Clinton: We must get back to thinking

'The great test of America'
OLBERMANN:  This is not what we’re supposed to be about and when we talk about rewriting the Geneva Conventions, or when we talk about demonizing dissent, or even putting just a bad face on dissent in this country, are we not getting closer to what the terrorists want us to change any way?

CLINTON:  Well, I think—let me at least put it in positive terms.  I think that the terrorists have an ideology, right?  With an ideology, you know the answer anyway, right?  You have a dictated result, therefore, evidence, argument, old-fashioned standards of fact, all irrelevant.  You know where you want to go, and if somebody disagrees with you, they are less human than you are, and they deserve to be a terrorist target. 

Now, the way we play the game, at our best moments, is that we don’t have an ideology with a predetermined outcome.  We have philosophies.  Dominantly, we have a conservative philosophy and a progressive philosophy, and it sort of tells kind of where we’re likely to be, but we’re all interested in evidence and argument and learning. 

And the great test of America has always been, does it work?  Are people better off if we do it or not?  And we just keep growing and learning in that climate, always with one dominant conservative stream, one dominant progressive.  And the debate and the tension and the learning has been great for us.

So what we don’t want to do is, no matter how scared we get—and it’s OK to be frightened by the prospect of horrible things happening—we don’t want to respond to this terror threat in a way that fundamentally alters the character of our country or compromises the future of our children, because that’s what makes it great being American. 

And the evidence is that a democratic society that is constantly, relentlessly learning and searching is the best antidote to the terrorist model.  These guys are real good at tearing down.  They’re not particularly good at building up, and there’s no reason we should help them by making the case for them by something we do. 

From one president to another
OLBERMANN: Let me throw the craziest, unrealistic political hypothetical to you in our current environment.  The phone rings tomorrow and it’s the current president, and he says things aren’t go as well as they might, either for me or the country.  I need a piece of advice, and I’m asking you sincerely for it, for one thing that I can do tomorrow that will improve things.  You’re the genie now in the political realm again, as you were in this building these last three days.  What would you say to him if that request came through?

CLINTON: I would say that—I would give him, actually, two pieces of advice.  I would say, first of all, I thi

FREE VIDEO President to president Sept. 22: "Countdown" host Keith Olbermann asks former President Bill Clinton about his advice for President George Bush. Countdown

nk if you can find some way, consistent with our commitment to Israel’s security, to resume the Palestinian-Israeli peace process and move fairly quickly to a Palestinian state, I think that would do more to change the image of the United States and—than anything else. 

I think there’s so many Arab-Muslim countries that are frightened by this instability and all this violence, and I think you would find that Israel would actually get more credit and a more positive response from other Arab nations by doing this than ever before.  And I think we would have a chance them to stabilize a lot of other problems in the Middle East.  That’s the first thing.

The second thing I’d say is no American president can possibly please people all over the world all the time.  If you have an unusual political, military and economic position, you’re always going to do things that some people won’t like.

But there are two things that are important.  You should look like we prefer cooperation over unilateralism and act alone only when we feel we have to.  And you should let people know that we have no anger or animosity and we wish them the best.

I’ll give you an example.  I think the president did quite a good thing by going to the U.N. and trying to have a personal outreach to the people of Iran and while he plainly disagreed with President Ahmadinejad, he resisted the temptation to overly demonize him.

That’s the kind of thing I think we need to do more of.  People don’t really want to be mad at America.  They get mad when they disagree with our policies, but they also get mad when they think we’re too unilateral, when they think it’s not just Iraq, it’s the test ban treaty and the criminal court and the Kyoto climate change accord and all that.

So I think I see in the last couple months that this administration is trying to rely more on diplomacy and more on multilateralism and I would advise that.  But if I had two pieces of advice, it would be make more friends, tell your people you care about them, make them think you’re pulling for them.

And if we can do it consistent with Israel’s security, let’s get back to work on this Palestinian-Israeli peace process, because that’s half the juice that’s feeding terror all around the world.

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