During the last presidential election I made mention of the poosible "political trifecta" that could occur as a result of a Kerry victory. The scenario being, if John Kerry won, he could name Hillary Clinton as a Supreme Court Justice and Bill Clinton could end up head of the U.N. Stranger things have happened.
Kerry is already making rumblings about making another run and we are all guessing what Hillary will do but then there is Bill Clinton.
In 2001 Bill Clinton confided to an aide that he had decided on his dream job for the next chapter of his life: secretary general of the United Nations. His ambition, as the aide described it, was both breathtaking and entirely logical for a natural-born politician who had reached the top of the American political ladder: "president of the world." Could it ever happen. Could Bill Clinton end up in essence world president?
His recent appointment as the U.N. representative on tsunami relief is the highest-profile example of Clinton's travels and activities abroad. The extent to which the 42nd president has preserved influence even after leaving the White House will be far more obvious in September. That is when a large delegation of world leaders, U.S. politicians, business leaders and celebrities of various stripes will arrive in New York for the first Clinton Global Initiative. The event, as Clinton recently described it, is modeled after the famous annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Beneath the surface, there is a deep vein of politics in Clinton's international activities as ex-president. While he has mostly supported Bush on the Iraq war -- and says that all Democrats should be supporting full victory even if they first opposed the war -- almost every speech he has given in recent months has contained the same refrain, delivered in nearly identical language.
For all the new rapport in the Bush-Clinton relationship -- Bush throwing regular rhetorical bouquets to his predecessor and assigning him to visit tsunami-stricken areas -- the two presidents represent twin poles in a pointed ideological debate. In the United States, the debate over Bush's approach to the world and Clinton's -- between force and persuasion -- remains unsettled. But it seems apparent which approach is more winning abroad. While Bush has generated deep suspicion, especially in Western Europe, Clinton is highly popular.
Former German chancellor Helmut Kohl was asked about Clinton's dream of heading the United Nations, Kohl said: "I do not know if Bill wishes to go to the United Nations. If he wants, I would support him."
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