Wednesday, April 23, 2008
People like Hillary?
People like Hillary Clinton. It amazes me, but it's true. A woman with mountains of questionable business dealings, a penchant for exaggeration, and the integrity of a typical politician(which is to say none). This is a woman who backed NAFTA, backed favored trade status with China, and lusted so much for political power, that she was willing to remain married to a known philanderer because of the prospect that he would be useful to her down the road. It is that last point that bothers me most. NAFTA is a nightmare and trading openly with the most powerful, most oppressive government in the industrialized world, hasn't worked out so well either. Lead paint and lay-offs, anyone? But all of these things are typical side effects of wealthy Americans pandering to the desires of corporations with little or no moral leadership, and Hillary Clinton is very much a typical politician.
What really makes me wonder about the modern state of the Democratic Party, and what makes me think John McCain is almost surely going to be the next President, is that Democrats cannot recognize real leaders, even when they are standing right in front of them. Democrats will trust a woman with so little spine and integrity that she supposedly forgives a husband whom the entire world knows disrespected her, apparently for the sake of political power. They will trust someone who has a history of questionable finances, advocates massive increases in government spending and a willingness to do or say anything in order to win the Democratic primary. This is the type of person a large number of modern Democrats want leading their efforts. Even more interesting is that many of them support her because they continue to fantasize about Bill Clinton. The fact that Bill Clinton remains popular with a substantial bloc of Democratic voters, despite NAFTA, despite China, despite all of his political failings, and Monica et al, is telling. Modern Democrats equate the tech bubble, and the short lived prosperity that came with it, with Bill Clinton. As if Bill Clinton somehow made the tech boom possible. The fact that this surge in wealth was powered by illusions and financial card games, and that any President sitting over the country at the time would have benefited from its rise, seems to escape everyone. Bill Clinton was the beneficiary of lucky timing more than his own visionary political policy. If George W Bush had come along during the same period of time, people would be singing his praises, despite an alarming inability to string together coherent sentences.
Bill Clinton metaphorically spat in Hillary's face and she did not walk away. Regardless of that, I am supposed to believe she has the will and fortitude to make real change in a modern political landscape so infested with corruption that our typical choices are between corrupt and totally corrupt politicians? That choice is no choice at all and I could not honestly say Hillary Clinton is less corrupt than John McCain. If she carries the momentum she has supposedly gained in Pennsylvania on to victory in the primary, I think there will be many Independents and moderate Democrats staying home, or voting McCain. I know McCain would get my vote, despite his stance on the Iraq War. Time has an article that really rings true this morning. In it, a Time staffer suggests that the real winner in all of this is John McCain and I couldn't agree more. Hillary Clinton is going to attack and slander Barack Obama to the point where he becomes unelectable. In so doing, she will make herself unelectable, resulting in a John McCain victory in November.
Hillary Clinton operates with an "if I can't have it, no one will" mentality and it shows in her campaigning. She is an uninspiring, inauthentic candidate, but that will not stop her in the obsessive pursuit of power. In my opinion, she is the last person America needs in the White House for the next 4 years. I hope John McCain does a better, more competent job than his predecessor, otherwise there will not be much of a country left to lead in 2012. How many times can Democrats shoot themselves in the foot before it comes time to amputate and get a prosthetic? We may be getting closer to finding out.
Labels: politics
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I couldn't agree with you more (shocking huh?) on Hillary. I can't stand her!
As far as John McCain, either way he will have a tough, tough campain... but, if he were to win, I don't think their could be a better 'Republican'. He isn't TOO far right and he's one of the few these days who can actually say they have served in the military.
Only time will tell who the winner will be and all I can hope is regardless of who it is... I HOPE they do a good job.