

Sharing the stage with Bill Gates Tuesday, former President Bill Clinton turned the inevitable question about his wife's political future into a punch line, then a stern finger-wagging.
Moderator Tamron Hall set up the moment, starting her question about "the elephant in the room," with a quick flip to Gates.
"We're both very lucky to have amazing wives who keep us on track and do amazing work in their own right," Gates responded, playing along. "And I don't think Melinda will run for president. She hasn't mentioned it to me."
Then Hall pivoted to Clinton.
"She hasn't mentioned it to me either," Clinton said, drawing big laughs, before turning serious. "I don't know what will happen. But I know this: that is the worst expenditure of our time."
And it is frustrating when I think we're majoring in the minors, either over the budget debate or going right back to politics as soon as the last election is over instead of getting into the grimy details, where the future of America will be written. How we resolve these details. I think I'll pander to Bill Gates a little bit, since he has money and I don't. The Gates Foundation may be the best foundation, not just now, ever. Part of it is they worry about big things with clarity, but they also get into the grimy details.
This stuff has to work. All that really matters in the end whether what you do turns your good intentions into real changes. And it obscures our capacity to do that and plays to our national tendency to attention deficit disorder when it comes to politics and public problems if we get off on politics too early and forget about the details."
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