Bill Clinton is often quite a delight as ex-president, free to opine on a variety of subjects without being confined by anyone’s talking points. Case in point: his comments on Edward Snowden delivered before the Naval Academy earlier this week. As reported by Dustin Volz (National Journal):
“Mr. Snowden has been sort of an imperfect messenger, from my point of view, for what we need to be talking about here,” Bill Clinton said during a 50-minute speech at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. “The Snowden case has raised all of these questions about whether we can use technology to protect the national security without destroying the liberty, which includes the right to privacy, of basically innocent bystanders.”
And
“We cannot change the character of our country or compromise the future of our people by creating a national security state, which takes away the liberty and privacy we propose to advance,” Bill said Wednesday, adding, “Don’t kill the goose that laid the golden egg.”
I am assuming many would disagree with his statements, including the former Secretary of State and the current President. But this appears not to trouble him in the least. Give him a podium and he will speak (and speak). That is the unbearable lightness of being Bill Clinton.
PILEUS 