Obama, Clinton: 'Spirit of partnership'

by Mark Silva

Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton have sort of danced around one another since that election in which, you know...

But they joined this week at something which has become a personal matter for the former president, who has become something of a one-man NGO: The annual Clinton Global Initiative, meeting in New York.

The two shared lunch at an Italian restaurant in New York recently, and the two shared a stage yesterday at the opening session of Clinton's donor-conference, his fifth, with an agenda of addressing "the world's most pressing problems,'' and, judging from the announced guest list representing 84 nations, something of a private shadow of the United Nations General Assembly meeting today.

"Some of you are aware that last week President Clinton and I were here in New York together, we were having lunch in a small Italian restaurant,'' Obama told the audience for a gathering said to include more than 60 current and former heads of state, 500 business leaders and 400 leaders from nongovernmental and philanthropic organizations attending the meeting this week

"We talked about the economy, we talked about health care, we talked about pressing global challenges,'' Obama said. "And then he said to me, 'Would you pass the Parmesan?' (laughter in the hall) "And then he said to me, 'Would you speak to our annual meeting?'

"Now, I think everyone knows what it's like when Bill Clinton asks you to make a commitment,'' Obama said. "He looks you in the eye; he feels your pain... He makes you feel like you're the only person in the room. What could I say? I was vulnerable just as all of you have been vulnerable to his charms.''

Water.org and Coca Cola are among the enterprises ponying up at Clinton's Global Initiative this week, which started in 2005 as a means of committing corporations and organizations to action on a broad array of problems. Water.org has committed to delivering safe drinking water and sanitation to a minimum of 50,000 people in Haiti over the next three years, Coca Cola committed to increasing opportunities for women in the company's distribution network in Africa, in partnership with the Academy for Educational Development and with help from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

For his part, Clinton says he has happily settled into the role he holds now, with his wife, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, logging 110,000 miles of world diplomacy in the last several months and he prodding the private sector and governments to take action on some of the world's most vexing problems (though it was Bll Clinton who went to North Korea to secure the freedom ot two jailed American journalists.) And it was Hillary Clinton who had to explain somewhat testily in Africa recently that Bill Clinton is not the secretary of state.)

"For most of our married life,'' the former president says of himself and the former first lady during his appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman last night, "I was in politics and she was a non-governmental person, like what I'm doing now. So we've now reversed roles, and I've gotten pretty good at what she used to do, and she's gotten real good at what I used to do.''

"In his eight years in office,'' Obama said of Bill Clinton yesterday, "he helped swing open the doors of opportunity and prosperity to millions of Americans. And as the first U.S. president to face the full force of globalization, he worked to share that prosperity with people around the world -- from promoting trade to expanding education to forging a historic global compact on debt relief.

"After a lifetime of service, he would have been forgiven had he settled for a life of quiet, a life of ease, a life of improved golf scores -- my understanding is they have not improved that much since he was in office,'' Obama, the new first golfer, said to more laughter at the opening session of the CGI. "But he chose a different path. He asked, 'What can I do to keep making a difference?...'

"And this week, even as we gather at the United Nations to discuss what governments can do to confront the challenges of our time, even as we've -- we're joined tonight by so many extraordinary leaders, presidents and prime ministers -- this Global Initiative reminds us of what we can each do as individuals: that you don't have to hold a public office to be a public servant,'' the president said. "That's the beauty of service -- anybody can do it. And everyone should try....''

"Here at home, we've summoned the American people to a new era of service: launching a historic expansion of community service; more than tripling the size of AmeriCorps; creating a new model -- an innovation fund to bring together nonprofits, foundations, the private sector and government to find the community solutions that work, to fund them and then replicate them across America,'' he said. "Around the world, even as we pursue a new era of engagement with other nations, we're embracing a broader engagement -- new partnerships between societies and citizens, community organizations, business, faith-based groups....

"That's why we've been speaking directly to people around the world, including our friends across the Muslim world with whom we've launched a new beginnings based on mutual interests and mutual respect. It's why you've seen Secretary Clinton in so many countries -- at town halls, on local television programs, reaching out to citizens and civil society -- that's why she's created a new initiative to promote global partnerships between business, nonprofits and faith groups to promote development.

"In fact, this spirit of partnership is a defining feature of our foreign policy....

"It's the spirit I've seen in my travels around the world -- in elected leaders and entrepreneurs, the heroic civil society groups, in the students from Ankara to Cairo, from South Bend to Strasbourg -- the optimism and the faith and the confidence that we each can make a difference.''