Do you remember that alternate universe we all used to inhabit? Back before November 2000? We had eight years of peace and prosperity and a balanced budget?
Our President was a fellow named William Jefferson Clinton, who was NOT born to a rich famous family, and who achieved greatness all by himself. Seems impossible these days, doesn't it?
I was never that crazy about Clinton -- I preferred Gore to be honest -- but I admired his mind, his positive attitude, and his charisma.
I am reminded of all of these in this speech which I just stumbled across.
Wouldn't it be great if we had leadership like this today?
First, the tough talk:
The second thing that I would like to talk briefly about is global warming. I believe that it is the only existential threat that, those of you who are students here, your generation faces. It could literally undermine your ability to raise your children and grandchildren.
And this:
The Indians and Chinese are in this huge fight now to see who can get the most oil. We may be at a point of peak oil production. You may see $100 a barrel oil in the next two or three years, but what still is driving this globalization is the idea that is you cannot possibly get rich, stay rich and get richer; if you don't release more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. That was true in the industrial era; it is simply factually not true. What is true is that the old energy economy is well organized, financed and connected politically. The new energy economy is underfinanced, under organized, entrepreneurial and in need of the type of research and development work that we routinely did when we were trying to sequence the human genome or go into space. But just with existing technologies for conservation and clean energy, we can more than meet the Kyoto protocols if we were remotely serious about the targets and in the process create jobs in the developed and developing world on a scale that is otherwise unimaginable to me. It is just a question of whether we accept this, but I can only tell you that I have studied this data seriously. I consider it an existential threat to your future. It may be the most remote security threat you face, but the only one who has the chance to change the life of everybody on the planet for the worst.
But here's what makes Clinton the great leader:
And yet it is a phenomenal opportunity.
There it is. Straight talk, truth, even a dire prediction, but with the positive aspects of it made clear. A challenge for us to rise to the occasion. A vision of a bettter future, a time when the coming hardships are behind us.
That's quintessential good leadership.
Damn. I want my alternative universe back.