The Clintons

I have this strange problem with the Clintons. I don't really like them very well. But I don't truly dislike them either. I don't want Hillary to become President, mainly because I believe she (and Bill) are basically just Republican-lite. She voted for the "war," so to speak, and she seems to me too close to Bush's way of thinking (if it can be said he has any way of thinking). But even though I feel this way about them, I find myself fairly consistently making excuses for them and their behavior. For example, I don't believe for one minute that Hillary cried on cue or on purpose to make political points. First of all, she didn't cry. She merely teared up at what was for her a trying moment and she was very tired. Those that accuse her of acting I think are simply being malicious. When she said her feelings were hurt when told that people liked Obama better than her (the kind of thing you might expect to hear on an elementary school playground), I think it was a perfectly genuine moment. I don't think she is a consummate actress and I do believe that like all of us she does actually have human feelings and emotions. I think there are times when her critics are not being fair (I'm sure there are times when they are). Anyway, I believe she is a victim of sexism, and there seems to me to be a good deal of very irrational Hillary hating out there.

What is more, I find myself defending Bill Clinton. Much is being made of how he and Hillary are playing the race card, being unethical, and so on. I don't think it is all that simple. I'm not at all sure that the Clintons are the ones who originally raised the race card. I think it was more likely the media, and now they have done it they are not going to let it rest. Of course there is no doubt that some of the Clinton supporters have said things they should not have said. But to believe that everyone who supports the Clintons only say things they have been told by the Clintons to say I think is far-fetched. I think it would be strange if Bill Clinton did not speak out on his wife's behalf. I don't think it is strange that he might have been slightly carried away at times. Obviously the Clintons have taken every advantage they can with respect to the campaign, but to accuse them of massive dirty tricks, roviating, and such, I believe is an exaggeration (it seems no exaggeration is too far fetched when it comes to Hillary or Bill, who have been at times accused of just about every crime known to man, including murder). I don't even hold Bill entirely resonsible for his tryst with Monica Lewinsky. Of course it was a stupid thing for him to have done. But it was not as if some lecherous old man had taken advantage of some innocent young lady. Monica was obviously well-schooled in matters of sex. She had even announced to one or more of her friends that she was going to Washington "with her knee pads." It was Monica who flashed her thong and came on to Bill. She knew what she was doing. And it was a consensual matter. The hypocritical Republicans that tried to bring down his Presidency were just as guilty of sexual peccadillos as Bill but acted as if he was the only one in Washington who ever had sex in his office or the White House. It is true that Bill should have been old enough and smart enough not to be seduced but, hey, it happens all the time, in Washington D.C. as well as elsewhere. Probably a good thing no one ever investigated John Kennedy's adventures in and out of the White House. When anyone starts in on Bill and Monica just say "Newt Gingrich," and they'll probably just shut up.

Anyway, I don't know exactly why I find myself defending the Clintons. I think it's mainly because I can't stand hypocrisy and I firmly believe in fair play. I don't think the Brafia has ever played fair with the Clintons and that unfairness continues. And the massive hypocrisy involved on the part of Gingrich and others far transends anything the Clintons have done. The hypocrisy of the Bush/Cheney administration far exceeds anything seen previously anywhere on earth. As they might say in Melanesian Pidgin, "Washington D.C. is the ass b'long hypocrisy).

It has been cold here at Sandhill for several days. Really cold. Oh, not below zero cold, but zero cold. I don't like it. Of course when you are sitting in the living room with a cosy fire reading a good book it's not bad at all. I've been reading about the Tuareg, nomads of the Sahara. Ostensibly Moslems, only Tuareg males wear veils and Tuareg women enjoy a very high status indeed. Culture is a wondrous thing.
I'm supposed to get my regular computer back tomorrow. Hurrah!

LKBIQ:
"I came to appreciate what good books really were and realized how much I needed them and they gradually gave me a stoical confidence in myself: I was not alone in this world and I would not perish."
Maxim Gorky