(Reuters).Republican Senator John McCain has some advice for President Barack Obama to help energize stalled Middle East peacemaking: Put former President Bill Clinton in charge.
Bill Clinton, is always "the smartest guy in the room" and so would he be in a roomful of Israeli and Palestinian negotiators, McCain told the Reuters Washington summit on Tuesday.
"I believe that the president should call in the one person who has a chance of negotiating, having both sides negotiate with good faith, and that's one Bill Clinton."
"I would ask him to take on the role of the president's special envoy, mediator, potentate, whatever you want to call it because he's the person that came the closest and he's the person that has the most credibility."
"He (Clinton) has the respect, he has the clout and the parties would fear upsetting him...And he knows the issue better than anybody."
"I've watched Tony Blair try to make progress," McCain said. But Blair, in seeking to broker new talks, has run into some of the same problems that bedeviled Mitchell's efforts.