Posted on 07/28/2004 2:00:59 AM PDT by kattracks
The Democrats opened their 44th National Convention with Has-Beens Night at Boston’s Fleet Center. The party stuck in a time warp offered us a bit of nostalgia – golden oldies of political buffoonery.
The musical Clin-tones – Bill and Hillary – headlined the evening. In the former first couple, we have Louis XIV and Madame Defarge in one delightful package.
Former President Jimmy Carter, former Vice President Al Gore and Sen. Edward Kennedy rounded out the entertainment. No wonder The Cartoon Network got higher ratings in the same time-slot.
Unlike Bill, "Jimmuh" didn’t brag on the economic achievements of his administration -- 20 percent interest rates, hyper-inflation and "economic malaise."
Instead the man whose White House tenure brought the low point of American prestige abroad, delivered the most direct attacks on the current administration.
"The Middle East peace process has come to a screeching halt for the first time since Israel became a nation," the accident of history complained. "The achievements of Camp David a quarter century ago and the more recent progress made by President Bill Clinton are now in peril," Carter cautioned.
As Ronald Reagan would say, "Well, there you go again."
Under Clinton, Arafat was the most frequent foreign visitor to the White House. After then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered the PLO potentate everything but Tel Aviv, Arafat walked away from negotiations and launched the most bloody chapter in Israel’s history, with more than 1,000 civilian deaths.
And Carter calls this Clinton’s progress?
Let us briefly consider the foreign policy accomplishments of the Carter years – the Red Army invading Afghanistan, Castro clones in Central America, the fall of the Shah of Iran and his replacement by a viciously anti-American mullah-ocracy – not to mention the humiliation of the 444-day Tehran hostage crisis. Since then, little Jimmuh has devoted himself to serving as a good-will ambassador to the scum of the universe – offering tea and sympathy, and a wet kiss, to monsters like Fidel Castro.
Perhaps Carter will campaign for Kerry where the ex-president is appreciated – say, North Korea.
Al Gore took the stage for a brief 13 minutes to the strains of "This Land Is Your Land." ("I Talk To the Trees" might have made a better musical intro for Earth-In-the-Balance Al.)
Regarding Gore, there were several allusions to what the Democratic hardcore is still calling the stolen presidential election.
"Let’s make sure that this time every vote is counted. Let’s make sure …that the Supreme Court does not pick the next president." The Supreme Court didn’t pick this president. It simply ended the farce of the Democrats’ never-ending Florida recount. ("We’ll keep counting until we’re ahead. Then, we’ll stop.")
Perhaps they trotted out Al so the party’s charisma-challenged nominee (the political equivalent of valium) could outshine at least one of the other speakers. Or maybe Gore was there to provide the Senator with a few timely lessons in campaigning. After all, Al almost carried his home state in 2000.
New York’s junior Senator and Bill-enabler, Hillary Clinton, introduced her hubby with one of her rousing orations.
"I visited Ground Zero the day after we were attacked, and I felt like I was standing at the gates of hHell," the Rodham declared, with her penchant for the dramatic. And her presence at the ruins of the World Trade Center was certainly appreciated by the police and firefighters who roundly boo-ed her.
Hillary unveiled the Democrats’ national security strategy. Said she, "We need to fully equip and train our firefighters, police officers and emergency medical technicians – our first responders in the event of a terrorist attack." It’s hardly surprising that the heirs of LBJ would see national security in welfare-state terms.
Not, "We’ll hunt the bastards down and kill them to the last man." Not, "We pledge to bring Osama bin Laden to justice, no matter what it takes." Not, "We have a plan to deal with the other legs of the Axis of Evil." Instead, let’s increase domestic spending – and try to buy a few votes in the process.
And what would a Hillary speech be without a plea for socialized medicine. "We need to rededicate ourselves to the task of providing coverage for the 44 million Americans who are uninsured and the millions of others who face rising costs." Now, let’s see: Since we all face rising costs – that would be everyone! Hillary is like a welfare state Chatty Cathy – pull the string, and the same stuff comes out of her mouth, over and over again.
But the high point of Monday’s festivities was a speech by the former Felon in Chief, the Hillbilly Hunk, Mr. Never Inhaled and The Great Grammarian ("that depends on what the meaning of….").
The man who epitomizes the modern Democratic Party was given 30 minutes to rouse the faithful to battle. Slick Willie was at his oily best.
Clinton spent at much of his speech reminding us of Kerry’s heroism. (More reminiscent of Sgt. York or Audie Murphy, wouldn't you say?) Kerry "could have avoided going, too. But instead he said ‘Send me,’" the ROTC no-show informed us.
And then Kerry said, send me home after 4 months and 12 days in the boonies. Then he betrayed his buddies by joining the antiwar movement. Then he told a congressional committee that Americans in Vietnam were bloodthirsty war criminals. Then he threw away his medals – or someone else’s – at an antiwar demonstration. Then he spent almost 20 years voting against military expenditures, body armor, intelligence funding and new weapons systems.
But Clinton was just getting warmed up. "We Democrats want to build a world and an America of shared responsibilities and shared benefits. We want a world with more global cooperation where we go it alone only when we absolutely have to."
Global cooperation are code words for "put our security and survival in the hands of those fair-minded folks at the United Nations" (who think Israel is a menace to peace). Go it alone only when we absolutely have to means "rely on the fierce French and the valiant Germans to help us rid the world of megalomaniac warmongers who consort with terrorists."
Bill neglected to mention his own foreign-policy triumphs – Haiti, where the U.S. intervened to "restore democracy" (have we restored it yet?) and Kosovo, where we bombed the Christian Serbs to establish another Moslem terrorist mini-state on the doorstep of Europe.
The man who was getting oral gratification from that woman, Miss Lewinsky, while discussing troop deployments on the phone, also neglected to mention the Sudanese offer to give him bin Laden – but Clinton didn’t consider it important, or didn’t know how we could take custody of the soon-to-be mass murderer under international law. Besides, Bill never goes it alone, unless he absolutely has to.
As president, Kerry threatens to reprise the foreign-policy triumphs of the Clinton years. Ramsey Clarke must be so excited.
The man from Hope (more or less) also took the opportunity to engage in some classic Democratic class-warfare. Republicans "believe the role of government is to concentrate wealth and power in the hands of those who embrace their economic, political and social views, leaving ordinary citizens to fend for themselves on important matters like health care and retirement security," Clinton warned.
Those wretched, champagne-guzzling Republicans! They believe in government by and for the rich (like the millionaire felons Clinton pardoned in his last days in office). They can’t relate to the little guy – unlike Mr. Teresa ($750 million) Heinz or that man of the masses, Edward Moore (never worked a day in his life) Kennedy.
The Democrats really care about the little guy – which is why they want to keep him from ever growing bigger or stronger. They talk about making the wealthy pay their "fair share" of taxes but always end up increasing the burden on the middle class. In their eyes, if you make over $80,000 per year, you’re rich. Over $100,000 qualifies as super-rich.
But that’s the cost of progress – here defined as creating new bureaucracies, taking more power out of the hands of ordinary Americans and giving us the health-care system of Canada.
If Monday night was round one, I can hardly wait for Thursday, when the nominee will – we’re told – introduce himself to the nation. (Apparently, his 19 years in the Senate have been so memorable that he still needs a formal introduction.) And he’ll finally tell us what he stands for – his grand vision for America. Snore....
As I mentioned earlier, The Cartoon Network beat the Democratic Convention in Monday night’s ratings. Poor Yosemite Al, Deppity Dog Jimmuh, and Pepe Le Bill just don’t measure up to the cartoon characters of yesteryear.
Don Feder is a former Boston Herald writer who is now a political/communications consultant. He also maintains his own website, DonFeder.com.
I sure bet he makes more than he says people should be limited to. Another leftist hypocrite.
Excellent piece but he really does not attack the Democrats defense scheme the way he should. To defend America by hiring more people to pull the dead and wounded out of the rubble of the next horric set of terrorist attacks, and then the next, and the next, the next...is not a defense policy at all.
It is a Death To America policy.
Must have felt like a bit of a homecoming for old Hil...
Wow, if the Cartoon Network beat the DNC on Monday, I wonder how many obscure stations beat the crap out of them on Tuesday. Then figure that many of those watching were Republicans lolol.
What a line up!
Bill Clinton, as in travelgate, whitewater, J. Flowers, M. Lewinsky (Is she speaking?,) Impeachment, less second pardons, etc.
The onner"bull" Rev Al Sharpton, as in Tawana Brawley, 1991 crown heights riots, 1995 Freddy’s Fashion Mart in Harlem, etc.
Ted Kennedy, as in alcohol, Chappaquiddick, etc,
Why can't the Republicans get speakers like these? Oh yeah, I just remembered, we put them in jail where they belong, not on speaking tours.
Bill Clinton said (Referring to Kerry) "Send me!" OK, we will-right back to Massholechussetts where he and Teddy K can drown their sorrows in their mutal admiration society.
As Ronald Reagan would say, "Well, there you go again."
. . . Perhaps Carter will campaign for Kerry where the ex-president is appreciated – say, North Korea.
The man actually had the nerve to point out how dangerous North Korea has become . . . after he negotiated the deal that gave them the Uranium!!
I guess I'll place myself in the category of the naive. I used to think Jimmy Carter, though an incompetent President, at least was a decent man. In the last few years, he seems to have had his brain replaced with peanuts, and has sunk to the level of Ted Kennedy and the rest of the political hacks.
The Democrats are the party of patronization - the party ofRepublicans can never forget the middle class because they are the party of the middle class. Only a rich Democratic politician like Al Gore would ever think of speaking of "the forgotten middle class."
- voters who are willing to be patronized as victims rather than full adult Americans,
- the PR Establishment happy to patronize their own Democratic voters as "poor" - and, e.g., Palm Beach County Dumbocrat voters, even stupid.
- the Warren Buffet rich who position themselves above the middle class by boasting that they are too rich to "need a tax cut." People whose contributions to the party are useful to the PR Establishment and therefore buy self-flattering PR.
My take on the first night of the Convention... the Democrats don't have any fresh blood and ideas to offer America? Oh and John F*ckin' himself is not exactly a spring chicken. This is the first Democratic convention I haven't bothered to tune into. Same, same old and its as exciting as a game of whist. The Democrats and their nominee have taken their party's major achievements and turned them into a colossal bore. Don't get me started on addressing the challenges of this century: the Democrats aren't offering any answers to the threats we face. As I mentioned the other night, this is the party filled with Crooks, Sexed Wabbits and Lunatics. No wondering Americans aren't tuning in to listening to the retread message from a by-gone age.
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