Bill Clinton and Vaclav Havel

Today I went during lunch break to a discussion panel at Columbia University (which is about 100 feet north of Nasa) between former US and Czech presidents Bill Clinton and Vaclav Havel entitled The Challenges Of New Democracies. Clinton made a touching tribute to Vaclav Havel reminding people that along with Gandhi and Nelson Mandela, he had been the only person to radically change the course of a country in a non-violent way. The discussion topics between the two ex-presidents ranged from democracies around the world (differences between democracies and majoritarian republics, should every country be a democracy?), positive and negative interdependencies, the status of the US as #1 superpower as a "way overrated concept", Iraq (surprisingly, Clinton doesn't share the optimism of the current administration "we need to get people out of the killing business and back into the politics business"), the price of freedom and civil liberties, Hilary ("I can't say too much. I have a wife in the Senate, so whatever she says, I'm for"), post-communism and the after-presidency life where Clinton seems to really enjoy what he's achieving with his foundation.

Now Bill Clinton is one of my favorite person on the planet (a bit of a "clintonista" as my friend Jayson would put it) so it was a real treat to see him live for the first time (even more so after watching a conference press with W. this morning on CNN the differences between the two are even more striking, for one, one of them knows actually how to speak). And I couldn't help myself during the full hour wishing the 22nd Amendment (which limits every presidents to a maximum of two mandates) to be abolished. Bill seemed to somewhat share my views on that point ("Fortunately for you, there's the 22nd Amendment or else I think I could still be there if office!").

A video of the conference is now online on Columbia's website (RealPlayer video) and a podcast of the event will be available this week-end on iTunes.