Clinton plots his comeback

It was the week he came out fighting. Bill Clinton's extraordinary assault on the makers of a dramatised 9/11 documentary which portrayed his administration as failing to prevent the terror attacks, was the most public example of a three-pronged effort - to protect his own presidential legacy, to relaunch himself as a world statesman and to make himself a viable First Gentleman should his wife Hillary achieve her own ambitions on the White House.

The row has revealed the former President as a man in the middle of trying to pull off a dramatic political comeback. This week Clinton will lead a diverse line-up in New York including Laura Bush, Gordon Brown, Kofi Annan, Richard Branson, Rupert Murdoch, Hugh Grant and Pakistan's President Musharraf as part of his high-profile Global Initiative conference on poverty, Aids and global warming. He is then scheduled to be the star turn at this autumn's Labour Party Conference

Bob Muholland, a Democrat party activist and an old friend of Clinton's, agreed: 'It needed to be rebutted. You have to, otherwise people might start believing that rubbish. Bill Clinton has to speak out every day on this issue. For average people it is obvious that Bush is responsible for the failures leading up to 9/11.'
As soon as he gets the ABC controversy stamped on, Clinton will be straight back on the comeback trail to power, his supporters insist. 'Clinton does not need a Karl Rove. He is the best political analyst in the country.' said Mulholland. And those supporters are as eager as Clinton to reshape his legacy. 'Most Americans and most Brits would agree that looking at the world situation right now, they would prefer to have Bill Clinton as president again - or Bill Clinton running the United Nations,' he added. More of the story

A leader leads by example. Leadership earned and not a sense of entitlement. The current mangler-in-chief needs a check up from the neckup.