Another Political Post

ClintonI’m sure you’ve seen the Chris Wallace interview with Bill Clinton by now. The blogs were already talking about it last Friday, it was on-line as soon as it aired on Sunday, and the Daily Show wasted no time in lampooning it tonight. The press have tried to paint the picture of Clinton as out of control and irrational. They’ve used terms like “crazed,” “meltdown,” and “irrational.” Make sure you watch the video before you make up your mind about the whole thing.

Try to remember that FoxNews invited Clinton to discuss the Clinton Global Initiative, his philanthropic, nonpartisan organization. The mission statement for the Clinton Global Initiative reads, “The Clinton Global Initiative is a non-partisan catalyst for action, bringing together a community of global leaders to devise and implement innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges.” From what I’ve read, the Initiative has made some real and meaningful contributions to those in need around the world, and ”˜ole Bubba has been traveling around the globe organizing supporters from all walks of life.

So FoxNews tells Clinton that the interview will be about his organization, and out of nowhere Chris Wallace asks him why he didn’t do anything to catch Osama. In my mind, he was perfectly justified in addressing Wallace contemptuously.

I think the thing that shocked people the most was the fact that we just aren’t used to seeing politicians display genuine emotion. They project a stoic façade, and even in debates they rarely loose their cool. Clinton doesn’t have to play that stupid role anymore, so he reacted as a human being and not like a robotic partisan-puppet.

Predictably, the Republicans have desperately tried to combat Clinton’s refutations. They first resorted to their go-to defense in any tumultuous situation and attacked his character. They called him crazy and tried to dismiss him as a crazed and bitter Democrat. Some of the more brave ones have futilely tried to attack him by going through Richard Clarke’s book and finding contradictions between Clark’s words and Clinton’s assertions in the interview.

Byron York, a National Review White House Correspondent, wrote an article attempting to do just that. He finds that mostly Clinton told the truth in the interview, and he did in fact attempt to go after Osama. But his partisan bridle demands he place blame for 9/11 firmly on Clinton, so he concludes his article by saying;

But the bottom line is that Bill Clinton, the commander-in-chief, could not find the will to order the military into action against al Qaeda, and Bill Clinton, the head of the executive branch, could not find the will to order the CIA and FBI to act. No matter what the former president says on Fox, or anywhere else, that is his legacy in the war on terror.

That’s his concluding paragraph. And why couldn’t Billy Boy get the CIA and FBI to act? York explained that earlier in his piece:

So Clinton couldn’t get the job done. Why not? According to Clarke’s pro-Clinton view, the president was stymied by Republican opposition. “Weakened by continual political attack,” Clarke writes, “[Clinton] could not get the CIA, the Pentagon, and FBI to act sufficiently to deal with the threat.”

Republicans boxed Clinton in, Clarke writes, beginning in the 1992 campaign, with criticism of Clinton’s avoidance of the draft as a young man, and extending all the way to the Lewinsky scandal and the president’s impeachment. The bottom line, Clarke argues, is that the commander-in-chief was not in command.hit it

How can any rational person not see the hypocrisy between that statement and York’s conclusion? How is 9/11 Clinton’s fault if he tried his best to convince the CIA and FBI to hunt down Osama, but was stymied because the Republicans were too busy attacking his personal life?

How is it Clinton’s fault that the Republicans allowed irrelevant activities to affect their job performance? Maybe, just maybe, the Republicans should have worried a little bit more about international affairs and a little less about chubby interns and sloppy blow-jobs.

Categories: Politics | 4 Comments

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4 thoughts on “Another Political Post

  1. Flood

    I really want to write something, but it feels like I am just going to repeat some tired crap about Clinton, republicans, and politics. So I think that I am going to take a different tact. Let’s see. . .

    Bill is a grown up. The interview should not have been a surprise to him in any way and he did defend himself. If you like him you think he did a good job, if you hate him, you think it he sucked. I don’t know that I really care. How is that for all of you? Like I said he is a grown up. He did some stupid shit and in an environment where people were looking to make him pay. So I feel little sympathy for him.

    You blame the Republicans for his problems, and I am thinking that he pissed away his presidency for a blow job. Whatever. There is a decision process here.

    I don’t hate him for it, I don’t really care. He didn’t fuck things up. So yipee. Isn’t it time to move on.

    Whose fault is 9/11. My first vote goes to Osama. How does that hit everybody?

    Does anyone really believe that WJC or GWB is to blame. We as a country didn’t take the threat seriously. That is the absolute truth. I can think of two exceptions. Richard Lugar. How did he do in the 96 presidential campaign? Does anybody really know who he is? Right. The other would be Richard Clark. How many people heard of him 5 years ago. I am sure that there are several more, but really we know that is a mere handful. So please. We were arrogant and got pimped for it. Now it is time to be serious.

    Since 1948 we have done a horrible job about the middle east and honestly other place, largely because we were more worried about Communism than our principles.

    The 9/11 report should help us find a better way, not be used as a tool to beat two presidents by different factions for the same thing.

    Both those men have to sleep at night. I wonder how well they do. I honestly think that is enough punishment and blame for me.

  2. Flood

    BTW Chris Wallace is a registered Democrat

  3. He’s a democrat in the same way that Zell Miller and Alan Colmes are.

  4. Flood

    So What do you mean by that? Zell Miller-rabid consevative. Alan Colmes-fuddeling liberal.

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