Posted on 03/06/2005 1:25:32 PM PST by wagglebee
Clark Clifford, a veteran Washington insider and, by all accounts, a very smart fellow, once called President Reagan “an amiable dunce”. That was pretty much the Left’s take on the Gipper throughout his eight years in The White House. They cringed at his depiction of The Soviet Union as “The Evil Empire”. They smiled at his naïveté when he stood in Berlin and forcefully said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” They gnashed their teeth when he ignored large European demonstrations and began deployment of Pershing II and Cruise missiles on that continent.
Yet, somehow, the Dunce prevailed. The Evil Empire imploded and Mr. Gorbachev did tear down that wall. (Actually, others tore it down for him as he turned his attention to signing Western book deals.) The really smart people saw through all this and announced that the Empire had crumbled of its own accord, not because of, but in spite of, the intellectual lightweight who predicted all of that would happen. Of course, these were the same people who preached co-existence with this “superpower” just a few years before.
Fast forward to 2000 when another “dunce” was elected and then reelected in 2004. As John Kerry was reported to have said when reading a poll showing George Bush with a lead, “I can’t believe I’m losing to this idiot!” Once again, we had a President who showed his lack of sophistication in international affairs by defining an “Axis of Evil”, by going on the offensive after an attack on American soil killed thousands, and by suggesting that democratization in The Middle East was the best defense against terrorism. Not only that, this newest Dunce actually believed that such a transformation could happen!
So now we find ourselves with democratic elections in Afghanistan and Iraq; Syria announcing a pullout from Lebanon with elections to follow; small, but unprecedented, steps toward real elections in Egypt and Saudi Arabia; and perhaps the best shot ever at a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Naturally, we are now being told that all of this could fall apart and, even if it doesn’t, these were things that were bound to happen anyway.
It must be extraordinarily maddening to be so smart and to watch helplessly as epochal events occur during or right after the watches of dunces and idiots, and to see these people given credit by some for these events. To make matters worse, when the really smart people are in power (Carter, Clinton), international events seem to conspire against them.
The 2008 elections are likely to be wide open in both parties. Democrats are still trying to sort things out, the Republican incumbent can’t run and the Veep says he won’t. So who knows who will finally emerge and ultimately occupy the office of President? Maybe we’ll be lucky and find another Dunce.
The movie, starring Robin Williams, was based on the life of Adrian Cronauer.
See:
http://www.h-net.org/~filmhis/conference_events/cronauer_biography.htm
"Well if Condi gets elected, they won't be calling her a DUNCE, but GOD knows what the LEFTIST's base will say about her!!"
well you know all the Byrd brains will be falling out of the 'woodpile' and the leftest main stream press will be publishing more racist cartoons of her as Butterfly McQueen, or some such.... birthin' babies...and bein' the overseer to tell the workers when its quitten' time all trussed up with that aunt jemima thing on her head. And they will get away with it....but God forbid if some one from the right slips in a not too flattering comment of an illustrious person of color that is not even 1/100th as offensive as the racist BS they have been putting out about Condi...and they will want the offender trussed up like a suckling pig and roasted on a spit
I hope that everone appreciates one kind of a bullet we just dodged.
"I find that spreading loads of "Nuance" on my garden really helps produce great flowers."
But don't the neighbors complain of the smell?
It has been said before:
The A students are the theorists and researchers.
The B students become the teachers who convey what others learned.
The C students employ the researchers and teachers, build and run their learning facilities and, in general, make things happen.
* * *
I recognize that some might say this hypothesis is false because George W. Bush's SAT scores were higher than John Kerry's, but I say that exception merely proves the rule.
Not a chance....
Newt literally screwed himself out of that chance...
Semper Fi
It should be done. It can be done. And the new media will do it.
Congressman Billybob
*rolls eyes*
Oh, about 23 years or so...and counting.
Actually Hillary trump card will be the non-stop "right wing men are afriad of 'powerful women'" mantra in the MSM
A high education does not necessarily mean a high amount of common sense.
...and I still recall with amusement that Mr. Clifford's last career achievement of note was getting himself ensnared in the BCCI mess.
I agree.
We dodged 2 of them, remember 2000 ?
"Anyone can make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the complicated simple." (Charles Mingus)
Regards,
GtG
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