Clinton speaks at KU

The University Daily Kansan, Page One, May 24, 2005

     Former President Bill Clinton delivered the inaugural speech in the Dole Lecture Series on Friday to about 12,000 people in Allen Fieldhouse.
     People began lining up at the doors at midnight Thursday night. Thousands others braved early-morning heat to enter the building, which had interior temperatures of almost 90 degrees.
     Clinton began his lecture more like a stand-up routine. He said he was tired of being labeled as former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole's "straight man." Clinton also thanked the senator for assembling the crowd, which he said was 90 percent of the total votes he got from typically conservative Kansas during his presidential campaigns in 1992 and 1996.
     He then focused on partisanship and how it interfered with progress and current events in the United States and a move toward creating a more perfect union. He said we lived in an age of “interdependence,” which was his term for globalization.
     He said the events of Sept. 11, 2001, were a test to the power of interdependence and showed the dark side of the issue.
     Clinton congratulated the University of Kansas for being the first university to contribute to a scholarship fund for children of people killed or disabled in the Sept. 11 attacks.
     Former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.) said KU students gave $47,000.
     Clinton and Dole worked together on the scholarship fund, which raised $110 million.
     Clinton and Dole were opponents in the 1996 presidential election but have since shed any animosity to deliver a message of bipartisanship.
     Dole said he and Clinton were a “political odd couple.” Dole said he invited Clinton to deliver the inaugural Dole lecture because of the mission of the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics.
     “The institute’s mission is to encourage a bipartisan search for solutions to America’s problems,” Dole said.
     Clinton presented five points to break down partisanship and improve America.
     He said we needed to find a way to be more offensive and defensive in dealing with terror and weapons of mass destruction.
     Making deals and developing more partnerships is important, Clinton said.
     “Compromise is honorable, not dishonorable,” Clinton said.
     He said the nation needed to get into a habit of working with others which lead into his third point of more institutional cooperation.
     He said we shouldn’t join every treaty, but should at least give them consideration.
     Clinton said we had to keep making America better and prove the nation works.
     However, Clinton said, none of this would happen until we moved from the American way of thinking about others.
     Clinton said we thought in categories, labeling people according to certain characteristics such as race, religion and even the teams we cheer for. He said we needed to move away from thinking in these categories.
     Clinton spoke for almost 45 minutes after Dole introduced him. Following his speech, Clinton answered three questions submitted by KU students.
     Clinton then shook hands and took photos with audience members while the Rock Chalk chant echoed in the background.
     Molly McMurray was one of the first to make her way to the railing around the stage after the speech.
     The St. Joseph, Mo., senior had her picture taken with Clinton. McMurray worked at the White House with the Bush administration last summer, and even though she said some of her friends wondered why she was at the event, she said Clinton delivered a great speech.
     “It was a good message for America,” McMurray said.
     Some KU faculty were equally as impressed. Jeff Moran, professor of history, said it was the best political event he’d ever seen in Kansas.
     “I’m almost speechless,” Moran said. “He’s a reminder of a time when we had prosperity, wealth and bipartisanship, which have all been ferreted away in the last four years.”