JFK Fan Clinton Gets Highest Compliment
President Clinton threw the biggest state dinner of his administration Thursday for Irish President Mary Robinson, and in return she paid him the supreme compliment: She accidentally called him “President Kennedy.”
Robinson’s slip of the tongue seemed appropriate, crowning a lengthy toast to Clinton at an event that could only be described as an Irish-American love-fest on the South Lawn of the White House.
Robinson, who is paying a state visit to the United States, declared that the Irish-U.S. friendship is “stronger than it has ever been.”
The American president, who claims Irish ancestry on his mother’s side, invited nearly 380 people, about double the number that normally attend a state dinner.
Among the crowd were many members of the family of Clinton’s political idol and perhaps the most famous Irish-American, the late President John F. Kennedy.
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