was just spending my 15 minutes a day channel surfing and reminding myself how exasperating tv is when i happened onto clinton's speech at the university of kansas today on c-span.

what an amazing, amazing man he is. his ability to communicate and connect is just incredible.

he thinks "big thoughts," like at his renaissance weekends, and even though his communication skills were, of course, evident during his presidency, you don't often have the luxury of giving big thought speeches when you have to deal with mundane matters like the budget and getting your ass impeached.

today at ku, with no portfolio, with no election to think about, with none of the minutia of the capitol to occupy his time, he just talked, it appeared without notes.

i just saw the last maybe 15 minutes of his speech but the general topic was apparently how he thought we could best deal with terrorism. i'm sure he touched all the common military issues but his larger point was that we had to change the way we think.

as he said, "this is going to sound a little flaky, but i believe it." he recounted a white house evening with bennet cerf and some harvard biologist/geneticist. what a pairing, and he said that of all the interesting things that were said that night, the most striking for him was that the biologist said that all human beings are 99.99% genetically identical.

ok, it is a little twee and his point is obvious. we have to come up with ways to identify with others based on that 99.99% commonality and not let the .01% blind us. "the next time you want to demonize somebody, think of that," he said.

i don't know, maybe it's just because i'm so sick of hearing bush and the contrast in intellectual depth was so stark, (and maybe because i was on adderal) but the esp-like connection he always made with people just came right through the tv screen. for the people watching and hearing him in person, it was always said he was even more "connective."

such a complex man psychologically. the inclusiveness theme obvious to a first year psych student as the product of trying to keep a family with an alcoholic, abusive father together. the bizarre, near death-wish risk taking that he engaged in.

but man, how gifted and how brilliant. he was an incredible politician and a great president. i miss him.


-benjamin harris