On tonight's edition of 60 Minutes Dan Rather was supposed to interview Former President Bill Clinton for the "work" his foundation has done for AIDS relief. However, it quickly turned into a fluff piece that promoted his Presidency, how much he accomplished, and his hopes to be the First Husband.
Clinton blames those big bad pharmaceutical industries for charging high prices for medicine that prevents people who are suffering from AIDS to use it. He accuses them of price gouging and thinks that they can "sell them for a lot less and not lose any money". Of course the report does not mention the amount of money and time devoted on researching cures and medicine that will prevent death.
On the subject of AIDS relief failure during his Presidency, Clinton blames Congress:
CLINTON: Well I don't think I could have done more. It was like pulling teeth to get any foreign aid money from Congress when I was there and when they had a President of their own party and they had their core Christian conservative constituents saying okay we want to fight this, and then it became much easier. I wish I could have gotten more but I couldn't have.
Yes, that darn Congress. I don't think Clinton heard what he said. He thinks that Congress withheld on giving money and then some how predicted that a Republican President would be elected in '96 or in '00 and then they would give it. Congress punished millions of people just because Bill Clinton was not of their party? I hope that Bubba does know that not all members of Congress were Republican during his tenure as President.
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In the latter part of the segment Rather sat down with Clinton, not to discuss AIDS, but to talk about how much he missed Air Force One and if he looks forward to being back on there as the First Husband. Rather's face was glowing red during this portion. This was basically free air time for the two buddies to talk about how much they both miss him [Clinton] being in the White House.
RATHER: Mr. President, when we traveled with you in China, you weren't aboard Air Force One. Do you miss it?CLINTON: Oh, I don't miss the trappings so much, but I love the plane because it's a great place to work.
RATHER: Do you in some quiet moment look forward to the time maybe when you'll be flying on it in a different capacity, as the First Husband?
CLINTON: Well, the answer to that is no, I don't. I don't think about that. And I have urged all of Hillary's supporters not to think about that because she's got to run for re-election and it's a big hazard for anybody who's up for re-election to think about anything but re-election.
RATHER: Well, as you know, we now have on television, we have a woman President of the United States.
CLINTON: Yeah, Geena Davis.
RATHER: Is the country ready for a woman President, a real woman President, as opposed to one on television?
CLINTON: I don't know. My gut is yes, that if a woman came across as a strong and seasoned and well prepared, if you said the right things in the right way and you had a good record to back it up my gut is yes. But the hard truth is we won't know until it happens.
