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An event recap by Chris Davison, davison@intellcap.com
 When the President himself opens an event, you know something big is about to happen and sure enough, there he was on Saturday, October 18th, headlining the inaugural event of the 2008-9 HRTS season. A standing-room-only crowd at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza hotel gathered to hear from the 42nd President of the United States, William Jefferson Clinton. President Clinton was welcomed to the stage by Ernie Del, founding partner of the law firm of Del, Shaw, Moonves, Tanaka, Finkelstein & Lezcano.
Being in Hollywood, President Clinton showed that he has his priorities straight by saying “this is really a hoot for me to be here. I just did a photo line and Shonda Rhimes was the first person to come in line and I was able to say to her that the one thing that we did throughout Hillary's campaign was never miss a single episode of Grey's Anatomy. And I Tivo'd it all and I was -- I was under pain of physical abuse if I dared watch one of those things alone”. On a more serious note, Clinton added that “I know a lot of you try in your various ways to have entertainment be also educational, to help people learn about the things that we're all trying to come to grips with. And I respect and appreciate that”.
President Clinton is a networked person living in a networked world, saying that “the 21st Century world is characterized fundamentally by its interdependence”. He gave a couple of examples, including how the current financial crisis started in America and then spread around the world, and how the SARS virus started overseas but quickly made its way to America’s shores. Insofar as television networks being part of the larger networked world, Clinton pointed out that “there is more money in media now because more people watch it all over the world”. As a cautionary note, although there are many advantages of living in a networked world, the former president said that “it's too unequal, it's too unstable, and it is unsustainable”.
Case in point of being unequal, unstable and unsustainable is the subprime mortgage crisis. Why does the subprime mortgage crisis affect folks in Hollywood, people who are generally well off and not in danger of having their homes foreclosed? Clinton said “here's why. The average home foreclosure costs the economy somewhere around a quarter of a million dollars a house on average”, because “first you can't resell the place -- the house quickly. And even if you could, you'd have to sell it for lower than the original purchase price. Second, while the house is vacant, it's not generating property tax revenues to the local government. And third, every time you foreclose on the house and that little sign goes up, it drives down the property values of all the neighbors' houses”. So, in an interdependent world, even things that may seem far removed can have a great impact on us all, for better or for worse.
What does it mean to be a global citizen in the 21st century? Echoing the themes of his Clinton Global Initiative, the former president said that “in America and around the world, the definition of citizenship in the 21st Century must be broadened” and that every person should ask of themselves “what have I done as a private citizen to advance the public interest whether it's around the corner or around the world?”
 After concluding his prepared remarks, President Clinton enjoyed a Q&A with moderator Ernie Del. A classic HRTS luncheon question is “do you watch television or what do you watch?". Del pointed out that the former president had already covered this ground and so Clinton, having previously established his bona fides as a Shonda Rhimes fan, went on to add that “mostly I'm a guy, you know, I mostly watch movies and sports on TV. But I do watch -- I've watched more of these cable financial shows because I want to make sure I understand what's going on. And the only thing I watch is Grey's Anatomy and Boston Legal, and if it comes back on, I'll watch 24 again. And I hardly missed anything of the Olympics, I didn't sleep at all”.
In response to a question on domestic policy and the public good of government, Clinton said “the trick is to have a government that is strong enough to protect the market from devouring itself” and that the Bush Administration has had problems in part “because they defied the laws of arithmetic. Once they all got into office, they wanted to do things that cost money. But they got elected by telling people that they wouldn't have to pay for anything”. As for foreign policy, Del asked “is there room for helping out in places like Darfur, genocides around the world, those kinds of things? Or at this point, are we just so stretched for money and troops and everything else that it's just a bad idea that we shouldn't consider?” and Clinton responded by saying that “I think every American should recognize that in the 21st Century world, military force should be a last resort, not a first option. And that as a general proposition, military force is better at stopping something bad from happening than it is at making something good happen”. The former president also added a real gem of a saying, one that in many ways makes for a good standard operating procedure in Hollywood: “in general, you shouldn't tell people to go to hell unless you can make them go”.
After concluding his remarks, President Clinton slowly walked over towards the far side of the room, stopping multiple times along the way to – what else – do some networking. He was mobbed by folks eager to speak with him, get an autograph, take a picture, and for those moments he was the biggest star in Hollywood.
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