Obama Presents Top Honor to Bill Clinton President Obama awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Bill Clinton on Wednesday at the White House. GABRIELLA DEMCZUK / THE NEW YORK TIMES By MARK LANDLER November 20, 2013 WASHINGTON — In a ceremony that mixed history and pageantry with the enduring mysteries of a rivalrous political relationship, President Obama on Wednesday bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, on former President Bill Clinton and 15 others. Under the twinkling chandeliers of the East Room, Mr. Obama paid tribute to Mr. Clinton for his work as governor of Arkansas, as the 42nd president, and as the founder of the Clinton Global Initiative, which Mr. Obama said had saved millions of lives. “Lifting up families like his own became the story of Bill Clinton’s life,” the president said, as Mr. Clinton’s wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, sat in the front row of the audience. “He wanted to make sure he made life better and easier for so many people across the country.” The tableau of Democratic presidents past, present and maybe future was vivid — even more so because this was the 50th anniversary of the Medal of Freedom, an honor created by perhaps the most beloved Democratic president of all, John F. Kennedy. Mr. Obama’s remarks were a graceful acknowledgment of Mr. Clinton’s achievements, but they came with a sly wink at the complexities of a relationship between the president and his opinionated predecessor. “I’m grateful, Bill, as well, for the advice you’ve offered me, on and off the golf course,” Mr. Obama said, alluding, perhaps, to a recent report that the president chafed at his chatty golf companion and told his aides he liked Mr. Clinton only “in doses.” As Mr. Obama struggles through one of the bleaker stretches of his presidency, Mr. Clinton has again taken on the role of critic, urging the president to fix the health care law to honor his pledge that if people like their health insurance, they should be allowed to keep it. He has also criticized Mr. Obama’s Syria policy, saying that any president would be a “total fool” to avoid taking action to stem a brutal civil war because of public resistance to foreign engagement. The White House insists it welcomes Mr. Clinton’s advice, though some political analysts have speculated that he is distancing himself and his wife from an increasingly unpopular health care law, before Mrs. Clinton runs for president in 2016. Mr. Obama alluded to Mrs. Clinton only indirectly, thanking Mr. Clinton for having patience “during the endless travels of my secretary of state.” Later in the day, Mr. Obama, joined by the Clintons and members of the Kennedy family, was to lay a wreath next to the eternal flame at Kennedy’s grave at Arlington National Cemetery, two days before the 50th anniversary of his assassination in Dallas. Two members of the Kennedy clan were in the East Room: Ethel Kennedy, the widow of Robert F. Kennedy, and Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of John F. Kennedy and son of Caroline Kennedy, who recently took up her post as Mr. Obama’s ambassador to Japan. Though it might have seemed that way — given the applause and self-conscious smiles of both presidents as they stood together — Mr. Clinton was not the day’s only honoree. Among the others on an unusually star-studded list of 16 recipients was Oprah Winfrey, the television entrepreneur; Dean Smith, the Hall of Fame college basketball coach; Bayard Rustin, the civil rights campaigner; Sally Ride, the astronaut killed in the Challenger space shuttle crash in 1985; Benjamin C. Bradlee, the Watergate-era editor of The Washington Post; Daniel K. Inouye, the late senator from Hawaii; Loretta Lynn, the country music singer; and Gloria Steinem, the feminist writer. After praising Mr. Bradlee for his transformation of The Post into a leading newspaper and his role in encouraging a generation of investigative journalists after the Watergate scandal, the president could not resist a reference to the editor’s bespoke, bold-striped shirts. “He can pull off those shirts, and I can’t,” Mr. Obama said to chuckles. “He always looks so cool in them.” In his tribute to Ms. Winfrey, Mr. Obama recounted that when she was a young girl, she was advised to change her name to Susie. It was advice that the president said he too had gotten as a young man — though not, he hastened to add, to change Barack to Susie. “People can relate to Susie,” Mr. Obama said of the rationale given to Ms. Winfrey. “It turns out people can relate to Oprah, too.”
Posted on: Wed, 20 Nov 2013 18:32:49 +0000
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