Requiem for Bill Clinton

Todd Purdum's Vanity Fair article confirms for me all the impressions I've had of Bill Clinton over the years. I could never believe that people bought the shows he put on during the elections of the nineties. I wouldn't want to say that he did not do some good during his years in the presidency.

Some thoughts:
1. The requiem for Bill is a requiem for the boomers, this generation that either can't smell out hypocrisy or, I've come to believe, really doesn't care.

2. Bill, for all his political genius, can't handle the internet generation, the world where everything you say will be played somewhere on youtube.

3. I don't see the sexism angle at all. I think Geraldine Ferraro embarrassed herself. I would be delighted for a woman to be president. Hillary herself convinced me that this was not the time.

4. I don't begrudge Hillary continuing on until this point. But she and Bill don't have some divine right to be king. The lack of press coverage is now because she's lost. It doesn't feel good to lose, but you just have to deal with it.

I think a new day is dawning in American politics, a day I welcome. I think the rising generation of voters is fed up with the older generation of Republicans and Democrats. Whether you like Obama's perspectives or not, I believe his way of doing politics reflects where the next generation of voters is going.

Enough of the Pastor Stuff on Both Sides...

I've had enough of the "death by association" pastor stuff. McCain obviously doesn't agree with Hagee on everything and Hagee doesn't agree with McCain on everything. I pronounce anyone "dumber than a door knob" who thinks that the gyrations of an obscure pastor hammin' it up for a crowd that wants to see him perform must obviously be exactly what Senator Obama thinks.

This is the height of illogic, it's not even worthy to be called the ad hominem fallacy because it's attacking Obama through the back door. I guess you would call it the circumstantial fallacy, attacking the circumstances of the person to smear the person's ideas? Let's come up with a new name, "Smearing someone by finding anything even loosely associated with them that we don't like" fallacy.

I once had liver. You don't like liver. Ah, logically, then, you must not like me.

Come on--are we really this stupid in America??? Obama wasn't there. Obama didn't say these things. How many people agree with everything their pastor says? How many people go to church because of the preaching?

Good grief. If the American people and the media (especially FOX news) are this stupid and unable to reason like homo sapiens, then there's no hope for our future. We're no better thinkers than your garden variety slug.

We will no doubt be taken over in the next 100 years by some other nation smarter than we are.

Hillary Clinton's Demographic

The Saturday Night Live skit this past weekend seemed so true it almost wasn't funny.



In it, Amy Poehler gave three reasons why Hillary should be the Democratic nominee:

1. I am a sore loser.
2. My supporters are racist.
3. I have no ethical standards.

I don't think the first one will be true, and the third I think mainly applies to her election. But...

You have to wonder about a candidate who thinks she should be the candidate because most of her support comes from uneducated whites (54% I think of her supporters in West Virginia don't have a college degree) with a racist bent. My reaction at her demographic is rather to pray for greater education in states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Kentucky.

Is it a coincidence that many of these are also some of the states with the worst performing school systems in the nation?

And so Hillary says, vote for me because I'm electable and Obama isn't. Isn't this tantamount to saying America is more likely to vote for her because most Americans are uneducated and prejudiced?

Perhaps Obama is not the perfect candidate--but there's something wrong when American turns ignorance and racists into electable virtues. Yeah, that's the candidate for me.

Bitter Americans

"It's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

Ok, is it just me or is Obama getting a lot of flack for saying something that's true? And is it me or is Hillary Clinton the biggest hypocrite in the world... since she and Bill no doubt say the same thing to each other in private (assuming they actually talk)--except they aren't empathizing but calling smalltown USA stupid?

This is Sociology 101.

Clinton under fire... or not

I'm hoping that Saturday Night Live will take advantage of Hillary Clinton's story telling last week. She was reminiscing about her great experience as President's wife, the good old days of landing in Bosnia under sniper fire and not being able to go through the welcome ceremony in the run for safety. Video of the welcome showed her and Chesley happily greeting people, including a smiling young girl.

Oops! Here's the scoop:



Meanwhile, we're at 4000 casualties, 97% of which have taken place since Bush declared mission accomplished. I can only imagine the shredding of paper and cover ups taking place right now behind the scenes in fear that Obama or Clinton will be elected. I bet Bush and Cheney have more interest in McCain getting elected than supporting their party.

I wouldn't be surprised if we find them both in prison in a couple years if McCain doesn't win. I will not be surprised at all if we find out after the fact that this has been the most corrupt administration of recent times.

Actress in Clinton Commercial is Obama Supporter!

HA!

Example of Karl Rove at Work? MSNBC's Dan Abrams

Conspiracy theories are, by their very nature, less likely to be true than not. Nevertheless, something very fishy seems afoot below in Alabama.

Parts of this administration (especially Rove) have seemed so crooked to me, and my recent disliking to Clinton is my fear that she will only be more of the same on the other side. I just don't get that impression from the Obama campaign. My fear of McCain is that it would just be business as has become usual.

Admittedly, I thought Bush had a good heart when he took office. I continue to want to think the same thing, although I find it so difficult. So out of good will I have him in the "well intentioned but misguided" category. Rove I put in the "Machiavellianly misguided, but good intentioned by a warped and twisted standard" box.

Kerry on Obama's Experience--MSNBC Interview

Can't Teach a New Dog Old Tricks

Apparently Bill Clinton's stump speeches for his wife failed in South Carolina. The press of course had a hand in it, for they were discussing his antics out where everyone could see them. The result apparently was to push the South Carolina primary even more in Obama's direction that it would have been.

Now, mind you, my political eyes in 1992 and 1996 were a little different than they are now. But I have never thought of Bill Clinton as an ideological purist. I do think of Hilary more in those terms (no disrespect intended by the first name, but the fact it is what comes out first says something about America's conception of her).

To me, Bill Clinton has always been a slick talker, someone who confuses most people with a barrage of figures and sentimental stories that impresses the average individual but may in fact mean absolutely nothing. John Edwards has his flavor to me this election.

But it seems to me that we're into a new generation. The Boomers don't seem to get hypocrisy the way the Millennials do. (We GenXers never made a difference because we were sitting in front of the TV with our 2 liters not paying attention). I saw a microcosm of this at a church I was at where everyone in that generation seemed to coo and oo and ah a certain pastor that to me was obviously faking it. He was later found in a hotel room with one of the church members.

So go on Clinton if you want, try the same old same old with the Boomers. Maybe you'll convince enough of them to vote for your wife. But for me, if I were to vote for your wife, I would have to block you out of my mind. For me, you're making me think--"Who's running for office anyway?" and "Isn't she big enough to run for herself?" and "You're a fake."

Did I mention that Ted Kennedy is endorsing Obama today?

Clinton on Fox News

I was watching Fox News for a second tonight, Bill O'Reilly. I really don't know exactly his take on Clinton, but there was a very conservative woman who was talking about him "losing control like her 2 year old" in his interview with Chris Wallace.

Wow. Talk about how two people can look at the same thing and have two very different reactions. Here he's just come off of a very successful fund raising tour that raised a billion I think for a good cause, but that's not really what the interview turns out to be on. Second, it's at the same time that a very important intelligence report--the highest level intelligence report--has concluded that the War in Iraq, which the Bush administration has sold as important to help with the war on terror, has actually hurt the war on terror.

Now everyone who knows anything about anything has been saying this forever. Certainly these were the kinds of things that the State department was in tension with the Pentagon over. These are the things that the UN has been telling us forever but we wouldn't listen because we are smarter than everyone else. It would not be hard to absolutely castrate the credibility of Fox News by playing back arrogant and dismissive clips from 2003, 2004, 2005 before the evidence was so compelling. Show all the snide remarks they made about those who questioned the war and who argued that it would simply make more terrorists.

I saw an intelligent man refusing to take inane accusations lying down. And "out of control"? This woman must have a 2 year old that is a leader in the making. I saw a man with righteous indignation standing up for the truth. A man who was willing to admit that he tried and failed at something. Not an administration that is trying to blame something that happened 8 months into their presidency on the presidency before.

In Clinton's words, "I got closer than anyone has ever since." And "at least I tried. This administration had 8 months to try and didn't." And "If I had been president I'd have put 20,000 troops into Afghanistan looking for bin Laden." And "I wouldn't put 1/7 of my interest in Afghanistan."

I'm sorry, if things look at all fuzzy now, our grandchildren will smile if we dare say bin Laden was Clinton's fault or that Bush was a great president. They'll smile like I did when my grandmother protested because the history books were saying that it is not at all likely historically that Washington chopped down any cherry tree.

Smile and wave, boys, just smile and wave...