In Scandalous Times, Bush Could Learn from Clinton And so the Cato Institute (and Fox News) bemoans the fact that their chosen champion hasn't continued his popularity despite the troubles he's going through with various things. They're especially bemoaning the fact that Clinton didn't get hung (literally) back when Monica Lewinsky was the big news.
Now they're making a point of linking the Clinton Halo to economics. As if President Bush Jr. was having bad luck because the economy wasn't appearing to go gangbusters. Kind of amazing when you think of
it -- an army of voters trained to ignore what the economy is doing in lieu of commands from the pulpit carries the president to victory, yet this group magically disappears when there's a need to complain about why America doesn't genuflect in front of Bush and his Cronys.
Of course, they're busy trying to make us forget was that Clinton's "scandal" was about sex with an unpaid
employee -- criminal to be sure, but let's not forget this WAS consentual during most of the affair. Bush's troubles seem to stem from a deep-seated incompetence for the office (and appearance of malfeance against enemies, both active and inactive). Merely consummating one's lusts (again,
consentually -- had he been shown as an active rapist in office, there wouldn't have been a need for an impeachment as there would have been a lynching, a resignation and actual jail time) is hardly equal to using the government to actively oppress opponents real or imagined, nor is it similar to cynical profiteering masquerading as incompetence coasting through a play job.
Maybe that's why Clinton was able to keep support for his presidency even after the majority became convinced of the Radical Right's distaste for the man. They could see he did a good job despite being unable to keep his zipper up.
In other words:
Sometimes Competence Is Rewarded! Try that on for size...
No comments:
Post a Comment