I can say that because I am one. A Christian Liberal that is-- not a dog. (At least I don't think I'm a dog...A little heavier and frumpier than high school maybe but not a dog)! Anyway, here goes and consider yourself forwarned. Bill Clinton was on The View this morning, and despite the fact that we all hated him and his flirtatious shananigans (did I spell that right?) while he was in office, and while we complained that gas at the time was a ridiculous $1.34 a gallon and it was all his fault, and his economic policies were selling us out to China and all that, he talked this morning in a way that made me want to marry him. I. Love. Bill Clinton. He talked for the whole hour in an informed articulate manner that was KIND, philosophical, and well thought out. His ideas on humanitarian and global relief are brilliant. He spoke in complete sentences--without a speech writer!--and was funny in the right places but was also reverent and serious when necessary. I was so impressed I yearned to have him back. I know he's "slick Willy" and can deliver a line and all that, but we had a budget surplus and we weren't at war with anyone and unemployment was down and welfare was down and schools were better. I sat there this morning feeling like HE LISTENS TO PEOPLE. Niether candidate right now seems to be listening...just talking and mudslinging.
To wrap up my rant, consider his reply when Barbara Walters asked him who he thought was going to win the election: "I hate it that we live in an ideology that says you have to dislike the person you're not voting for." Accuse him of dodging the question if you like...(he did say he wanted Obama to win, of course) but he went on to say how many beautiful conversations he's had one on one with both candidates and how considers each of them friends. Sigh...
Ugh!!!!
14 comments:
Well, all of that may be true about when Bill Clinton was in office, but I hardly think that we have all of the problems that we have now just because George Bush is in office. Yes, he's not perfect and made bad decisions and what have you, but after 9/11 everyone in our country was scared and had he not reacted aggresively Americans would have faulted him for that as well. I kind of feel sorry for him. There was 9/11, Katrina, and other major catastrophies in his term and he's taking the wrap for everything and going out on a bad note. I didn't see The View today. Your take on it is interesting though. :-)
Well depending on who you read there are lots of theories about, indeed, how all of these catastrophies could possibly happen in one administration. And the role and responses of that administration to those catastrophies. But that's a post for another day:) I absolutely do not feel sorry for him, other than the fact that his speech writer needs to be fired because every time Bush talks the same sentences come out of his mouth. Literally. The speech he gave at the United Nations this morning is the same speech he's been giving since 9/11 and the scary thing is the world is tired of hearing it. "War on terror, Osama Bin Laden, hopefully Congress will pass this bill so things will be fixed, blah blah blah." The United Nation wanted to hear him say, just a little, "we've made mistakes and now it's our responsibility to fix them." Those words have not come. And as a result, this administration HAS NOT built allies.
Hey, there is a Democrats for Life in America; I just found their website. That's encouraging...
I have to throw my hat in the ring for at least a few points. First of all, Clinton did do some very good things with the economy but it should be noted that Clinton was riding from some major accomplishments by Bush Sr. which helped him significantly and the economy was already starting to turn downward in his least year. Everyone seems to forget that Bush had two major economy destroying events in the first half of his first term: 1) The .com bubble bursting (something that was unavoidable and would have crumbled many of the accomplishments of Clinton even if he was still in office at the time) 2) 9/11 which caused what some consider a stock market crash. I think being where we are at considering these things is incredible, but everyone keeps comparing Clinton and Bush without so much as a whisper of these two events.
Second, Clinton did keep us out of war and saved us money that way. He is a smart guy who found out that it is much cheaper just to lob bombs at countries he doesn't like rather than doing the responsible however unpopular thing which is actually investing your military in a campaign. We saw this in Iraq which was under constant attack during the Clinton years from bombs that killed many civilians. And those who the bombs missed were seriously effected by the sanctions that did nothing but hurt innocent people while the elite murderers in power continue to lived in the affluence. Plus Clinton did nothing in response to numerous terrorist attacks against Americans which set a dangerous path for them to commit even worse attacks.
I'll stop there for now, but my point is I am not looking back fondly on the Clinton years.
i have my own theories about 9/11 and bush, and clinton and how he reacted to terrorism. i'll never discuss these theories on my blog because they line up more with the stereotypical "conspiracy theories" and to explain WHY i actually almost believe some of them i'd have to type A LOT. i refuse to go into that kind of detail, but i've done a ridiculous amount of research on things the government tells us that just aren't true (started 10 years ago while vaccinating my now autistic daughter). you guys know how passionate i am on that... i'm passionate about a lot of the other stuff too. long story short: i DO NOT believe george bush...sr or jr. period.
Since you have chosen not to talk about the 9/11 aspect of my comments I will leave that where it is. I would be interested to hear where Clinton fits into you ideas about pre-9/11 terror attacks especially how your theories allow you to see him favorably. But if you would prefer to leave that be, that fine with me. I did notice that you avoided any of the other issues I brought up about Clinton and directed the conversation towards criticizing Bush. Regardless of how you view 9/11, it is undeniable that the down turn in the economy that started when Clinton was still in office, Clinton's actions in regard to Iraq, Kosovo, and his negligence with Rwanda would turn any pedestal people try to put him on into a pile of rubble (kind of like the ones he left in Ar Ramadi and Sarajevo).
There are certainly some good accomplishments with Clinton just as there are with the Bush's (despite your disliking of Bush Sr. I would hope that having an autistic son would give you a little bit of place in your heart for him seeing that he passed the ADA which is the greatest piece of legislation for people with disabilities in the history of this country). The thing we need to be careful of is being unaware of the lenses we see politicians through whether rosy or yellow or the lens that others (like the View) want us to see them through.
By autistic son, my husband meant autistic daughter. ;) He's never met either of your lovely girls.
dan chill out, you get so serious! i'm a single mom with two kids and my own business 45 hours a week, i take care of my home when i'm home and so i'm not avoiding your challenges i'm just too tired to type out every argument to every sentence you throw at me! you and i disagree on a lot of things, i'm fine with that, you need to be fine with that!!
ok i just read my comment and it sounds angry. i'm not angry, i love getting comments! and i love being challenged. i just don't like "you've chosen not to talk about...." it'd be easier face to face if it's that big of a deal!
It's a little funny to bring up a serious topic and then say you don't want to talk about it seriously! ;)
I appreciate that you're busy Jenny (I know how hectic life can get sometimes) and I don't expect you to touch on every point that I bring up. That is why I pointed out areas that I felt were not addressed sufficiently so that you could address them. I'm not sure how you took my statement about you choosing not to talk about 9/11 but I assure you I wasn't saying that in a critical way. I was just pointing out that since you stated that you didn't want to go into you view on that matter that we would leave that alone. I am fine with that.
I know that we are probably always going to disagree on some things, that is certainly the reality of the world we live in. I'm not sure how you would define being "fine" with that, so you'll have to fill me in on what specifically you are recommending. If it helps at all, my perspective on things is that, as Christians, we accept that there is Truth and that we should always seek that Truth at all times. In any discussion I have I want to align myself and the people I am talking to with that Truth whether that means that I change my view or they change theirs.
I also understand that for most people politics, religion, psychology, and a number of other issues can bring up very heated discussions that can become very personal. Let me assure you that none of my statements are ever meant to be personal nor do I take other people comments personal (unless someone say "Dan, you sir are worse than Hitler). I do take all of these issues very seriously. But I eat, sleep, and breath these topics so I almost never get heated (you can ask Sara, I'm pretty laid back). So don't worry about me ever needing to chill out:) My chill just may look a little different. Here's something that might help; whenever you read my comments just picture me calmly typing with a pipe in the mouth and a brandy snifter beside me. You can add a smoking jacket, but that's entirely up to you.
sara-- not that i don't want to talk seriously. just that i don't wanna type seriously:)
Gotcha! Hey, it's your blog. ;)
Post a Comment