PrintJanuary 25, 2008
Are the Dems out of love with Hill and Bill?
Liberals don't actually choose their leaders --- they just fall in love. To the rest of us that might seem pretty strange --- but then can you imagine conservatives going to a Broadway musical like Camelot, to sing songs about a politician? Conservatives may love Ronald Reagan, but Reagan had to prove his mettle before skeptics were convinced.
Liberals really are different. They fell head over heels for FDR and Eleanor; then for Adlai; then it was Jack and Jackie; even Gorbachev got his turn; and in the 90s, they tumbled for the burlesque team of Bill and Hill. Competence never came into it. Even national security never mattered. It was just Love, Sweet Love.
The Left's romance with the Clintons never made any sense to conservatives, who despaired to see how low the country had fallen after eight solid years of blatant sleaze, mendacity and incompetence. "Where is the outrage?" asked Bob Dole in 1996; but then he was a badly wounded vet from World War II, and never, ever talked about his paralyzed right arm. A man from a different generation.
Millions of sane voters wondered where the outrage was, too, but the Clintons kept their media phalanx intact. They were untouchable. The Left just seemed to stayed suckered, in spite of everything.
Well, love is dead today. Democrats are making goo-goo eyes at a younger and better-looking idol. Even David Broder drops a tear listening to Obama.
What's more, the Left finally sees the Clintons for what they are. It only took sixteen years to figure out what everybody else knew in 1991. The mind boggles.
Two months ago Maureen Dowd, of all people, wrote in the NYT that
"Without nepotism, Hillary would be running for the president of Vassar ... Of course, Hillary is never on her own. From the beginning, her campaign has relied on her husband's donors, network, strategies and strong-arming."
This week she dumped another stink bomb:
"Bill's transition from elder statesman, leader of his party and bipartisan ambassador to ward heeler and hatchet man has been seamless - and seamy."
Wow! Why wasn't Dowd giving us these devastating insights in time for the elections of 1992, 1996 and 2000? Oh, never mind. I can guess.
Even Margaret Carlson, totally in the pitch-black burqa for the Clintons all these years, has just had it. She now raises the spectre of more Monicas to come:
"Months ago, a voter explained why he was leaning against Senator Hillary Clinton for president: ``You can't be commander-in-chief,'' he said, ``if you can't keep your dog on the porch.''
"He was referring to the specter of another Monica emerging during the Democratic primaries, and this time Hillary being unable to blame a ``vast right-wing conspiracy'' or retreat to Martha's Vineyard behind a pair of dark glasses."
The hard ideological Left has had it with the Clintons, too. The Nation quotes Norah Ephron's devolution from pure Clintonism to disillusionment:
"I love [Hillary Clinton] so completely that, honestly, she would have to burn down the White House before I would say anything bad about her!" exclaimed Nora Ephron in a 1993 Newsday interview.
Three years later, she told the Wellesley class of 1996,
"Understand: Every attack on Hillary Clinton for not knowing her place is an attack on you."
Come late 2006, however, Ephron was the one on the attack as one of the self-described "Hillary resisters --- those who believe that she will do anything to win ... who can't stand her position on the war, who don't trust her as far as you can spit."
What caused the scales to fall from those adoring eyes?
Part of it must be that Hill and Bill have been beating up on Obama. They are breaking a big liberal taboo: Thou Shalt Not Speak Ill of A Designated Victim. You can lynch as many Republicans as you like, even Black ones, like Clarence Thomas. But don't touch one of our own. But part of it, I would guess, is that the Left has long harbored doubts about Bill and Hill --- it's just that they hate conservatives more than they love telling the truth. Even if all those lies have endangered the country, as they obviously have.
Obama is the Great Democrat Hope because he promises to rescue the Dems from their own Clinton Quagmire. And of course a vote for Obama absolves White liberals of all their guilt for about fifteen minutes.
Maybe the goddess Nemesis is finally catching up with sixteen years of wall-to-wall Hubris?
But the Clintons are not yet defeated. Far from it. Dick Morris, who knows Bonnie and Clyde from years of personal experience, believes that they are deliberately playing the race card, betting that white Democrats will just hate the idea of a Black president of the United States.
Who would have thunk? You mean Democrats are the real racists? Is that the Clinton strategy, just a little ole' Dixiecrat race baiting?
But I don't know if Morris is right. My guess is that Team Clinton is really panicked and out of control with rage. You see, they really deserve a second eight years. Bill promised Hillary all those years ago. And now they're so close... so close... just reaching for that brass ring ... just a little more ... . Goddammit, what is that curse-curse-curse SOB doing, trying to beat us?
Psychiatrists call it narcissistic rage. You see, the presidency belongs to Hillary. She is entitled to it. For Hillary to be robbed of her Destiny would be a Cosmic Injustice. And besides that, Bill needs another two terms to get back at his critics. And who is better qualified to Save the Planet than the Clintons?
Wikipedia has a good summary of "Narcisstic rage":
"Narcissists often are perfectionists and require being the center of attention . ... This ... is cohesive with the grandiose self-image that the narcissist has ....
During the rage they are prone to shouting, fact distortion and making groundless accusations. ... The explosive form (of rage is) an obvious anger, for example, damaging property (or people) and being verbally abusive. ... They can become enraged to the point of being homicidal, especially if he/she has the need to seek revenge."
Something to keep in mind when we witness Bill's next rant. Keep your distance.
Perhaps there will be nothing in public, but maybe somebody will throw a few furniture items, down there in Clinton Central. Luckily they still have the Secret Service to protect them --- from each other, if necessary.
Maybe the Goddess Nemesis has finally woken up.
What took her so long?
James Lewis blogs at dangeroustimes.wordpress.com/
