Why Is Bill Clinton Going To North Korea To Negotiate For The Two Journalists And Not Al Gore?

The Whistler • August 4, 2009

In sort of a curious move, Bill Clinton has decided to ride to the rescue of the two journalists who are currently in the care and feeding of North Korea:

Former President Bill Clinton arrived Tuesday in Pyongyang, North Korea, on a mission to free two U.S. journalists imprisoned there since March, North Korea’s official news agency reported.
Mr. Clinton’s trip was first reported by South Korea’s Yonhap news agency. The State Department declined to comment, but diplomats indicated that the Yonhap report was correct.
The journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, were arrested March 17 near the Chinese border with North Korea. They were on assignment for Current TV, a cable outlet co-founded by former Vice President Al Gore. Last month, they were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for illegally crossing into the reclusive communist state.

Aside from the fact that Clinton’s wife is currently Secretary of State and that his trip is just once removed from being an actual official visit of the U.S., there is a second anomoly here. It struck me that Al Gore hadn’t made much, if any, of an attempt to rescue his employees.
I wondered why.
This was a golden opportunity to shine in the public spotlight, a Jesse Jackson style moment in the sun that any self respecting ego maniac like Gore should grab with both hands while gibbering with glee at the opportunity. But he didn’t. Why? Was it that he just didn’t bother or that he didn’t have the diplomatic connections, or what? Based on the money quote below, I’d say it was neither:

For weeks, there was speculation that Mr. Gore might go to Pyongyang to seek the journalists’ release. It appeared, however, that the North Koreans wanted someone of greater stature.

To put it quite simply, Al Gore didn’t have enough standing for the North Korean government to negotiate with him.
Ouch. That has to sting. When an ego driven, puffed up, hypocritical phony like Al is told to stand down, little man, we’ll talk to the adults and your ex-boss will do fine, thank you, it has to leave a mark on his psyche.
Anyway, for the sake of those two journalists I wish Clinton the very best of luck. (Is it just me or is Clinton starting to look pretty good compared to what we have now?) Being in the tender loving care of a heartless and brutal regime is no doubt an ugly experience and I hope Clinton can pull this off.
As for Al….this is a smackdown, I don’t care how you paint it. He’s just been told to go back to selling his global warming snake oil while living a lifestyle that would embarrass Louis XVI and leave diplomacy to the big boys and girls.
Good boy.

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http://Array sayanything-4625

Finally, a party who can get things done with NKorea.

I guess if you don’t worry about result the Dem NK record is stellar! Last time they agreed to something with Clinton they were breaking the agreement during the celebration dinner. Stellar accomplishment I tells you!
RJ Richards

I’ve been hoping Gore would go and they would keep him and give us back the girls.
Pilgrim

I’ve been hoping Gore would go and they would keep him and give us back the girls.

Heh. Good shot. Wish I’d thought of that.
Buzz

Why Is Bill Clinton Going To North Korea To Negotiate For The Two Journalists

Cuz Bill is a baller.
FlyOnTheWall

Ouch. That has to sting. When an ego driven, puffed up, hypocritical phony like Al is told to stand down, little man, we’ll talk to the adults and your ex-boss will do fine, thank you, it has to leave a mark on his psyche.

I look to Al Gore as a model for hot CO2 / carbon sequestration. As long as he’s not allowed to talk he should hold onto his several tons of it.
11B40

Greetings:

I wonder if former President Clinton will be coming back through Teheran. It seems like three more quasi-journalists “unintentionally” strayed into Iran while “vacationing” in Iraq.

I seem to see a pattern developing here and as Dr. Phil (bless his bald head) says, the best determinant of future behavior is past behavior. Why are these lefty journos being allowed to impact our foreign relations and why are we spending any diplomatic capital at all to save them from themselves. You wanted to go there, you’re there. Have a nice day.
Pilgrim

You wanted to go there, you’re there. Have a nice day.

Hard to argue with that point.

I just don’t care to think about women in the hands – possibly literally – of unaccountable thugs, even that idiot female “journalist” whio just got snagged crossing the border into Iran.
Buzz

Yea, that’s right, like I said Bill is a BIG baller, went over and got them out. What say you now?

(crickets)
FlyOnTheWall

Rob, there’s something spamming youtube comments onto the blog.
FlyOnTheWall

(Is it just me or is Clinton starting to look pretty good compared to what we have now?)

That retrospective view point is starting to look awful rosy.
ellinas

Why Is Bill Clinton Going To North Korea To Negotiate For The Two Journalists And Not Al Gore?
By Pilgrim on August 4, 2009 at 03:24 am

Because Bill Clinton has a bigger pennis than Al Gore.
pparets

There was no ‘negotiation’ between Clinton and Kim Il Jong. Clinton’s presence in Pyong Yang to kiss Kim Il Jong’s ring was part of an arranged deal arrived at in prior, private negotiations. It is but part of the cost we will pay for the dictator’s benevolence. The rest will come later, as is typical in these diplomatic tete-a-tetes.
Bat One

pparets,

Exactly! Clinton was simply acting as Obama’s bagmen.

And if the American public later finds out what the actual cost of the dictator’s “benevolence” comes to, and objects loudly enough, Mr. Clinton will find himself under the bus next to Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, and Obama’s grandmother.
Bat One

It struck me that Al Gore hadn’t made much, if any, of an attempt to rescue his employees.

Compare and contrast to H. Ross Perot’s successful and daring rescue of his two EDS employees imprisoned in Iran during the Iranian Revolution and the US hostage crisis.
Hannitized

Finally, a party who can get things done with NKorea.

God only knows how bad Bush’s handlers would have screwed this up.
FlyOnTheWall

I guess it’ll be a while before we find out what the negotiation terms were. So far there hasn’t been much transparency in such things. Or anything for that matter.

happy they’re home and good work Clinton. There’s a man who could talk.
2Hotel9

Algore supplied the “Big Bag of Money”, Billie Jeff just carried it.
http://www.bikebubba.blogspot.com/ Bike Bubba

If Gore had gone, he’d have had to deal with the fact that he was the idiot who sent two women over there in the first place, no?

Maybe Pyongyang wanted the bigger stature. Just as likely, though, is that Gore would have been toast in the political world if the world figured out who the idiot was who sent his employees into a country that has just allowed two million of its own people to starve because they want their nuclear cherry bombs.
2Hotel9

Algore did go over there, DPRK refused to acknowledge him.
2Hotel9

Yep, that “Big Bag of Money” sure does get things done.
WOOFX

Bill is going to NK because August is the time to take advantage of Little Kim’s excellent wave pool.

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Why Is Bill Clinton Going To North Korea To Negotiate For The Two Journalists And Not Al Gore?

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