One power blogger I’ve been sitting next to said the only thing missing is alcohol, which would further subdue us and separate us from the stone-cold sober throngs of billionaires three floors above us.

Some journalists and bloggers had access to the morning plenary that featured Bill Clinton, Bono, Al Gore, and others, but the seating for the press is roped off to the side. (When I stepped outside to get some air I finally saw my first celebrity — Bill Clinton. Been there, done that.)

The problem isn’t just access, though that’s a part of it. It’s more that those of us used to actually engaging with other attendees and getting down to brass tacks on the issues aren’t quite sure what to do with ourselves.

“This isn’t an easily bloggable conference,” the power-blogger said to me. She meant that she couldn’t figure out what to write about. We’re hearing a lot about really impressive people who have started new poverty alleviation programs, who are trying to stop global warming, or are bringing clean water to Africa.

These are all admirable things, of course. But the conference feels more like the equivalent of the home page of a large nonprofit (and kind of like the home page of CGI). There’s a ton of optimism, beautiful pictures, and requests for money. But, for those who couldn’t pony up a few thousand bucks to be actual attendees, no community.

P.S. I was just reminded of Obama’s whole “change doesn’t happen from the top down, it happens from the bottom up!” cry. It’s an obvious statement for many of us, but it clashes jarringly with the CGI.

It will be a big event, and I’m looking forward to sucking up all of the big ideas being tossed around.

This evening I had the opportunity to sit down with about 15 other bloggers for a pre-CGI meeting with the big idea man himself, Bill Clinton. Apparently Clinton wanted to get to know the bloggers — this new traveling pack of journalists-cum-activists — who will be attending, and I think we all gladly obliged. Regardless of our opinions of the man, who could say no to such an intimate meeting on the 45th floor of the Sheraton?

When we arrived Clinton was in a meeting with the new president of Paraguay, the ex-bishop and left-leaning Fernando Lugo. He was in good spirits when he greeted us, and quickly made a few friendly references to Lugo and Evo Morales, the president of Bolivia and one of the growing number of Bush Administration bogeymen. I immediately thought, Remember back when our president didn’t view every leader as a potential threat?

It turns out Morales is interested in getting computers to rural Indians, and since Clinton’s good friend John Chambers happens to be the CEO of Cisco… you can probably see where that was going.

As expected, Clinton waxed thoughtful and verbose about a variety of topics, sometimes related to the questions at hand and sometimes not. But the ongoing financial crisis, it was clear, was weighing very heavily on his mind.

In brief: He blamed an action of Alan Greenspan’s (but not Greenspan himself) for some of the current financial miseries we’re facing. Back in 2001, Greenspan injected a bunch of cash into the market, but, Clinton said, all that money got invested in the housing and credit markets and nowhere else. Had he been president (a repeating refrain), Clinton would have made sure that those investments were diversified, focusing on new forms of renewable energy along with traditional investments. But instead, a narrow investment mindset created the housing bubble and led to the sub-prime loan mess. “The absence of a sensible economic policy meant that all of this sloshing around of money got misspent,” he told us.

Plus, said Clinton, “President Bush goes to war with Iraq and at the same time gives people a tax cut, something that’s never been done in the history of the Republic.”

He’s not opposed to the current bailout plan being floated by Paulson and Bernanke, but he’s worried that working Americans won’t see any benefit. “The legislation that Paulson and Chairman Bernanke is necessary but not sufficient because it doesn’t deal with a whole range of Main St. issues.” Essentially, he wants the government to bail out these companies but rather than do so by issuing high-interest loans, as is being proposed, he thinks we should require that, once these companies start making money again, a certain amount of the profits should go to taxpayers.

Sound progressive? Bill used the word a few times, which makes me think that either he’s jumping onto the bandwagon of a nationwide movement, or he’s feeling feisty in an election year. Probably a mixture of both.

There was a bit more talk about global warming, but most of us didn’t get a chance to ask questions — Bill was holding court, which was acceptable and expected. Alas, my question, about what the U.S. can do to help China and India continue to grow but without polluting the whole planet, never left my lips.

On Wednesday I’ll be back at the Sheraton, watching folks like Queen Rania of Jordan, Al Gore, and, yes, Bono, hold their own courts. Stay tuned.

Oh yeah: here’s the requisite pic of me and Bill.