PR Win For Bill Clinton in North Korea – And Maybe One for Kim Jung Il?
Bill Clinton Meets Kim Jung Il
Never one to miss a good PR opportunity, we learned this week that Bill Clinton had arrived in North Korea to negotiate the release of two American Journalists imprisoned there. The irony that the two reporters were working for Clinton’s former VP Al Gore at the time of their arrest was not lost on us in the slightest. Say what you will about Clinton’s personal foibles – but there is simply no denying the fact that the man has one of the greatest political minds in modern history.
Through a series of meetings, including one with our favorite diminutive dictator Kim Jung Il, Clinton was able to win the release of the two women, which, in typical North Korean style, was done in a hugely over dramatized pardon. We know that the handcuffs the administration has on Bill with respect to his foreign policy activities has been killing him, and this was undeniably a win.
The interesting thing, PR wise, is that North Korea won too. They seem more than a little desperate for one on one American engagement, and by holding these two reporters hostage, they were able, to a degree, to get what they wanted, which was a photo op with a high ranking American, and the ability to argue to its people that President Obama himself had sent a message to Kim Jung Il, which, by the way, turned out not to be the case.
Now for the next question – Bill has always been one for stealing the spotlight – will he be able to resist doing this over and over again, consistently marginalizing Obama, with whom he has no love lost?