President Bill Clinton spoke to David Letterman tonight. With regard to the market collapsing, he said “there’s plenty of blame to go around.” He further elaborated that, if you multiply all of the houses that may go into foreclosure in the near future, you have a situation unlike any other. When Dave said, “It sounds pretty scary,” Mr. Clinton, in the most relaxed, gentle, and persuasive voice, said, “It doesn’t have to be. We can solve it. It doesn’t have to be.” And he smiled, calmly.
At that moment in time, I fully believed Clinton, despite everything. He was a full light in a dark room of lies and speculation and back-room, shady handshakes.
Clinton: “It’s a mistake to bet against America. We can turn this around.”
P.S. Chris Rock, on ten minutes later, jokes “Did he do everything he could not to mention Barack Obama?” And it’s true – a few mentions of “Hillary” and an almost weak-sounding endorsement of McCain and no mention of Bill’s younger and better successor, Mr. Obama.