Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Hitting the Nail on the Head
I think Bill Clinton did a damn fine job as President and I think he's an affable fellow that would be a very pleasant companion to sit down and have a beer with. And I think Hillary has a razor-sharp intellect and all of the experience and capabilities that it would take to be a perfectly competent chief executive. That said, I read this piece by publius this morning and found myself agreeing with every single word. I was always amused by the rightwing's paranoid hysteria treating the Clintons as if they were somehow the equivalent of Noam Chomsky in the White House because, as a true-blue, down-to-the-bone liberal I was always aware that the Clintons were nothing if not completely Centrist. As far as I could tell, Clinton's centrism was a GOOD thing, (in the '90s) in spite of the fact that it meant that his position on some things was not to my liking, because certainly his position on other things was plenty to my liking and getting legislation through on SOME things was better than nothing (or, as has been the case since 2000, moving BACKWARDS). But centrism is not what we need now. I don't believe we need a reactionary swing to the left just for the sake of some kind of return to equilibrium, but we desperately need someone who is willing to act boldly in order to repair the damage that has been done to our country by the Bush administration, and Hillary's pandering centrism is not going to do the trick, and nothing brings that home more quickly than hearing her make noises about somehow putting Colin Powell to use in her administration, an idea that Digby has the proper response to. I don't know if Barak Obama has what it takes to be the kind of leader that we need, but I'm more and more certain that Hillary doesn't.
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4 comments:
My nightmare scenario is one where Democrats spend all their time beating up on one another in the primary and then come out hobbled and weakened with some harboring bitter resentment and others walking away to support a third-party or independent candidate. And then we end up with four more years of Republican misrule.
Quite frankly, nothing that publius says about Bill and Hillary is as bad as what we would have with any of the GOP nominees this time.
I hate primary season. I quite frankly will take any Democrat in the field right now. I'm not committed to any one in particular. I just want to focus on the general election because that is the only one that counts. What good does it do if you get your favorite candidate in during the primary but then lose in the fall? None.
As for Colin Powell, I think if he can help get Hillary elected - or any Democrat - then more power to him. That is all that matters at this point. Powell was a big disappointment at State, but remember that he was working for the Worst President Ever. He would be much better working under a Democratic administration.
Good points, Mike. Unfortunately, this IS the primary season in which we Democrats have to evaluate our candidates, choose one and eliminate the others. Of course, as I have said before, I will fully support whichever Democratic candidate wins the nomination. I agree with you about not liking the aspect of our candidates "beating up" on one another, and I certainly don't want them to be "hobbled and weakened" - I suppose that, in today's emotionally charged political environment, it is especially hard to debate without coming away bloody. I suppose we have to take some small comfort in the fact that the Republicans are doing the same thing. As for Colin Powell, I agree wholeheartedly with Digby: No one who has played any role in the Bush administration should be allowed anywhere near the federal government for years to come, except perhaps as a prison inmate.
I agree with you about Powell. He should have blown the whistle on all the lies the administration was putting out about Iraq. Instead, he used up all of his credibility by presenting those lies as fact at the U.N. He's since come clean, but it's too late.
I agree with you about Hillary. In the primary, at least, I plan to vote for a candidate who didn't vote for war in Iraq.
I likewise think that Powell sold his credibility and should never be rewarded for it. I am also dismayed to find the first viable woman candidate for preznit seemingly demonstrate that she's different packaging for the status quo.
And there you have my 2 cents for the day.
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