It was a ceremony rich in pageantry and politics: President Obama, at the nadir of his presidency, bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom on a Democratic predecessor, Bill Clinton.
Clinton returned to the East Room of the White House as Obama placed the blue-ribboned medal around his neck Wednesday. The prize, the nation’s highest civilian honor, is one that Clinton once handed out himself. It’s also an award that his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, who smiled on from the audience, might hope to hand out herself in a few years.
President Obama, the first lady, former president Bill Clinton and former secretary of State Hillary Clinton attended a wreath laying ceremony at the gravesite of former president John F. Kennedy.
Obama uttered fewer than 300 words about Clinton. But his remarks paid tribute to the sweep of his public life — from transforming education as governor of Arkansas to growing the economy as the 42nd president to leading relief efforts in the wake of global natural disasters. Obama said Clinton’s charitable foundation has saved “literally hundreds of millions of people.”
“He still remembers as a child waving goodbye to his mom — tears in her eyes — as she went off to nursing school so she could provide for her family,” Obama said of Clinton. “And I think lifting up families like his own became the story of Bill Clinton’s life.”
