The Rescue of Ling, Lee, and the National Mood

There are few purely joyous moments in the course of daily global events. The homecoming of the two female journalists from North Korea -- Laura Ling and Euna Lee was one of these. Hurray!

The sight of these two freed women, stepping off the plane which brought them back, broke through the summer doldrums of the increasingly nasty health care debate, it took our minds off, for a moment, of the tragic demise of freedom in Iran, and it even brought the sun out, after days and days of deluge.

And it was one of those rare times when everybody looked good. Bill Clinton for taking the risk to go to North Korea and to draw on his wildly popular political capital to convince the North Korean leadership let these captives go free. His wife Hillary looked good, because she was not in competition with her husband, she worked in partnership with him. And the Obama administration had the self-confidence to let him go and not care about who takes credit for the rescue.

Strikingly, when the two women disembarked, after tears, hugs and kisses, and a few words from Al Gore, Bill Clinton chose not to speak. This said more about the former president than any of his words could have conveyed.

This post was originally published on ChelseaGreen.com.

Madeleine M. Kunin is the former Governor of Vermont and was the state's first woman governor. She served as Ambassador to Switzerland for President Clinton, and was on the three-person panel that chose Al Gore to be Clinton's VP. She is the author of Pearls, Politics, and Power: How Women Can Win and Lead from Chelsea Green Publishing.

Comments

[TomTheAlmostUgly]

A happy ending to the only two journalists in the USA who actually WENT INTO THE FIELD. That hasn't happened since Woodward and Bernstein. Every other journalist just rewrites the latest RNC fax.

[MattWEsq]

Bill Clinton is a genius and national treasure. I wish he could run for President again.

[partyofone]

in effect he did in 2008, and lost.

[handyallen]

sorry fool he won the supreme court stole the election

[kagenin]

I had my doubts, I'll be the first to admit. Nothing involving North Korea is ever so easy. Whatever Bill said or however he negotiated, something got through to the North Korean leadership, paranoid and delusional as they are.

I'm still dumbstruck with just how easy he made statesmanship look. I doubt anyone in the Bush administration could have ever done what Clinton just pulled off. I HIGHLY doubt Bush himself would ever do something like this, even if he could, which after 8 the last years, I am confident in saying he never could even in his wildest dreams, negotiate across from Kim Jong-Il.

[Zigman61]

It's simple - thank you President Clinton. Much happiness is wished to the Ladies and their families. Mr. Clinton, regardless of little missteps in life (and we ALL have them), is a class act. Let's just be thankful and move on. It was a bright spot in all this mess that's going on. His "afterglow" was earned. Let him alone.

[carolr51]

I always did like President Clinton...

[scotia626]

Clinton not speaking was a measure of his leadership. bravo to him.

[oregonbird]

Beck managed to suggest his silence was due to afterglow. It's all in how you look at things, really.

[swift goat pet for truth]

Why would ANYONE find ANYTHING Glenn Beck has to say credible?

[Dosadi]

Why would they quote him?

[PDinCA]

Beck looks at things through manure-tinted lenses.

[tedmore123]

You would be hard pressed to see joy and jubilation at the cable networks; Fox even had that reactionary goon with the walrus mustache - John Bolton saying all manner of derogatory BS about it.
'Oh, we're sorry you didn't like it FOX, but the rest of the world is happy... so go screw yourself !!'

What is up with these jerks; can this administration get a little credit for doing things right for a change?

[Mary Collins]

Nope.
I heard some gop senator talking about the economy doing better and seeming to turn around and he declared it was in spite of what Obama's done. There's a few decent republicans out there but it's harder and harder to find them.

[nunzia]

He is a patriot.
Secretary Clinton is a patriot.

All else is b.s. Gnats at the ankles of giants.

[huffpost reader]

Clinton can not be so great, because these woman where so foolish. Bad things happen when people act foolish. It is good that they are released.
Clinton was doing his job, as an ex-president, a democrat, and the spouse of the Secretary of State. Tens of Millions help others in their job capacity everyday, are they also worthy of Giant-hood? They did not choose politics, are they any less great? If they think these women where foolish are they gnats?

[ESerafina42]

No, actually - it's not his job. But he did it anyway. Good for you, Big Dog!

[ESerafina42]

Oh, and where, in your infinite wisdom, did you get the information that the journalists were "foolish"? Are you privy to inside information? And even if they were, did they deserve 12 years hard labor in a North Korean prison?

Best of luck to them and their families.

[TomTheAlmostUgly]

"Clinton can not be so great, because these woman where so foolish. Bad things happen when people act foolish. "

R-i-ght, they should have just rewritten a Kim Jong-Il press release into a he-said-she-said piece, which is what every other American "journalist" does. Actually going out into the FIELD? How very 1970s.

[partyofone]

I think it is important to keep in perspective, as you noted, that these young women put themselves in jeopardy. They were not innocent victims. They took huge risks and lost. I am pleased they are home, but I do not view them as heros.

Bill Clinton is an intenrational power broker who has become a mega millionaire in the process. His reward is being back in the headlines he craves. In the international influence game, who does Bill Clinton now owe and how will they be repaid?

[nunzia]

See what I mean?
a gnat.

[kagenin]

Well said!