Here is the Bill Clinton Today Show video from Tues. Dec. 20, 2011. The live interview by NBC’s Ann Curry with the former President covered a range of topics including his recommended books for holiday reading as well as the recent death of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il, and the GOP Presidential candidacy of former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and the 2012 Presidential election.
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Former President Clinton said of Gingrich and his recent rise in the polls, “You find out a lot about people in the crucible of battle, and they’re all turning on [Gingrich] now and running all these negative ads. The one with the greatest resilience, with the ability to come back from adversity will probably prevail. That’s what these elections are for. They tell you a lot about people. When you’re just getting the living daylights pounded out of you and people count you out and you’re down. I was pronounced dead more times than a cat has lives in ’92. That’s when you find the ‘something’ people want in a President.”
Regarding North Korea and dictator Kim Jong Il’s death, he said, “Well, I think we should be concerned, but I think President [Obama] did the right thing. He called the President of South Korea, [Secretary of State] Hillary [Clinton] met with the foreign minister of Japan and the foreign minister of South Korea and they basically want to do nothing now so that there’s no provocation and they have time to sort it out. Kim Jong -Il’s son [Kim Jong Un] is quite young.
“When I went there a couple of years ago to bring the two American journalists [Euna Lee and Laura Ling] home, I didn’t meet him. So they were grooming him. What you don’t want is for the military, which has overwhelming influence, to feel that they have to do something radical to reassert their control. and I just think we ought to let them sort it out and make the argument we’ve been making now for a long time, which is they ought to give up their nuclear power and selling military technology and let us work with them to grow food and create factories and create broadly shared prosperity.”
As for his holiday gift books recommendations, the top three on the list were ‘Jerusalem’ by Simon Sebag Montefiore, ‘Lincoln’ by David Herbert Donald and ‘Meditations’ by Marcus Aurelius. See the accompanying story at Today.com for the full list of President Clinton’s book selections including those he discussed during an earlier segment of the program alongside NBC’s sitcom ‘Office’ star Mindy Kaling.
Watch the full interview replay video below.
Photo credit: Official White House Photo by Bob McNeely
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Bill Clinton Today Show Video Dec. 20, 2011 Interview with Ann Curry
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