One-third of those responding actually believe Clinton would have responded best. Right - he'd acted so decisively after all previous terrorist attacks! Speaking of the 'toon:
Bill Clinton used his favorite joke at NYU Wednesday night to explain why the right wing went after him. "There was a guy walking along the Grand Canyon and he slips," he said. "Falling to certain death, he grabbed a twig. Just as he was about to breathe a sigh of relief, the roots started to come out. He cried out, 'God, I've been a good man! Why me?' And a thunderous voice boomed, 'Son, there's just something about you I don't like.'"
The 42nd President spoke to a glittering crowd at NYU after The Week magazine's showing of his pal Harry Thomason's powerful new documentary, "The Hunting of the President." It's based on the book by Joe Conason and Gene Lyons about Kenneth Starr's investigation into Whitewater and Monicagate.
Clinton introduced Whitewater figure Susan McDougal, who went to prison for two years rather than cooperate with Starr, as "one of my heroes." In the film, McDougal recounts how male prisoners urinated on her, while guards stood by and did nothing. And worse. But this was Clinton's night. The ex-Chief Exec looked svelte and he called Starr a tool of "the perpetual right ... which seeks to consolidate power and wealth in their own hands."
"When the Berlin Wall fell, the perpetual right in America, which always needs an enemy, didn't have an enemy anymore. So I had to serve as the next best thing." [What was I saying the other day about paranoia?]
Still, Clinton was conciliatory. "I don't think we have to say they're bad people. We have to say we think we're right and they're wrong and here's why. It's a very different argument.
"I never had any money till I left the White House [Liar] and they were pretty mean to me, and then all of a sudden I became the most important person in the world to them once I got a little money."
Clinton, whose 950-page memoir "My Life" will hit bookstores Tuesday, was optimistic about the future. But he warned: "The election of 2000 was 50/50. Now, all the polls say our nominee for President has a 50% chance and is even ahead. ... You can't afford to let us make the wrong decision." Asked about John Kerry afterward, Clinton told us, "I think he's doing just fine." source
Rumors abound that sKerry will announce his Veep pick this weekend. (Trying to upstage the Toon is a dangerous thing.)
I'll go out on a limb and predict Harold Ford, D-Tenn. MediaCrats love him. He's the most well-spoken, reasonable African-American in Dem politics in a long time. It would be a huge surprise. And he might deliver Tennessee. Kerry will relish the media's gasping...Bush may get Florida, but how audacious it would be for Kerry to get Algore's home state back in the fold!
Best of all, since he's black, the media can NEVER ask him hostile questions or level any criticism against him.
Just a thought.
Clinton introduced Whitewater figure Susan McDougal, who went to prison for two years rather than cooperate with Starr, as "one of my heroes."
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Nominated as the Understatement of the Year.