AFTERWORD: ON CLINTON SMALLNESS--BRINKLEY MISSES THE POINT (CLINTON'S HOFSTRA APOLOGIA)

Hofstra University, History News Network ^ | 12.27.05 | Mia T

[Mia T]

 AFTERWORD:

ON CLINTON SMALLNESS--BRINKLEY MISSES THE POINT

THE FAILED, DYSFUNCTIONAL CLINTON PRESIDENCY
(DECONSTRUCTING CLINTON'S HOFSTRA SPEECH)
part1: The "Brinkley" Lie

 

by Mia T, 12.27.05

 

One of the American historians I most admire, Douglas Brinkley out there, sitting here, was quoted in the paper today as saying that I would be viewed as a great president except for the fact of the impeachment, which is just there.

bill clinton
Hofstra apologia
November 11, 2005

clinton's ranking will likely get worse over time. Economic issues fade in importance. Moral issues presist and grow. (paraphrase)

Douglas Brinkley
February 2000
(discussing C-SPAN PRESIDENTS POLL)
Washington Journal

Note that although Brinkley doesn't place much importance on the economic management dimension--he argues that the economy variable is not durable over time--he fails to recognize that the evaluation of the clinton economy by the historians is erroneous to begin with.

Note also that C-SPAN historians found no evidence of clinton "greatness" irrespective of his moral-authority deficit, contrary to Douglas Brinkley's claim made at the clinton revisionist confab³.

(NOTE: My later research has revealed that Brinkley's qualified mention of clinton "greatness" was not a claim but rather a polite guest's white lie about an abject loser. Instead of taking the AP report at face value, one must carefully parse Brinkley's actual words and especially note the subjunctive construction.)

Mia T, 11.10.05
Historian massages clinton numbers, ego + legacy at revisionist confab
C-SPAN historians find no clinton "greatness" irrespective of moral-authority deficit

The term "great" is probably an overused term. There are only a few presidents who make that top tier: Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Franklin Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Thomas Jefferson, and a few others who might be there.

I don't think bill clinton ever reached that category.

One, it's hard if you're not a wartime president

Note to Douglas Brinkley (NTDB):
clinton WAS a wartime president. The problem is, he surrendered.

Preemptively.

You might say the clinton approach to The War on Terror was the perverse obverse of The Bush Doctrine.

or have some huge event.

NTDB:
clinton had one almost immediately, which he summarily ignored, the first attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor, the 1993 WTC bombing.

Do you recall that he urged us to ignore the bombing, too? Ignore the first major Islamofascist terrorist attack on the continental United States?!

Did you know clinton never visited the site? (And he was only 15 minutes away mere days after the bombing. He chose, instead, to give some forgettable speech on --what else? -- the economy.)

 

Second, clinton is not known for something like Lyndon Johnson was -- The Civil Rights Act -- or even Theodore Roosevelt and conservation, or one big thing.

I think his successes were in welfare reform, economic discipline,trade pacts.

NTDB:
Arguable. He was dragged kicking and screaming by the Republicans.

Those are achievements, but they're hard to get people queuing up a hundred years from now excited to see the "NAFTA Pen Under Glass."

NTDB:
Great turn of phrase.

Douglas Brinkley
Nov. 12, 2005
The History News Network
Refuting clinton's Hofstra-apologia "Brinkley" lie

The clintons continue to imperil virtually every sector of society, indeed, continue to imperil America and the world, with their exponentially increasing facility in manipulating electoral/policy matter and energy at ever smaller scales. Their "school uniforms" of the '90s became "nanotech uniforms" today; both are proxies for "fight terrorism," which the clintons have neither the stomach nor the know-how to do.

NANO-PRESIDENT
the danger of the unrelenting smallness of bill + hillary clinton
by Mia T, 7.31.05

LEHRER: President Bush, your closing statement, sir.

PRESIDENT BUSH (audio): Three weeks from now--two weeks from tomorrow, America goes to the polls and you're going to have to decide who you want to lead this country ...

On foreign affairs, some think it's irrelevant. I believe it's not. We're living in an interconnected world...And if a crisis comes up, ask who has the judgment and the experience and, yes, the character to make the right decision?

And, lastly, the other night on character Governor Clinton said it's not the character of the president but the character of the presidency. I couldn't disagree more. Horace Greeley said the only thing that endures is character. And I think it was Justice Black who talked about great nations, like great men, must keep their word.

And so the question is, who will safeguard this nation, who will safeguard our people and our children? I need your support, I ask for your support. And may God bless the United States of America.

(Applause)

 

ouglas Brinkley totally misses the point of clinton smallness.

The clinton presidency was small not because of absence of opportunity, but rather because of absence of courage, vision, selflessness, real intelligence and a moral core.

The endless parade of clinton small was required to fill the void created by an absence of the big stuff -- big stuff like "fighting terrorism."

HORNS: Bush vs. clinton

 

by Mia T, 12.19.05

 

a tin-horn politician with the manner of a rural corn doctor and the mien of a ham actor

H.L. Mencken

 

Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt

The cowardly, self-serving, seditious clintons may have found temporary refuge in 'the gray twilight,' but, as 9/11 demonstrated, America was not similarly sheltered....

 

deconstructing clinton… "just because I could"


(viewing movie requires Flash Player 7, available HERE)
FOOL ME ONCE, SHAME ON YOU! FOOL ME TWICE, SHAME ON ME! 

 

COPYRIGHT MIA T 2005

Good evening. Three days ago, in large numbers, Iraqis went to the polls to choose their own leaders -- a landmark day in the history of liberty. In the coming weeks, the ballots will be counted, a new government formed, and a people who suffered in tyranny for so long will become full members of the free world.

This election will not mean the end of violence. But it is the beginning of something new: constitutional democracy at the heart of the Middle East. And this vote -- 6,000 miles away, in a vital region of the world -- means that America has an ally of growing strength in the fight against terror.

President George W. Bush
President's Address to the Nation
The Oval Office
In Focus: Renewal in Iraq
December 18, 2005
9:01 P.M. EST

CHRIS MATTHEWS: 'BUSH BELONGS ON MOUNT RUSHMORE'
IF HE WINS 'GREATEST GAMBLE SINCE ROOSEVELT BACKED BRITAIN BEFORE WWII'

(viewing movie requires Flash Player 7, available HERE)
COMPLETE ARTICLE

VIDEO CLIP

December 7, 1941+64

AN OPEN LETTER TO TIM ROBBINS, DAVID GEFFEN, CHRIS MATTHEWS, MAUREEN DOWD + JEANINE PIRRO

RE: a not-so-modest proposal concerning hillary clinton

Dear Concerned Americans,

Hillary Clinton's revisionist tome notwithstanding, 'living history' begets a certain symmetry. It is in that light that I make this not-so-modest proposal on this day, exactly 64 years after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The context of our concern today--regardless of political affiliation--is Iraq and The War on Terror, but the larger fear is that our democracy may not survive.

We have the requisite machines, power and know-how to defeat the enemy in Iraq and elsewhere, but do we have the will?

In particular, do we have the will to identify and defeat the enemy in our midst?

Answerable to no one, heir apparent in her own mind, self-serving in the extreme, Hillary Clinton incarnates this insidious new threat to our survival.

What we decide to do about Missus Clinton will tell us much about what awaits us in these perilous new times.

COMPLETE LETTER

December 7, 1941+64
Mia T
AN OPEN LETTER TO TIM ROBBINS, DAVID GEFFEN, CHRIS MATTHEWS, MAUREEN DOWD + JEANINE PIRRO
RE: a not-so-modest proposal concerning hillary clinton


COPYRIGHT MIA T 2005

THE FAILED, DYSFUNCTIONAL CLINTON PRESIDENCY
(DECONSTRUCTING CLINTON'S HOFSTRA SPEECH)
part1: The "Brinkley" Lie

by Mia T, 12.26.05



(viewing movie requires Flash Player 7, available HERE)

 

ne would think that after bill clinton's shameless--pathetic, really--Hofstra apologia, Doris Kearns Goodwin and those 400 other hog-and-bow-tied-save-clinton retrograde-obsessing historiographers would finally get it. But then, we are talking leftist lobe here....

The speech, full of poses, poll-tested phrases and prevarication, was just another example of the clintons' utter contempt. For the people, for the presidents, for the presidency, for the country, for the Constitution... and, ultimately I suspect, for themselves.

This endeavor is the first in a series of essays with video that will attempt to deconstruct this very revealing speech.

The clintons' fundamental error: They are too arrogant and dim-witted to understand that the demagogic process in this fiberoptic age isn't about counting spun heads; it's about not discounting circumambient brains. (Did bill clinton really think Douglas Brinkley would let the "clinton greatness but for impeachment" lie stand? Is clinton delusional? Or just plain dumb?)

 

 

COPYRIGHT MIA T 2005

 

I M P E A C H M E N T
h e a r --c l i n t o n --l o s e --i t


by Mia T, 11.11.05

This legacy confab is in and of itself proof certain of clinton's deeply flawed character, and a demonstration in real time of the way in which the clinton years were about a legacy that was incidentally a presidency.

Madeleine Albright captured the essence of this dysfunctional presidency best when she explained why clinton couldn't go after bin Laden.

According to Richard Miniter, the Albright revelation occurred at the cabinet meeting that would decide the disposition of the USS Cole bombing by al Qaeda [that is to say, that would decide to do what it had always done when a "bimbo" was not spilling the beans on the clintons: Nothing]. Only Clarke wanted to retaliate militarily for this unambiguous act of war.

Albright explained that a [sham] Mideast accord would yield [if not peace for the principals, surely] a Nobel Peace Prize for clinton. Kill or capture bin Laden and clinton could kiss the 'accord' and the Peace Prize good-bye.

If clinton liberalism, smallness, cowardice, corruption, perfidy--and, to borrow a phrase from Andrew Cuomo, clinton cluelessness--played a part, it was, in the end, the Nobel Peace Prize that produced the puerile pertinacity that enabled the clintons to shrug off terrorism's global danger.

COMPLETE ARTICLE

C-SPAN asked noted presidential historians to rank the American presidents¹ along the following ten dimensions: public persuasion, crisis leadership, economic management, moral authority, international relations, administrative skills, relations with congress, vision/setting an agenda, pursued equal justice for all, and performance within context of times.

bill clinton emerged as middling in most dimensions; he was surpassed in others by a settled mediocrity (Carter) and a putative failure (Nixon). In moral authority, bill clinton was rated dead last.² He did fairly well in public persuasion, not a surprising finding given the volume of snake oil he managed to peddle during his putative presidency.

"It's NOT the economy, stupid!"

Clinton's best scores were on the economic management and pursued equal justice for all dimensions. However, both of these results are meaningful only insofar as they redound to the moral authority dimension: they are wholly based on clinton fraudulence, cooked books and black poses, respectively; and clinton's shameless Rosa Parks eulogy last week assured us that the insidious brand of clinton racism is alive and well during these tiptoe years of what the clintons hope will be their interregnum.

Note that although Brinkley doesn't place much importance on the economic management dimension--he argues that the economy variable is not durable over time--he fails to recognize that the evaluation of the clinton economy by the historians is erroneous to begin with.

Note also that C-SPAN historians found no evidence of clinton "greatness" irrespective of his moral-authority deficit, contrary to Douglas Brinkley's claim made at the clinton revisionist confab³.

(NOTE: My later research has revealed that Brinkley's qualified mention of clinton "greatness" was not a claim but rather a polite guest's white lie about an abject loser. Instead of taking the AP report at face value, one must carefully parse Brinkley's actual words and especially note the subjunctive construction.)

MIDDLING

Twenty presidents rank higher than bill clinton and 20 rank lower. But this placement assumes equal weight for each of the dimensions. And therein lies the flaw.

If 9/11 taught us anything, it is that presidential character and moral authority count, and count most.⁴ If the variables are properly weighted, bill clinton will always come out dead last.

That is, unless Americans are dumb enough to make the same mistake twice.

Mia T, 11.10.05
Historian massages clinton numbers, ego + legacy at revisionist confab
C-SPAN historians find no clinton "greatness" irrespective of moral-authority deficit

 

 

IT TAKES A CLINTON TO RAZE A COUNTRY
by Mia T, 11.14.05

(viewing movie requires Flash Player 7, available HERE)
 

 

[Mia T]

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[Mia T]

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[Republic]

This is a wonderful thread Mia.

Quoting you:

Albright explained that a [sham] Mideast accord would yield [if not peace for the principals, surely] a Nobel Peace Prize for clinton. Kill or capture bin Laden and clinton could kiss the 'accord' and the Peace Prize good-bye.

If clinton liberalism, smallness, cowardice, corruption, perfidy--and, to borrow a phrase from Andrew Cuomo, clinton cluelessness--played a part, it was, in the end, the Nobel Peace Prize that produced the puerile pertinacity that enabled the clintons to shrug off terrorism's global danger

Ya know, knowing the first part of this quote was advice from Albright ( Ms. Allwrong!) was geared to making Herr Klinton look like the great peacemaker (at any price, of course, including the demise of our national security which opened the door for 9-11)...well...it just goes to show ya that CHARACTER IS EVERYTHING! This pastey rapist demonstrated clearly his lack of character from the git to as president via the assignment of his cabinet and staff.

Klinton could NOT AFFORD to assign a cabinet that was on top of their game, he could NOT AFFORD to have intellects of great experience and wisdom advising him because they would have been confrontational and served to monitor and truly advise him...something an arrogant, ego driven fella like billy has no tolerance for, ever.

He and his 'me first-er wife in name only', brought in the cohens, the allbrights, etc who were total yesmen, easily manipulated (say, easy to trot out before the cameras to state how impossible it would be for klinton to pork a volunteer girl in our oval office). Folks just like the klintons, willing to do whatever it takes to get the win.

Without good character....one cannot afford to associate with those who are acquainted with good character.

klinton chose the easiest personal route every single time...risk taking was not in his sight...popularity polls and orgasmic delights left no room for genuine leadership.

Any man who frets about his legacy, openly, has major psychological problems.

No major travesty would have caused this girlish metro-sexual to meet greatness; his tremendous lack of character, caused by a deep and abiding self-centeredness which caused him to make every decision upon how each would impact his 'likeableness' or grant him personal gain can be seen not only in his speech patterns but in his actions....

Every rapist is a power abuser.

And every rapist holds others in total and complete contempt.

[malia]

Douglas Brinkley...... "I don't think bill clinton ever reached that category".

"One, it's hard if you're not a wartime president"

Note to Douglas Brinkley (NTDB):
clinton WAS a wartime president. The problem is, he surrendered.

Preemptively.

You might say the clinton approach to The War on Terror was the perverse obverse of The Bush Doctrine.

"or have some huge event".

NTDB: clinton had one almost immediately, which he summarily ignored, the first attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor, the 1993 WTC bombing.

Do you recall that he urged us to ignore the bombing, too? Ignore the first major Islamofascist terrorist attack on the continental United States?!

Did you know clinton never visited the site? (And he was only 15 minutes away mere days after the bombing. He chose, instead, to give some forgettable speech on --what else? -- the economy.)

[jla]

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[Mia T]

Thanks, Malia.
Your post alerted me to the fact that
unless you play the video clip of clinton and Douglas Brinkley,
it 's a bit unclear who's saying all that.
So I added the attribution to each section of the quote
before posting it on the new clinton legacy page of deletehillary.com.

The term "great" is probably an overused term. There are only a few presidents who make that top tier: Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Franklin Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Thomas Jefferson, and a few others who might be there.

I don't think bill clinton ever reached that category.

One, it's hard if you're not a wartime president

Douglas Brinkley
Nov. 12, 2005
History News Network
Refuting clinton's Hofstra-apologia "Brinkley" lie

Note to Douglas Brinkley:
clinton WAS a wartime president. The problem is, he surrendered.

Preemptively.

You might say the clinton approach to The War on Terror was the perverse obverse of The Bush Doctrine.

or have some huge event.

Douglas Brinkley
ibid.

Note to Douglas Brinkley:
clinton had one almost immediately, which he summarily ignored, the first attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor, the 1993 WTC bombing.

Do you recall that he urged us to ignore the bombing, too? Ignore the first major Islamofascist terrorist attack on the continental United States?!

Did you know clinton never visited the site? (And he was only 15 minutes away mere days after the bombing. He chose, instead, to give some forgettable speech on --what else? -- the economy.)

 

Second, clinton is not known for something like Lyndon Johnson was -- The Civil Rights Act -- or even Theodore Roosevelt and conservation, or one big thing.

I think his successes were in welfare reform, economic discipline,trade pacts.

Douglas Brinkley
ibid.

Note to Douglas Brinkley:
Arguable. He was dragged kicking and screaming by the Republicans.

Those are achievements, but they're hard to get people queuing up a hundred years from now excited to see the "NAFTA Pen Under Glass."

Douglas Brinkley
ibid.

Note to Douglas Brinkley:
Great turn of phrase.

[Mia T]

Thanx, Republic. Excellent points. The clintons pick only weak, naive and/or corrupt people. Cohen, I seem to recall, had some questionable dealings with Red China.

Lopez: What exactly was U.S. reaction to the attack on the USS Cole?

 

Miniter: In October 2000, al Qaeda bombed the USS Cole in Aden, Yemen. Seventeen sailors were killed in the blast. The USS Cole was almost sunk. In any ordinary administration, this would have been considered an act of war. After all, America entered the Spanish-American war and World War I when our ships were attacked.

Counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke had ordered his staff to review existing intelligence in relation to the bombing of the USS Cole. After that review, he and Michael Sheehan, the State Department's counterterrorism coordinator, were convinced it was the work of Osama bin Laden. The Pentagon had on-the-shelf, regularly updated and detailed strike plans for bin Laden's training camps and strongholds in Afghanistan.

At a meeting with Secretary of Defense William Cohen, Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Attorney General Janet Reno, and other staffers, Clarke was the only one in favor of retaliation against bin Laden. Reno thought retaliation might violate international law and was therefore against it. Tenet wanted to more definitive proof that bin Laden was behind the attack, although he personally thought he was. Albright was concerned about the reaction of world opinion to a retaliation against Muslims, and the impact it would have in the final days of the Clinton Middle East peace process. Cohen, according to Clarke, did not consider the Cole attack "sufficient provocation" for a military retaliation. Michael Sheehan was particularly surprised that the Pentagon did not want to act. He told Clarke: "What's it going to take to get them to hit al Qaeda in Afghanistan? Does al Qaeda have to attack the Pentagon?"

Instead of destroying bin Laden's terrorist infrastructure and capabilities, President Clinton phoned twice phoned the president of Yemen demanding better cooperation between the FBI and the Yemeni security services.

If Clarke's plan had been implemented, al Qaeda's infrastructure would have been demolished and bin Laden might well have been killed. Sept. 11, 2001 might have been just another sunny day.

Clinton's Loss?
How the previous administration fumbled on bin Laden.
A Q&A by Kathryn Jean Lopez
NRO
September 11, 2003, 11:45 a.m.

[Mia T]

WAR AND TREASON AND THE NEW YORK TIMES

by Mia T, December 29, 2005

 

 

COMPLETE ARTICLE WITH FOOTNOTES

[Republic]

Haven't read the entire article yet, I was SO ANGRY I could not stand it. Period. Put a strong call into the NYT today...and have an email I will post here later for the national news editor....have to run and get dinner out...my anger over the NYT (in general but ESPECIALLY today) must have boosted my metabolism because I have accomplished a great deal today and am still running on adrenaline because of that slimey, Goebbel's like rag.

Talk about dishonesty! It is time for a name change at the NYT. No newspaper should be able to openly abuse the facts as this major rag has done since forever.

[Mia T]

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[jla]

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[Mia T]

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[Mia T]

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The NYT has become a farce of a farce, thanks in no small measure to Pinch.

That the leftist media still take their marching orders from this laughable source would be embarrassing but for the absence of gray matter all around.

Did you ever send that email? Would love to see it.

[jla]

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[jla]

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