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June 06, 2012 at 12:19 PM
Bill Clinton may be seeking to help Barack Obama win again in November, but the former president may have to be careful that he doesn’t overshadow the man he’s trying to help get re-elected.
“I thought he was awesome,” said one Pershing colleague to another at the close of the former president’s keynote address on Wednesday at the BNY Mellon company’s annual conference in Hollywood, Fla.
This enthusiastic comment came in response to the charismatic Clinton’s assertion that while he is happy to support the re-election of President Barack Obama, he also values his friendships with former U.S. presidents on both sides of the aisle – including both George Bush Sr. and his son George W.
“I love the guy,” Clinton said of Bush Sr. Of George W., he quipped: “We go to the same events together now and roll our eyes at each other’s answers.”
Speaking very much in a spirit of bipartisanship before an audience of nearly 2,000 at Pershing Insite 2012, Clinton conceded that it’s easier to be a former U.S. president than an incumbent one. He certainly looked the part of a relaxed retired president, tall and slim with silver hair and sporting a sober suit along with a handwoven multicolored bracelet around his wrist.
And to the biggest round of applause during his entire keynote address, Clinton added that he is frustrated with the poor level of collaboration between Democrats and Republicans in Washington and the “frivolous” commentary of the political media.
“At some point we have to re-establish trust between the two parties in Washington,” Clinton said. “If I say something nice about Mitt Romney, the political press acts like I endorsed him even though I oppose his political policies.”
