of the leadership challenges of your life. You need to decide whether to put the interests of the United States and the world ahead of your personal interests. Doing so means setting aside getting your wife elected and maintaining control over the Democratic Party.

Only you -- not former President Jimmy Carter, not Al Gore, not any other Democrat -- can convince your wife that the country's best interests dictate that she should abandon her failed attempt to become the country's first female president. It is far more important that both of you dedicate the next five months to uniting your supporters behind the election of Senator Barack Obama as the next president of the United States.

That's what leadership is all about.

No one can doubt that you have been a great leader for the U.S. and the world during the past sixteen years. The contrast of your presidency with that of President George W. Bush is so painful that it doesn't merit recounting here. Yet through all of President Bush's failed attempts to repudiate your accomplishments as president, you have stayed above the fray and dedicated yourself to make the world a better place, using your personal foundation as a vehicle. In so doing, you have gained the admiration of leaders throughout the world, including many of your former detractors.

One of your greatest qualities as president was facing reality: in 1994 you recognized that you had to abandon your wife's flawed health care plan in order to save your presidency. On welfare you faced the reality that the welfare plans of the Democrats' New Deal weren't working and joined with Republicans to implement the welfare-to-work plan. On trade you faced the realities of globalization and supported free trade agreements like NAFTA and GATT, even while sacrificing the political support of the labor unions. On immigration you faced the reality that expanding visas for legal immigrants was critical for innovation, especially in the high tech industry. Your brilliant economic policies ignited to the greatest period of growth and innovation since the post-war period and even created a surplus for the federal budget, a dramatic contrast with President George W. Bush's mammoth deficit spending.

Now you need to face the reality that your wife has already lost her bid to become the first woman president. The ultimate outcome of the primary campaign has been known since Senator Obama won ten consecutive elections in March.

All too late, Senator Clinton tried to remake her image from a Washington elitist who gained experience as your spouse into Rosie the Riveter, a tough-talking fighter who has endured sniper fire and advocates complex solutions for the working class and the elderly. To derail Obama's campaign, she teamed with John McCain in attempting to pin an elitist label on Obama, who grew up with a single mother on food stamps and gave up the potential for the lucrative career as a Wall Street lawyer to work in the projects in Chicago's South Side.

Hillary played up racial fears about Obama by highlighting his associations with Reverend Jeremiah Wright and Louis Farrakhan and suggested that this devoted Christian was not a Muslim "as far as I know." As she became more desperate, she reopened fears of September 11, threatened to "obliterate Iran," and pandered to the electorate with her summer gas tax holiday that she knew would never come to pass. These actions earned her the support of Rush Limbaugh, whose crossover Republican voters, eager to keep these attacks on Senator Obama going, likely provided the margin of her slim victory in Indiana.

Regrettably, the result of her "scorched earth" campaign to destroy Senator Barack Obama's bid to become the first non-white president has only helped Senator John McCain's election bid and provided him with free video clips for the fall campaign. By pitting whites and Hispanics against blacks, old against young, blue collar against white collar, and women against men, she has employed the politics of "divide and conquer" instead of calling for national unity to restore our country to its former greatness.

If you really want to help our country, you will convince you wife to stop dragging out the inevitable and get behind Obama's campaign to defeat John McCain while there is still time. Both you and your wife have proven themselves to be dedicated campaigners. Now you need to work just as hard to elect Senator Obama.

Although your time to lead the country has past, there is so much you can still do to help the world. But your most important leadership task now to help Barack Obama become your logical successor, because Obama is the only person who can unite the country to face the ever-increasing problems of the economy, racial divides, education, health care, energy and the environment, and poverty, while getting our troops out of Iraq and rebuilding our relationships with the rest of the world.

Bill George is the author of best-selling books True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership and Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value, has been named one of "Top 25 Business Leaders of the Past 25 Years" by PBS, and was CEO and Chairman of Medtronic from 1991 until 2001.

Comments

[clevelandchick]

Mr. George,

Your words will fall on deaf ears. Just this weekend Bill Clinton was in WVA telling voters that Obama is mocking them. Not true at all, appallingly immature of him and so destructive to this party. Bill Clinton has acted as despicable as anyone else in their camp during this race. Not only have I lost all respect I had for Hillary, ditto goes for Bill.

[Romulus]

Ditto for me.

[WarriorLemming]

I thought the same thing, clevelandchick it's a nice gesture on on the part of, Bill George to appeal to President Clinton but it's a total waste of time. I get the impression that he is as deluded as she is and they seem to have little concern for the Democrat Party "scorched earth" is their agenda with the remarks I see coming from Clinton camp. Shameful!

[McPander]

Leadership = Bill Clinton, How has that worked so far?
I think this primary is for the leadership of the Democratic party, it is time for all to see that the pandering Clinton's have no clothes. That is why they are fighting so hard. They are not only loosing the Presidency but loosing the head of the party.
I do not know if Obama can put Humpty Dumpty back together again, but that is his roll now. The party is never handed over without a fight and he should just keep on keeping on doing what he does best, uniting .
The King is dead, long live the King.

[burnt]

Mr. George,

Whereas I applaud your attempt to initiate some degree of logical consideration and action by the Clinton campaign, I fear that you have chosen the most difficult path of all those available.

Hillary Clinton was certainly ill-advised by her strategists. One has to remember that Bill Clinton is one of her oldest and closest strategists. Furthermore, you must also take root in the reality that most all of the negative tactics and character traits that Hillary has displayed "from day one", were taught to her or reinforced by Bill Clinton.

They are one in the same. Although it can't hurt to try, appealing to some deeper Bill Clinton "sense of shared purpose" is a mostly foolish waste of time. His actions can be easily classed as stemming from a deep well of self-serving motivations. His sense of moral superiority supersedes almost any possibility of reasoning to act in the best interests of the Democratic Party.

I don't doubt for one moment that he might "play" at what you suggest... as in the cases of the Gore and Kerry campaigns. But as to actual commitment to the ideals you suggest? You may as well ask Bill to refund the $800,000 push payment he received from the Columbian Government. It's just not going to happen.

Best just to kick both of them to the curb (dynastically speaking), and realize that those Clinton supporters who threaten to vote Republican were never Democrats in the first place... just like Hillary.

[BADEN]

Thank you for saying what needs to be said.

[CindyV]

You are living on another planet if you believe the republicans don't have dirt on Obama. They don't need Hillary to swiftboat him. They were able to tear down Al Gore and John Kerry, two much better candidates than Bush. And they'll tear down Obama with Obama's "bitter" comments, with Obama' s relationship to Pastor Wright, with Wrights words, and with Michelle Obama's "finally proud" comments. The republicans have never needed anyone's help in attacking democrats. I wish you Obama supporters would stop making such an outlandish statements against Hillary. You and your ilk are the main reason I'll sit out in November.

[auntiewillow]

You know?
I wanted John Edwards.
He was long gone by the time Primary season rolled around.
The more days go by the more I like Obama.
But you know what? I'm voting for the Democratic Candidate (even if Hillary somehow makes it).

If you sit this one out, and McCain wins, I'll make sure to remind you how stupid and selfish you are as we both pick through the rubble scavenging for food, hoping the police don't stop us to quiz us on our bible verses.
I'm just sayin'....­..if you hate Obama more than you hate your country, please turn off your computer and start stockpiling tuna fish....be­lieve me, we'd all need it under President McCain.

[Terriac]

Very aptly put. People have got to wake up to reality and stop sounding like spoiled children on the schoolground who will pick up their toys and go home if they don't get their way.

[Mij13]

Nobody was looking forward to, or applauding louder for Hillary Clinton's nomination back in '07. But she has run a filthy, and frankly, bad campaign. What Obama's supporters write here is one thing. People are still getting over the nastiness that's been going on. But the Republicans have one of the weakest candidates in recent history this year. He's too old; he's a flip-flopper to top all flip-floppers; and he's promised to essentially give us four more years of GWB, at a time most people are rightly sick of this president. Of course they'll go after Obama about things like Rev. Wright, but they had better be carefull, because McCain has a couple of friends and "spiritual advisors" that make Wright look mainstream. Obama is the strongest candidate we Democrats have had in a very long time. I pray he succeeds.

[dollphingurl]

when Obama's campaign responded to the "ageist" comments with "bizarre rant", i chuckled and said to myself, this is gonna be FUNNNNNN.

OBAMA '08 AND '12 (sorry HillDog & Bubba)

[BeauBasset]

Likewise, the GOP will have have as much if not more dirt on the Clintons. The scandals, the pardons, the relationships with foreign governments, just for starters. She hasn't had to deal with any of this yet.

[UpstateSC]

All of the expamples you listed were ones that Hillary tried to use to beat Obama. If the Reps use them and are able to beat Obama, will it be because of Hillary supporters like you who will sit out the election in November or because they are better at siftboating than Hillary? Or maybe it will be a little of both. In any case, it seems that you would prefer four more years of the same mess than a change to clean up the Bush mess.

[photochick]

What makes you think the republicans aren't salivating to bring up impeachment; Monica; White Water; the fraud case going on in CA now; Walmart and I could go on and on and on and on and on. Trust me, they have more on HC than you can shake a stick at and they can't wait to get to it. So, you should stop drinking your particular flavor of kool-aid.

[MrWinky]

And let's not forget her story of the Tuzla Tigress. Yeah, the Republicans aren't licking their chops on that one.

Or her discounting of black people and their vote. "Hey, we Republicans had the first black NSA director, and 2 black secretaries of state. The Clintons will pander to you, and then nominate a black HUD director, if you are lucky. Who do you love?"

Or her lie with the Indiana magnet factory closing.

Plus all the things which she tried to seem conservative on - guns, religion, etc., they are going to laugh her out of town.