All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

Former President Bill Clinton addressed Democrats in the Senate at their weekly caucus meeting today to tell them they must pass health care legislation as soon as possible to salvage the economy.

After the meeting, Mr. Clinton said he told the legislators that health care reform is "an economic imperative," reports CBS News Capitol Hill Producer John Nolen.

"We're in an economic crisis, we're trying to bring America back," Mr. Clinton said.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is waiting to get a cost estimate for his health care bill from the Congressional Budget Office before publicly unveiling it. He may bring the bill to the floor as early as next week. While the Senate has yet to even see the bill it will debate, Democrats are already concerned the debate will be held up by issues like the inclusion of a government-run plan, or "public option," as well as abortion language in the bill.

"It's not important to be perfect here, it's important to act, to move, to start the ball rolling, to claim the evident advantages that all these plans agree with," Mr. Clinton said today. "Simply the worst thing to do is nothing. The worst thing to do is keep dragging around a 16.5 percent GDP health care system that doesn't cover everyone."

The complex nature of the legislation means that it will be continuously amended in years to come, he said.

"There is no perfect bill because there are always unintended consequences," Mr. Clinton added.

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Updated 4:38 p.m. ET

NOTE: This Event Has Been Called Off. See the Bottom of This Post.

It is, according to organizers, "the hottest ticket in political history": On February 25th, former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton will share a stage at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

Interested spectators can pay $60 for the cheap seats or up to $160 to be closer to the action. They can also shell out $1,250 to attend a cocktail reception with the former presidents in addition to the discussion.

As Newsday reports, the two men have been teaming up a lot: They appeared together in Toronto in May (reports speculated that they earned $150,000 each for the hour-long appearance) and will be together at a TD Ameritrade conference in Florida in February.

A spokesperson for Madison Square Garden Entertainment, which is hosting the event, declined to discuss what, if anything, the former presidents are being paid. Organizers at these sorts of events generally do not disclose compensation.

A press release from the group said the two men will discuss "topics ranging from the economy to foreign policy."

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To the surprise of even his closest aides, President Obama seriously considered choosing Hillary Clinton as his running mate in the 2008 presidential election, according to a new book from one of those aides.

"What surprised me at [our first meeting to discuss the vice presidency] was that Obama was clearly thinking more seriously about picking Hillary Clinton than Ax [top-level adviser David Axelrod] and I had realized," David Plouffe, Mr. Obama's presidential campaign manager, writes in his new book "The Audacity to Win." The book is excerpted in Time magazine today.

"[Obama] said if his central criterion measured who could be the best VP, she had to be included in that list," Plouffe wrote. "She was competent, could help in Congress, would have international bona fides and had been through this before, albeit in a different role. He wanted to continue discussing her as we moved forward."

Mr. Obama was still seriously considering Clinton after narrowing down his list to his top six choices, according to Plouffe, but was concerned former President Bill Clinton would complicate the picture. There was pressure to choose Clinton, Plouffe wrote, though Clinton herself abated that pressure.

By early August 2008, Mr. Obama narrowed his list down to three names: Senators Joe Biden of Delaware and Evan Bayh of Indiana, along with Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine.

"I gave him a lot of credit for so seriously thinking about his fierce former rival," Plouffe wrote. "Some in the Clinton orbit thought we gave Hillary short shrift. My view is that any serious consideration was somewhat surprising given all the complications and the toxicity during the primary campaign."

With the world at a moment with "great promise but also with great peril," the mission of the Clinton Global Initiative is more critical than ever, President Obama said Tuesday at the opening of the organization's annual meeting in New York City.

"We need a new spirit of global partnership," the president said. "That is the spirit that guides this organization. I hope that is the spirit that guides my administration."

Founded by former President Bill Clinton in 2005, the organization focuses on addressing major global issues like building economic empowerment and citizen service, health and education, and energy and climate change.

Mr. Obama said today it was "no exaggeration" that the work of the organization could "save the lives of millions." And it proved, he said, that "you don't have to hold a public office to be a public servant."

He learned that lesson, he said, from watching his mother champion women's welfare in Indonesia as well as from working as a community organizer in Chicago.

"Whether you live in the foothills of Java or the skyscrapers of Manhattan, we all share common principles," he said.

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Former President Clinton said Tuesday morning that changes in America's culture since his first term as commander in chief will help President Obama's campaign to reform the nation's health-care system.

"I believe he'll succeed because the fundamental culture of the country is different," Mr. Clinton told Russ Mitchell, news anchor for CBS' "The Early Show," "because the economic adversity, the burden that our manufacturers are carrying around is enormous."

The former president also referred to the rising cost of health coverage since he left office as a motivator for passing a reform package.

"Our average hourly wages in America have not increased while the cost of health care has tripled," Mr. Clinton said. "The wage increases that workers would have gotten has gone to pay the employer portion of their health care."

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Former President Clinton didn't firmly agree or disagree with former President Carter's recent statements that President Obama's race motivates critics to disagree with him. However Mr. Clinton did describe some of Mr. Obama's more extreme critics as "racially prejudiced."

Mr. Carter made his comments nearly a week after U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) shouted "You lie!" at Mr. Obama during a joint session of Congress.

"I think it's based on racism," Carter said Sept. 15, responding during a Q-and-A session at his presidential center in Atlanta. "There is an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president."

Mr. Clinton gave his perspective as a fellow white Southerner.

"I would say it in a different way," Mr. Clinton told Russ Mitchell, news anchor for CBS' "The Early Show."

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During a series of secret interviews in the White House with author and historian Taylor Branch, then-President Bill Clinton said his affair with Monika Lewinsky began because he "cracked" as a result of personal and political pressure.

"I cracked; I just cracked," Clinton said, according to Branch, USA Today reports. The former president reportedly blamed the death of his mother, combined with the Democrats' losses in the 1994 midterm elections and the Whitewater investigation, for putting him in a state of mind that left him open to the affair.

Branch has written a book based on the 79 interviews, the tapes of which he said Clinton kept in a sock drawer to keep them secret. Though the historian doesn't have access to those tapes, he would recap the interviews himself, on a fresh tape, following each visit he made to the White House.

The USA Today story includes two other interesting revelations from Branch's book. One involves Clinton's recounting of an argument with his vice president, Al Gore, shortly after Gore was not elected president in 2000. Clinton said he had felt he wasn't used enough in the campaign, and told Gore he could have brought Gore victory had he been sent to campaign in New Hampshire or Arkansas.

Gore responded that Clinton had been a "drag" on the ticket because of the affair, according to Branch's recollection of Mr. Clinton's comments. The pair then "exploded" at each other, blaming the other for the loss.

Perhaps the most startling story in the article, however, involves then-Russian president Boris Yeltsin. Clinton told Branch that Yeltsin had been staying at the Blair House, the White House guest residence, in 1995 when the Secret Service found Yeltsin standing alone on Pennsylvania Avenue, wearing only his underwear, trying to get a cab.

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Updated 4:49 p.m. ET

President Obama and former President Clinton shared lunch today at Greenwich Village Il Mulino. CBS News White House correspondent Peter Maer was there, and he took the photo at left as the two presidents exited after the meal.

The restaurant, according to The Business Insider, "which first opened in 1981, is famous for its old school, trend-resistant fare, its gruff service and not ever answering the reservations line."

"I asked the President what they talked about" at lunch, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters later. "He said most of the conversation was about the economy, particularly the global economy, and ways to transition where we are into something that works better for the American people in the 21st century."

In related news, the White House announced today that Mr. Obama will address Mr. Clinton's Global Initiative foundation on Sep 22.

Mr. Obama and Clinton were in New York together last week for Walter Cronkite's memorial service.

After President Obama delivers a speech from Wall Street today, he will join former President Bill Clinton for lunch somewhere in New York City, an administration official confirmed for CBS News.

Mr. Obama's speech today will reflect on the state of the economy and make the case for immediate action on financial regulatory reform.

Mr. Obama and Clinton were previously in New York together just last week for Walter Cronkite's memorial service, at which they both spoke.

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As the country awaits President Barack Obama's speech on health care reform Wednesday night, it might be helpful to take a look at the impact of a similar speech then-President Bill Clinton made about health care reform in September 1993. To what extent did that speech affect -- or not affect -- the debate over health care?

Sixteen years ago, views of the U.S. health care system were very negative -- much as they are now. Nine in ten Americans felt the U.S. health care system needed fundamental changes or to be completely rebuilt. At the time, many thought the system was headed for a financial crisis.

But there was confusion: in September of 1993, most Americans didn't have a clear view of how President Clinton's health care reform plans would affect them. A CBS News/New York Times Poll conducted just before President Clinton's speech found that only 13 percent of Americans had a good understanding of what the Clinton health care plan would mean to them, and 84 percent felt it was too early to tell.

Forty percent felt that the reforms the president was proposing were fair to people like themselves, but almost as many, 36 percent, felt they were not fair. In addition, the public was divided, 41 percent to 41 percent, as to whether the Clinton plan would bring about the changes the health care system needed. And Mr. Clinton's job approval rating was 43 percent, with nearly as many, 42 percent, disapproving.

Late in September, the president gave a speech on health care reform.

A CBS News Poll conducted in early October showed the speech as having a limited impact. The percentage who felt they had a clear understanding of what the Clinton health care reform plan would mean rose just a bit, from 13 percent to 23 percent. And while there was a modest increase in the percentage of Americans who thought Mr. Clinton's reforms were fair to them -- from 40 percent before the speech to 45 percent -- the percentage that thought the plan would make health care better dropped slightly, from 46 percent to 43 percent.

By mid-October, Americans were reacting to the health care plan just as they did before Mr. Clinton's September 22 address to the nation. Much of the improvement in perception that occurred after the speech had disappeared; Americans were evenly divided on whether the plan would be fair to them, and were also divided on Mr. Clinton's handling of health care reform. By mid-October, only 18 percent said they had a good understanding of the plan.

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