It's the longest Arkansas' most famous son had been away from home, and in his first time back in two years he had plenty to say.
After being away from the city where he forged his political career and raised a family, former President Bill Clinton looked at home speaking Wednesday night in front of a crowd of supporters.
Clinton was in town to thank volunteers at the Clinton Presidential Center, as he has done almost every year since it opened in 2004. He spoke at length for around 16 minutes, riffing on everything from his old nemesis, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, to the opioid crisis and lamenting that a country bitterly divided won't be able to solve issues in the years to come.
"If you spend all your time talking about your differences and trying to make short-term political gains and slicing and dicing your adversaries' chances, you'll get a result that won't be very satisfying in the long run," Clinton said.
Since his last time speaking to volunteers at the Clinton Presidential Center, former President Donald J. Trump has been impeached twice and voted out of office, the covid-19 pandemic has killed more than 700,000 Americans and an angry mob stormed the U.S. Capitol.
Clinton said a country divided can't fix problems, saying if people make their political opponents out to be a "two-sided cartoon" that "you can't make a full house out of it."
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He turned it to a point on China, saying that he had read a news story about China competing with U.S. companies on manufacturing electric vehicles. Clinton said taking on Chinese industry should be a common cause for Republicans and Democrats, noting that "when you're making cars, you're also supporting parts suppliers."
While much of Clinton's presidency was defined by a bitter partisan divide, the 42nd president mentioned a reporter visiting the small New York town he calls home looking for gossip on Hillary Clinton as the bellwether for the partisanship that was to come.
"I've seen this coming for some time," he said.
Clinton also talked about the opioid crisis, mentioning how four friends of his had lost children to overdoses and noting that solving the problem of addiction shouldn't be a political issue.
"If you're working together -- if you're getting everybody together -- and you got a common goal, you got a halfway decent chance of getting there," he said.
Clinton also thanked the volunteers, saying they are often ambassadors to visitors from all over the world.
The new dean of the Clinton School of Public Service, Victoria M. DeFrancesco Soto, who will take charge in January, spoke about renewing the school's mandate of public service and also thanked the volunteers for donating their time.
"Thinking about what is a public servant, it's someone who -- as President Clinton has clearly stated -- is someone who puts people first," DeFrancesco Soto said.
Clinton noted that it will be 20 years next week since the Clinton Presidential Center first broke ground. His political career, which went from his rise as a young governor to becoming the first baby boomer president, was filled with optimism from his supporters.
Looking back on the two decades he's been out of office, Clinton wondered what was next for the center and the country.
"We ought to be asking ourselves: Now what? What should we do in the next 20 years," Clinton said. "How can we make it interesting for people to come here?"
Gallery: Clinton Volunteer Gala
