October 1, 2006

"The Power Within: A Passion for Life."

Why is Bill Clinton appearing at this weird event? Ticket prices are $195 to $995.
One Full Day of Inspiration, Motivation and Entertainment that will ignite your Spirit! For the first time ever under one roof see six of the most prolific communicators of our time. Live and In Person! You will learn from real-world experts who are the best-of-the-best, in an incredibly entertaining environment that empowers you to take action immediately to transform your life forever.
"Prolific communicators"? LOL. Clinton is famous for talking too much, isn't he?

"Ignite your spirit"? The second thing I thought of was that this is sort of the Oprah show for men. (The first thing I thought of was... oddly enough... a cigar!)

ADDED: "One Full Day of Inspiration, Motivation and Entertainment that will ignite your Spirit." First of all, it's going to take me one full day just to get ignited by anyone, but I am especially appalled by the prospect of spending a day listening to famous men -- why are they all men? -- talk, talk, talking as a way of igniting me. Especially if I had to pay hundreds of dollars for the horrendous talkathon. Especially if they were promising to blow Inspiration, Motivation and Entertainment at me the whole time. It's like a big religious revival without the religion, unless it's a religion of worshipping big men. One full day... give me one empty day.

MORE: On further reflection, igniting my capital-S Spirit makes perfect sense if you picture this.

16 comments:

Unknown said...

That's an easy one Ann--money.

Bet the speakers' fees are hefty.

Good on him. I don't like him, but I admire him for hustling.

Ann Althouse said...

Ex-President as motivational speaker? Ugh! His reputation is worth more than that.

verification word: nuhuh. Oh, yes it is.

Unknown said...

I guess it's a matter of taste, and mine is pretty suspect at times. But he's always had the preacher, used car salesman, charming rogue vibe going for him. It's one of the few things about him that I liked. And he needs the spotlight.

I suppose he could just go on a few corporate and foundation boards and make a ton of dough, but where's the fun in that for a man like Bill Clinton. He needs the audience, and lot's of people think he's a good performer. I always thought he was a little windy and glib, but there's that questionable taste again.

Brian Doyle said...

Yeah he was prolific all right, and eloquent, and intelligent.

Now we've got the Shrub, who is famous for sounding halfway retarded.

stephenb said...

What ever happened to that voice problem he had? I expected him to go mute long before now.

dave said...

Why is Bill Cl--

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Biff said...

One of the NY area professional societies with which I am associated has been offering discounted tickets in the "VIP Executive Row" to the membership. It's really a networking event pitched at senior-level business people. People go to these things to schmooze and mingle with local business and political leaders, and possibly to get a picture with a celebrity. Aside from the usual gaggle of sycophants which are drawn to influential people, attendees generally gag at the actual content.
PS. No, I am not going to attend.

Ruth Anne Adams said...

GJ: That's "festivus" seating.

A Festivus for the rest of us.

No Acute Distress said...

I suppose Bill Clinton could always take over the Sally Struthers gig. Bloating, bloviating, bullshitting all rolled into one.

P.S. Prof. Althouse, could you please stop making those word verification things so damned hard to read? They're beginning to look like Rorschach tests. This last one looked like Woody Allen's proverbial "Two moose making love to a mens' glee club."

GPE said...

Alan: Well, Nancy Reagan went to the psychics so I suppose it's, like, cosmically aligned for Pres. Clinton to go to the psychotics.

I got roped into one of these thing, "Success 2000". My then employer paid for it. Definitely uninspiring and definitely about the money, particularly the back-of-the-room sales of videos, CDs, books, seminars, blah, blah, blah. It was actually kind of sad to see the likes of Fran Tarkenton hawking long distance telephone, Brian Griese droning on in a monotone about success (look where that took him) and some kid real estate baron who I later heard went to prision.

GPE said...

"prision" = "prison"

Oooops.

Unknown said...

Doyle,

You state that Bush sounds "half way retarded." Man, you can't even give him a break on relative retardedness, something about which you are eminently qualified to opine.

Wouldn't it have been more charitable to judge the President of the United States of America to be "exceptionally, profoundly, spectacularly retarded." And Michael Moore is skinny, and Cindy Sheehan, brilliant, and Slow Joe Biden is modestly intelligent.

Anonymous said...

I`m a guy and I`d pay a couple of bucks to listen to you.
Wait !
I can do it here, free.

Oh, live? Uh, I might throw in a five`r

verif- hahahaha

but I admire him for hustling.

hmmm, why am I not surprised

OhioAnne said...

Somehow I think the women (wives, girlfriends, assistants, etc) who got these men to the point where they were in a position to be asked to participate in this event could tell us more about inspiration, motivation and entertainment.

In contrast, on another site we were discussing Neil Armstrong.

Despite the fact his "stage" was the most spectacular ever, he knew when to get off and did it on his own terms well before his 15 minutes were up.

Tim said...

"dave said...
Why is Bill Cl--

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..."


So true.

Everything about Bill Clinton is a snoozer - it's like watching an endless loop of staged train wrecks, but far less compelling and much more predictable. He's turned into the Cuba Gooding Jr. character in the movie Jerry Maguire.

Unknown said...

Mickey,

Incoherence, badabing! Jabber jabber jabber.

Hmmm, hhmmm, hhhmm, what ever.

You dig?