Bill Clinton: Football Star?

The NDN blog, like the rest of the world, will soon leave the World Cup behind. Before it does i have one odd story to recount. In between the headbutting, yesterday's final coverage on ABC featured the staple broadcasters cut-aways to politicians, player's wives and random pretty-girls-in-the-crowd. We had a jowly looking Chirac, an anonymous looking Sepp Blatter, and an Italian stepford wife. In the packed bar where I watched the game only one of these got any reaction at all. And that was President Clinton. And what a reaction it was. I kid you not: the President appears, and the crowd errupts in cheers. The whole bar then begins a boisterous chant of "OLE! OLE! OLE! OLE! CLINT-ON! CLINT-ON!". I make no particular political point about this, beyond the fact that i was amazed. A bar packed with Europeans - nay a bar at least half packed with FRENCH Europeans- cheering an American President. It was a pleasant reminder of the way things could be.