wisdom...

i'm quite amazed at the response to bill clinton's latest self-indulgent biography but i guess i should have expected it given his notoriety. the man's greatest credit to civilization has been to turn the world "lewinsky" into a verb and alienate half his support base therefore paving the way for dubya to mosey on in to the white house.

 

one thing he did do right - i think - was his appointment of robert rubin as treasury secretary. i've been reading his autobiography "in an uncertain world" and appreciate his sharp insight into some of the major crises of his time. in fact many of them have never been heard of because he did his job so well as to avoid their potentially devastating repercussions. the man worked selflessly and gave up a highly lucrative career on wall street to pursue his interest in public policy and social contribution. his modesty is also quite striking both in his personal and professional life. he seems at times oblivious to the impact he makes in people's lives prefering to objectively analyze cause and effect. he no doubt understands the importance of his contributions but nevertheless keeps his refreshing veil of modesty.

 

i keep hoping we can get a bunch of similar minded reformists to pull us out of our rut of rhetoric and  recrimination. we instead have people that view their public positions as commercial opportunities for personal gain with no end. the mentality is manifestly obvious and encouraged in every new government recruit all the way up the system.

 

"for every bad borrower, there's a bad lender"