Posted on 08/18/2006 10:51:48 AM PDT by doug from upland
Clinton turns 60: Second wind with the Stones By Laszlo Trankovits Aug 18, 2006, 12:20 GMT
Washington - Bill Clinton is a master of self invention.
Nearly every American knows the photograph of the star-struck 16- year-old youth, worshipfully shaking the hand of President John F Kennedy - symbolic of his teenage dream to live in the White House someday.
Nearly six years after the end of his spectacular presidency, Clinton is still mining the suggestive power of photographs. His picture is everywhere - at the AIDS conference in Toronto with Bill Gates, in Southeast Asia with the elder President George HW Bush visiting the tsunami devastation, and soon, at a private concert with the rock idol of the 1960s - the Rolling Stones.
Bill Clinton turns 60 on Saturday, but the celebration will only reach its climax with the Stones' performance on October 29 in Manhattan's Beacon Theatre - three days after Senator Hillary Clinton's 59th birthday.
Between now and then, Clinton will roll out a series of events that will not only boost his fame and public image - but also make money for his good-deeds foundation that has brokered cheaper AIDS medications, clean air agreements and an anti-obesity programme in the nation's schools.
In many ways, it's typical of how the US baby boom generation is entering retirement - rockin', rollin', and still on the move without a thought of sitting in a rockin' chair. US President George W Bush turned 60 in July with less fanfare.
But for Clinton, turning 60 is harder than it looks.
'I hate it, but it's true,' Clinton said at the world AIDS conference in Toronto earlier this week. 'For most of my working life, I was the youngest person doing what I was doing. Then one day I woke up and I was the oldest person in every room.'
Soon, Clinton often hints, he may even start a second political career. That at least is the message from jokes about his becoming the country's 'First Gentleman' - a play on the idea of his role if wife Hillary were elected president in 2008.
What other ambitions remain for a man who is one of the most popular presidents ever of the United States - both at home and abroad? Secretary General of the United Nations, perhaps. Or winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, the Los Angeles Times suggested recently.
No matter how unrealistic such dreams may be, there's little chance that Clinton will fade into political retirement, even if he can cash in up to 350,000 dollars for his public appearances, and even if he is temporarily felled by his health, as happened with his open heart surgery in 2004.
His ambitious spirit remains unbroken, and the wild success of his memoirs, selling like hotcakes with 1 million copies around the world, is proof of what the world expects.
Clinton has led a charmed life, despite the public controversy over his love affairs.
As the country's 42nd president, Clinton reaped the profits of the world economic boom as Eastern Europe disentangled from the Soviet Union and started to thrive. The charismatic Democrat's deliberate, somewhat conservative policies brought the country into the 21st Century.
He reformed social welfare and demanded that citizens take on more responsibility for themselves. His budgets became leaner while public coffers brimmed over with revenues from the emerging high tech boom.
Along with the non-bloody intervention in Haiti to oust a military government, Clinton also led Middle East diplomacy that was successful for a while at least, and brought home the Dayton Accords to end the war in Bosnia.
Clinton however provoked bitterness among his enemies - the political and religious right wing. The liberal, life-loving politician was charged with abuse of office and questionable womanizing affairs when he was governor of Arkansas, and the nickname 'Slick Willy' stuck.
Finally, his affair with the White House intern Monica Lewinsky became a fait accompli of sorts. He only narrowly dodged being removed from office for false testimony before Congress. The sordid details of the Lewinsky affair splashed across newspapers and television for years on end.
But despite even those hurdles, Clinton has sailed through to popularity.
Clinton is the classic example of success in the American meritocracy. With hard work and good grades, he rose above a poor background to graduate from the elite Yale University, then becoming governor of Arkansas.
In 1992, he did the unthinkable, ousting incumbent Republican George HW Bush, the father of the current president. These days, the two men are friends who pursue humanitarian interests and play golf.
If his cap is set for another residency at the White House, it would be on the coattails of Hillary, his wife of 31 years who cashed in on her First Lady fame to become elected senator from New York state.
But playing second fiddle would not be easy for Clinton, if it comes to that.
Clinton will never be any kind of gentleman.
Slobo Skankovits
After his spectacular "I never had sexual relations with that woman" speech, he told us he was going back to do the work of the American People. That must be it.
The liberal, life-loving politician was charged with abuse of office and questionable womanizing affairs when he was governor of Arkansas
Clinton is the classic example of the success of the American mediocrity.
There Doug, I fixed it.
(reprise) DFU SONG: End of the Innocence (yes, Bill Clinton really was responsible for 9-11)
DFU SONGS | 9-11-2004 | Lyrics, Doug from Upland
Posted on 09/11/2004 5:14:13 PM PDT by doug from upland
For several years they sang his song…he was a hero to their cause
In denial many lived…he placed himself up above the laws
He knew all of the right things to say…down through…hell and then back believers would go
In eight long years he's done to us…more damage than you know
For his neglect we would finally pay the price…the count's three thousand dead
We know just where to place the blame…it is on Bill Clinton's head
When the Cole was hit and brave men died…there is no doubt that he hadn't cried
He looked at his polls and sighed
Now this is the end…this is the end…of his legacy
At OKC he saw his chance…he needed to divide us all
He would create the vast right wing…and his mind-numbed fools would pick up the ball
So we'd fight among ourselves…and the…grand scheme had worked, he got his way
With our attention diverted he…would gut the CIA
For his neglect we would pay the price…the count's three thousand dead
We know just where to place the blame…it is on Bill Clinton's head
When the Cole was hit and brave men died…there is no doubt that he hadn't cried
He looked at his polls and sighed
Now this is the end…this is the end…of his legacy
We endured a psychopath…who saw himself as the Rockstar Prez
We had sent the warnings out…watch what this man does, not what he says
For neglect we paid the price…when those great buildings fell with many dead
And we know just where to place the blame…it's on Bill Clinton's head
When the Cole was hit and brave men died…there is no doubt that he hadn't cried
He looked at his polls and sighed
Now this is the end…this is the end…of his legacy
ROTFLMAO! True!
He reformed social welfare [He signed welfare reform after vetoing it twice in fear of losing in 1996.]
His budgets became leaner [all in cuts to the military and the defense department.]
while public coffers brimmed over with revenues from the emerging high tech boom. [which was a bubble ready to burst]
Along with the non-bloody intervention in Haiti to oust a military government, [Haiti is still a mess],
Clinton also led Middle East diplomacy that was successful for a while at least,[for a while, duh]
and brought home the Dayton Accords to end the war in Bosnia. [Kosovo is now a Muslim stronghold]
life-loving [except in the case of the unborn]
false testimony before Congress.[not before Congress, but in a sexual harrassment court case involving a law he himself had signed.]
Too bad that so many Americans are so ill-informed. They will believe everything in this article.
Aquinasfan, I did hurl at this point!
As someone else classically captioned it,
"Hear no evil, Speak no evil, See no evil, I have documents in my pants."
She was 19 years old…I loved her English eyes
She was telling me no, that's a word I despise
So I took what I wanted, I'll take what I see
She cried like a child
But she's just a dumb woman to me
She was just 22…and at Yale we studied
Recollection's not clear…but she might have been bloodied
Though she talked to the police, they just let me go free
One more score I can count
And she's just a dumb woman to me
I always take what I want…I will never hear "no"
If they fail to comply
Don't they all know who I am…who do they think they are
They should not ask me why
She's a real beauty queen…Miss America winner
I used power and fear…and then I enjoyed dinner
I warned her not to talk…she'd be sorry, you see
I would blame it on her
'Cause she's just a dumb woman to me
(short musical interlude)
I always take what I want…I will never hear "no"
If they fail to comply
Don't they all know who I am…who do they think they are
They should not ask me why
One was really too kind…and no challenge at all
I got into her room…there was no one to call
I ripped clothing and hurt her…she couldn't get free
There were tears in each breath…as I scared her to death
But she's just a dumb woman to me
(musical exit)
The Rolling Stones are has-beens. Tickets for their shows in England are going unsold. Retirement communities are being offered discounted tickets.
LOL! I hadn't caught that. It is scary, isn't it?
Carolyn
And the Stones are eligible to live in those retirement communities.
I just can't believe that the vicious, hate-filled, fat-boy-who-never-got-over-it, bastard from the wrong side of the tracks is ONLY 60????
He looks MUCH older!!!
Oh, well, at least his place in history is secure:
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