Bill Clinton's Landon Lecture

Well, it's another win for K-State, after getting some good press from YouTube (see here and here), now we get some good press from the 'real' media because of Bill Clinton's Landon Lecture here.

I did not attend his talk because as with President Bush's talk I had to teach to close to the time of the speech. But I did watch it on TV, here are my brief thoughts:

I thought that he did a very good job of distancing himself from politics throughout his speech. Even during matters of governments and things like that he more focused on what we can do rather than what the government should do. That was nice to hear. His main topic was about the status of America in the world, more specifically if globalization is a good or a bad thing, and what we can do about it. He had good points and actual steps to take to improve our current position.

He also acknowledged that he was not the reason for the dramatic growth of the United States economy during his presidency, but instead it was the spread of the computer and the internet into businesses. Then he went on to say that it is not Bush's fault that the economy is not improving like it was during his time in office. (Clinton equates narrowing the income gap as a measure of economic growth, which I don't totally agree with.) He said that there just isn't that new 'thing' that has spurred on the economy on like the 90's has. He went on the say that clean energy, specifically biofules could be that new industry, citing that in other comparable countries that have been moving to more renewable energy sources many jobs have been created as a result. I do have to say that it is a good idea.

Overall Clinton actually had more good things to say about Bush than bad things, which is nice, although he is in 'enemy' territory, so I am sure he didn't want to ruffle any feathers. I thought that it was a nice speech and it was well thought out and had points that were very logical.

Video of Speech

President Bush's Landon Lecture

Although I was not able to go to the lecture I did watch the entire speech at home. (It's a good thing that I cancelled my 1.30 class since it ran until 1.45) It was a good speech, he is by no means a wordsmith, but I feel that it can be overlooked. He presented a very good argument of why we need to be vigilant of terrorism; as a foundation of peace for the future, but I still am not sold on the necessity of some of the means to prevent the domestic terrorism (i.e. citizen surveillance).

Besides the Patriot Act issue I was impressed by not only his openness, but also his wide range of knowledge. After his speech he took questions from the audience ranging from the African Union to Tony Blair to Social Security. He was able to answer all the questions adequately with the only question not answered was: "What did you think of Broke Back Mountain"? To which he said he had not seen.

Overall the lecture was enjoyable and he seemed to enjoy giving the speech. I am glad that he came to K-State and I hope that we can continue to host very important people for the Landon Lecture Series. (Last fall Mikhail Gorbachev spoke at a Landon Lecture.)

I will post a link to a video of the Lecture when it is available. Video of Speech.