Prof. Ken Bode Analyzes Bill Clinton's "Temper Tantrum" in Weekly Op-Ed

September 29, 2006

September 29, 2006, Greencastle, Ind. - "Massachusetts political gossip this week was mostly about the confrontation between President Clinton and FOX News anchor Chris (son of Mike) Wallace," reports Ken Bode, who is on Martha's Vineyard this week. Writing in today's Indianapolis Star, DePauw's Eugene S. Pulliam Visiting Professor of Journalism notes, "Wallace seemingly implied that Clinton had been indifferent to the threat of Osama bin Laden during his eight years in office. The former president, however, was having none of it."

Bode, a veteran political analyst, invites readers to turn to the new Definitive Book of Body Language to help "decode the moment... It was a classic Clinton temper tantrum, as he angrily retorted: 'I worked hard to try to kill (Osama). I got closer to killing him than anyone else.' 'He lost it,' Wallace told a conservative radio talk-show host, 'he was poking my notes... his hand was trembling... you could see his eyes twitching.' The replays on network news revealed trembling on both sides. Great political theater, illuminating very little."

The DePauw professor, who contributed to the book, The Clinton Riddle: Perspectives on the Forty-second President, states, "In fact, Clinton did make the only actual attempt to kill bin Laden, launching a salvo of cruise missiles at an al-Qaida training camp after two American embassies were bombed in Africa. Another military effort, for which Clinton gets little credit because it came during the Monica frenzy, was his missile attack on Saddam Hussein's nuclear facilities. Condemned at the time as a 'Wag the Dog' diversion from growing demands for impeachment, it is now believed that attack discouraged Saddam from all further efforts to develop WMDs."

Read the complete op-ed, which also includes Bode's observations on bicycling on the island, at College News.org.

Last Friday, Ken Bode previewed the new film that is based on a legendary political figure -- All the King's Men, starring Sean Penn. Access that column here.

Source: Indianapolis Star

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