EX-presidents and ex-prime ministers in the West take to different jobs in order to make both ends meet. The last prime minister of UK, John Major, considered taking up cricket commentary to keep the wolves away from the door. I think he failed the audition. Jimmy Carter went back to peanut farming in Georgia. He could work with his hands. Ronald Reagan struck it rich as he enjoyed excellent relationship with the corporate world. He tried a book that sold by weight. Lyndon Johnson had his ranch and oil wealth to fall back upon.
Gerald Ford, too, had his financial backers on the Wall Street. Papa Bush has the best of both the worlds. With son in the White House, he is working with Carlyle group that owns the better part of this planet. He uses his influence in pedalling the multi-million-dollar deals with Arab states. He is not paid that well for a lecture. The son, after leaving the White House, will make a better speaker. No kidding! Hopefully, by that time, he will have gotten rid of his symptoms of an eternal bad-hair day. In spite of his last-minute presidential pardons to some rich but not innocent guys, Clinton is hard pushed. He can’t live on his pension alone. He didn’t go out of the White House on a high note. He has taken an office in Harlem, as he could not afford a better place in Manhattan. He could earn millions by going public with his extra-presidential affairs, but he preferred to remain silent on that topic. A gentleman to the core. Not the kiss-and-tell type. Hillary is doing well as a Senator. And, she struck a deal worth $14 million for doing a book on White House days. No such luck with the husband. Maybe he finds writing a tedious affair, which it is. And less glamorous. So, he has decided to go on the tube.
He is negotiating with the NBC for a talk-show of his own. All the TV big show hosts, Jay Leno, David Letterman and Conan O’Brien are upset that he may steal their ratings. Their fears are not unfounded. Clinton makes a great speaker. He has a way with words and he can move his audience. They have already started spreading jokes about his new vocation. The new kid on the electronic block is facing resistance.
If we compare the phenomenon of retired or deceased head of states in the Third World countries, the situation is baffling. Just pry into our very own ex-heads of state. None of them — okay, most of them — were financially unsound to resort to work ever again. Most of them made sure that their generations (some with questionable IQ and some outright autistic) forever and ever did nothing but frolicked around, dabbling in politics, lecturing on ethics, corruption and democracy.
Leave aside presidents and prime ministers, even the ministers, heads of organizations, corps commanders and other low-level operatives don’t ever need to work here again. They are so well provided, or they make themselves so well padded while in office that sloth comes as a second nature to them. Let the shameless remain nameless.
Coming back to Clinton, he replaced the Republican rule with the simple slogan: “It’s the economy, stupid”. He worked on it and succeeded. Financially, he turned the country around. Too bad, the scandals and the ensuing impeachment proceedings tarnished the name of a good president. Some say he was only trying to be another Kennedy! He is graceful and still popular on the lecture circuit. The big thing is, his wife forgave him. There is no reason at all why the world should be deprived of his experience in the White House. He will be better off than those TV evangelists that keep hogging the TV screen in spite of their acts of moral aberration. Well-versed in power politics, Clinton is bound to bring some dignity to the studios. I think, others will follow his lead in due course of time.
Let’s give him a chance. He is charming, photogenic, intelligent, well-groomed, and talks coherently. It is more than what you can say about the incumbent at the White House.
EX-presidents and ex-prime ministers in the West take to different jobs in order to make both ends meet. The last prime minister of UK, John Major, considered taking up cricket commentary to keep the wolves away from the door. I think he failed the audition. Jimmy Carter went back to peanut farming in Georgia. He could work with his hands. Ronald Reagan struck it rich as he enjoyed excellent relationship with the corporate world. He tried a book that sold by weight. Lyndon Johnson had his ranch and oil wealth to fall back upon.
