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.
Can't someone get Pat to join Free Republic? I wonder if he even knows about us.
Is your Hillary graph for real? Is it Hillary or Hilary?Reminds me of the time she told a crowd (I guess in New Zealand?) to much fawning applause that her parents had named her after Sir Edmund Hillary . Until somebody (before blogs!) did the math: it turns out Sir Edmund didn't climb Everest until 1953, well after the Duchess of Rodham had been born. Nobody had ever even heard of him until his ascent - he was a totally anonymous N.Z. beekeeper, so it would have been odd if her parents had actually named her for him.Oh the tangled webs she weaves....
Yes, and it's Hillary with two L's. 'Hilary' took an even sharper plunge, from consistently being in about 250th place in 1990-1992, to 649th in 1993, then below 1,000th place from 1994 onward.
"A high education does not necessarily mean a high amount of common sense."
Thank you! I'll finish my Business Degree one of these days...I'm only a few credits shy. But right now I'm too darn busy as acting CFO for my family while I manage two other businesses out of my home. ;)
Its out there somewhere. It will be found just like the billing records. God works in mysterious ways.
"How long can you spin a wheel...really?"
Dan Rather has spun to the LEFT for decades....
I thought the thesis was found...I may be remembering wrong...but I thought it had been put online.
OK, I found it...not the paper, but the subject matter.
Hillary's thesis, was a critique of Lyndon Johnson's "War On Poverty" programs. Her conclusion: Community-based government antipoverty programs don't work.
Well said.
I thought the thesis had been found too - something about expanding legal rights for kids or something? Or maybe that was her Senior Thesis for Wellesley. Really, I didn't even know she got a master's. I always thought she went straight to Yale Law.
"I hope that everone appreciates one kind of a bullet we just dodged."
I hope that everyone realizes that same gun is reloaded now, with Hillary...
I very definitely want to see the senior thesis she composed at Wellesley which has been so well hidden until now. Both the school and Hillary's people have gone to great lengths to hide it, but it's a good bet a copy still exists somewhere. Somebody on our side has to get hold of that thing.
I meant that as a general statement , that has been used not only by me, but, by many other people.
There are some exceptions to that statement, so please, if you took offense, I am sorry, but, I sure hoped that you saw it as humor.
Boy I hope someone, several someones, in fact, can get some sort of an advertising campaign going, with sound bytes and clips of the "Old Hillary" from not so long ago, and play them next to the "New Hillary" sound bytes about identical topics showing clearly her contradictions. Maybe in a cartoon format? That's one simple way. I think she will "be" anything, anything anyone wants, to get their vote. Just watch out, though. If she does manage to somehow wangle her conniving way into that office, it will be a "Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde" transformation so fast it'll make your head spin. Lying seems to be an art form with these people.
That sounds like a positive for her for the '08 campaign. She's been all over the map, I think. From Goldwater Girl to Feminist. She can find support for her campaign for whatever position she decides is most popular.
And she'd be just as sincere as her "husband" is about his positions.
I do hope the GOP goes with an honest candidate. Integrity is one quality she can't display.
A good starting place is with Gary Aldrich's book. He has lots of true stories of Hitlery's misconduct in the WH.
Oh, I read Aldrich's book. But the MSM managed to keep the circulation down. The problem is not who hillary is, it's who the MSM can convince voters she is.
George W Bush, revenge of the C-students.
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