Althouse: "In the beginning of it all, Bill Clinton was feeling unfulfilled."

June 2, 2015

"In the beginning of it all, Bill Clinton was feeling unfulfilled."

"In the months after he left the White House in 2001, he was living at his family’s new home in Chappaqua, N.Y. His wife was in the Senate. His daughter was away, first at Stanford, then at Oxford. The former president stewed about leftover legal bills and bad press over a last-minute pardon scandal. To pass the time, he turned to TiVo. Director Steven Spielberg had given Clinton an early version of the digital TV recorder. He holed up for hours watching movies and the TV shows he had missed while he was president, several friends recalled. 'You go from running the country,' one foundation insider said, 'to doing nothing.'"

From "The inside story of how the Clintons built a $2 billion global empire" in The Washington Post.

27 comments:

Wince said...: Please. Are they trying to tell us Bill Clinton had hitherto not discovered masturbation?; 6/2/15, 5:36 PM
madAsHell said...: If I recall correctly, he announced the creation of the Clinton Foundation before he left office. He even identified Harlem as the location of the office. So, I don't understand this BS about sitting around watching TV.; 6/2/15, 5:37 PM
Michael K said...: "I don't understand this BS about sitting around watching TV."

It's masturbatory news coverage.; 6/2/15, 5:39 PM
Michael K said...: "As he had hoped at the outset, the foundation could aim higher than building a museum to the past. It could provide staff and money to address new ideas in the present."

I got that far before I regurgitated lunch.; 6/2/15, 5:42 PM
Lewis Wetzel said...: "It is a global philanthropic empire run by a former U.S. president and closely affiliated with a potential future president, with the audacious goal of solving some of the world’s most vexing problems by bringing together the wealthiest, glitziest and most powerful people from every part of the planet."

I don't know if this is more offensive to small-d or big-D democrat sensibilities.; 6/2/15, 5:43 PM
Lewis Wetzel said...: The early post-presidential era for Clinton was the time that he was closest to pedophile and blackmailer Jeffrey Epstein. Funny the article doesn't mention this. Epstein was in the fulfillment business.; 6/2/15, 5:46 PM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Charming puff piece. Never any mention of tangible accomplishments from all that "foundation" money.

GWB actually did something for AIDs in Africa.
How's Haiti these days?

We now know only a small portion of any of that "global foundation" money goes to charity. What about all the quid pro quo deals during her stint at State? Too many mega-money deal coincidences to count. It's a slush fund.

If everything is on the up and up, why lie?

and on and on...; 6/2/15, 5:47 PM
JackWayne said...: So the man who has sent only 2 emails in his life knows how to use a TIVO? And a developmental version at that? BULLSHIT!; 6/2/15, 5:58 PM
Anonymous said...: the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation

There is not likely a name more associated with the demise of the American dream of opportunity and promise the Chelsea Clinton, the watch word for entitled mediocre.

PS: Name one President in the last 100 years that has been sleazier post-President than WJC?; 6/2/15, 6:00 PM
Bay Area Guy said...: Is that what masquerades as journalism today? Wow. And you wonder why the profession is dying.

When I'm "feeling unfulfilled" I usually walk the dog in the park or throw the old horsehide around with my kids. Darn, nobody from the WaPost ever wants the inside story.

Remember the authors' names - David A. Fahrenthold, Tom Hamburger and Rosalind S. Helderman. Total hacks. In a year or two they'll be laid off, and seeking PR jobs from the Clinton Foundation -- where they rightfully belong:); 6/2/15, 6:03 PM
Brando said...: Ah, so bored and unfulfilled so he does what comes naturally--who're out his fame and influence and create a massive access selling scam under the guise of a charity.

Scumbag gotta scum, I suppose.; 6/2/15, 6:05 PM
Hari said...: Bill Clinton has surely secured more wealth in his post presidency than probably every single other former president combined.; 6/2/15, 6:10 PM
SomeoneHasToSayIt said...: RICO them.; 6/2/15, 6:10 PM
pm317 said...: Bill Clinton is pure genius! I wonder what Obama will do to upstage Clinton when he leaves the WH. I say he won't, he has nothing, nada, zero.

On a serious note, Hillary should never have inserted herself into the Foundation. She should have left it to BC and Chelsea. But of course, she is greedy for attention and adoration.; 6/2/15, 6:23 PM
Howard said...: It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the hung man stumbles, or where the doer of maids could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the boudoir, whose face is marred by lipstick and precious bodily fluids; who gropes valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again on a blue dress, because there is no poontang without error and shortcoming; but who does actually connive to do the deed; who knows great orgasms, the great devas; who spends himself in a worthy cooter; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of low achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while groping greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid hands who neither know Monica nor Paula.; 6/2/15, 6:26 PM
Howard said...: Hari: You are right, the Bushes cashed in before being elected.; 6/2/15, 6:30 PM
MisterBuddwing said...: It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the hung man stumbles, or where the doer of maids could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the boudoir...

TR is probably rolling in his grave right now.; 6/2/15, 6:30 PM
FleetUSA said...: An attempt to whitewash for Hillary; 6/2/15, 6:32 PM
JRoberts said...: I'm reminded of the joke that was going around at the height of the Lewinsky scandal in the late 1990's:

Q: "Do you think Hillary will divorce Bill after 2000?"

A: "I'm sorry, your math is wrong. Monica is number 2,500."; 6/2/15, 6:49 PM
Lewis Wetzel said...: They should have a put a quiz at the end of that article. You know, "What Clinton are you?" Depending on how you answered the questions, you are given one of four personality types:
-William Jefferson Clinton
-Hillary Clinton
-Chelsea Clinton
-Billy Blythe; 6/2/15, 7:02 PM
Gahrie said...: I wonder what Obama will do to upstage Clinton when he leaves the WH

That's easy. Move to Iraq and become the Caliph.; 6/2/15, 7:04 PM
David Begley said...: Bill should have stuck with watching TIVO.; 6/2/15, 7:24 PM
Jaq said...: "It is a global philanthropic empire run by a former U.S. president and closely affiliated with a potential future president, with the audacious goal of solving some of the world’s most vexing problems by bringing together the wealthiest, glitziest and most powerful people from every part of the planet."

I thought I was reading a description of Samuel Jackson's super-villain character in The Kingsmen.; 6/2/15, 7:59 PM
averagejoe said...: "The former president stewed about leftover legal bills and bad press over a last-minute pardon scandal. To pass the time, he turned to TiVo... He holed up for hours watching movies and the TV shows he had missed while he was president, several friends recalled. 'You go from running the country,' one foundation insider said, 'to doing nothing.'"

Somewhat reminiscent of Bin Laden in Islamabad.; 6/2/15, 8:09 PM
Jaq said...: Napoleon in Corsica.; 6/2/15, 8:53 PM
David said...: "You go from running the country,” one foundation insider said, “to doing nothing.”

Don't just do something. Stand there.

It's often the best advice, especially for people like Clinton who tend to confuse doing something with getting praise and publicity.; 6/2/15, 9:36 PM
JSD said...: While Ta-Nehisi Coates is critical Hollywood’s white savior complex, here’s Nelson Mandela looking at Bill Clinton and saying “do something”.

Tom Wolfe coined “masters of the universe” back in 1987. But the irony was that wealthy captains of industry were ordinary men with flaws and vanities. Davos people are stuck in a feedback loop. They actually believe their position is due to superior intellect. Never mind that Carlos Slim was the recipient of Mexico’s telephone concession through President Carlos Salinas now living in exile in Ireland. Mexico was some of the most expensive cell phone rates in the world. Slim also captures 28% of the US mobile phone subsidies for the poor. Carlos Slim is the wealthiest man in the world because he is clever, which is a very different thing. It is extremely arrogant that these people think they can solve the world’s problems.; 6/3/15, 8:51 AM