Mar 7, 2008

Friday thoughts of Presidents

I believe myself to be a fairly level headed person. I spend hours typing book reviews, Crimespree columns, Bouchercon e-mails, even occasional fiction. I love it all.

That is the kind of column all of you expect and deserve on this blog. So if you’re not interested in my opinion of the current Democratic process being waged here in the good old U.S.A. break away now. Writing, you see, has become a way for me to express myself and I cannot hold my keyboard in check any longer.

Once upon a time there was a golden couple from Arkansas. The husband was smart, handsome, a very good glad hander and a beatific orator. The wife was savvy, independent, an accomplished attorney, a great mother and a steadfast spouse. Together they rose to the highest office in the land where the husband served his country for eight years. Despite scandal and some misguided judgment calls they remained true to their path (mostly). When Bill Clinton left office he was as popular as the day he entered. Many, in fact say that Gore would have won the Electoral College if he would have used the Clinton’s more in his campaign (we all know he won the election).

I found hope in this couple during their reign. Two people who despite personal flaws were true to their country, their government and their party. Where did this couple go? I see two people who look amazingly like them this year. Has anyone checked for pods in the basement?

That a man who unified the Democratic Party and took back Congress with his campaigning skills can be trying so craftily to alienate such a large portion of that same party is bewildering to me as an individual. I understand they’re married. I understand she wants to be President. I can even grasp at the concept she truly believes she may be the better candidate.

But she isn’t. And I want to respect her again. I want Senator Hillary Clinton to stand beside Obama and declare, “ Yes we can”. I want her to show some grace and allow her party to select the best candidate to run against John McCain.

You need go no further than Google News to see the Senator from New York is being a bully.
“Clinton Campaign declares Texas Caucuses show irregularities.”
Meanwhile on Entertainment tonight Eva Longoria is encouraging everyone to vote twice for Hillary.
“I am the most experienced candidate in the field,” says Clinton
Uhm…. Excuse me?? You’ve held a senatorial office since 2000. Oh that’s right. You have the in and out skills of the Washington snake who slithers between special interests, big money, lobbyists, and big donors. You do have thirty years of that.

Guess what? This lifelong Democrat feels it’s time to move on. Try something a little different. My Candidate raised 50 million dollars last month from individual donations. People who think that together we can get our country back. Regain the respect of the rest of the world. Work towards a new national ideology rather than be stuck in the same quagmire we’ve been sinking in for the last eight years.

You talk of the possibility of working together with this man my old friend, and yet you attack him at every turn. Would you my dear, work with Ken Starr? Oh that’s right, you accepted campaign donations from his firm, so you already do.

Instead of the golden aura that once surrounded my couple I see now something so weather wrought not even Tarn-X could bring you back to who you once were. But if you do believe in your Country, if you believe in the party you helped to breathe life into in that long ago “Once Upon A Time” join us. Move the Country forward. Shake the hand of the Democrat from Illinois and lend him your endorsement. I just might recognize you again.

There’s a time to aspire to your dream and a time to make way for the dreams of the majority of a nation. A little nobility please Ms. Senator.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just passing through, to read the interview with Brubaker.

I haven't been a fan of any of the major candidates from either party this year, but I must say, I don't think Hillary Clinton has changed since the early 90's. The Clinton's believe in what they've always believed -- themselves, more than their party or their country -- which is why Bill campaigned with a strategy of triangulation and why his incumbency didn't accrue any real benefit to Gore. Hillary is who she has always been, so I don't think any Democrat should be shocked at her behavior when her long knives are turned in a different direction: they have been razor-sharp for years.

If Obama couldn't put her campaign away despite the obvious advantage in sheer charisma, I'm not sure why Hillary should be asked to throw in the towel. A lot of people on both sides of the aisle really dislike her, and the press hasn't been applying real close scrutiny to Obama, so if he can't beat her decisively in such favorable conditions, maybe he's not that strong of a candidate.

Anonymous said...

Love 'em or hate 'em, I see the same Clintons today that I've been seeing for the past 16 years. I don't think they've changed at all (for good and for bad). But I do think the scales are starting to fall off of some of our eyes.