Clinton: “Depersonalize” and “Personalize”

“I want to depersonalize the debate so we can have the debate and listen to one another…. No three-dimensional human deserves to be turned into a two-dimensional cartoon.”

Bill Clinton, on Congressman John Murtha, after speech in Little Rock, Ar.

Caryn Rousseau. “Clinton: Iraq Debate Should Spurn Insults,” AP, 11/18/05.
Article

“…we are where we are. You can't undo history …everybody in the world has an interest in seeing a pluralistic, secure, safe Iraq. …it might be a positive thing to promote reform throughout the Arab world…if I took office as president tomorrow, I'd say pretty much what John Kerry said, that we've lost all these lives, the Iraqis are decent people, they deserve a chance at the future. Whether we did right or wrong before, we are where we are… I wouldn't just pull up and leave there if I thought it was going to cause the whole thing to disintegrate… I've been there. When you go to war and your bombs go astray and innocent people die and you didn't intend for it, I feel for [G.W. Bush]. When you pick up the paper every day and a bunch more of your kids have died, I feel for him… as a human being it hurts to know that however much you believe in what you're doing when there are adverse consequences, intended or unintended, it's exceedingly painful…sometimes we want people to see all political figures as two dimensional cartoons like so that we deify and glorify the people we like. They're still real people. They're imperfect. And that makes them more interesting to me. And then the people we disagree with, we tend to demonize them. So when you turn somebody into a deity or a demon you turn them from a three-dimensional human being into a two-dimensional cartoon. And I think people are always afraid they'll be seen as human in the middle or if they admit error they'll actually be demonized.

Bill Clinton, interview.

“Interview With Frm. President Bill Clinton,” CNN, Larry King Live, 7/31/04.
Interview