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Suspending Disbelief
Townhall.com ^ | September 21, 2007 | Ken Blackwell

Posted on 09/22/2007 6:13:46 AM PDT by Kaslin

Hillary Clinton has done the last thing I expected, and she’ll regret it in the end.

In a previous column, I predicted that Senator Clinton would have a “Sister Souljah” moment. It would be similar to the politically defining moment that energized her husband’s first presidential campaign. In 1992, Bill Clinton attacked a young female rapper for her thoughtless and socially destructive comments.

This sent the message he was a moderate Southerner, not a creature of the far left. I thought Senator Clinton would create a similar episode and send the same message.

I was wrong. Last week was her perfect chance, and she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

MoveOn.org took out an ad that will go down in history as one of the most despicable and over-the-top ever. This full-page ad called General Petraeus, “General Betray Us.”

Both Rudy Giuliani and John McCain were out in front condemning the ad, with Mr. Giuliani even taking out his own ad to defend General Petraeus. Both men seized the opportunity to stand up for the decorated combat soldier now leading our troops in war.

Encouragingly, the condemnation from many Democrats was almost as strong as from Republicans. On the left, General Wesley Clark said that General Petraeus would never give a report he did not truly believe. Senator John Kerry, and even San Francisco liberal Nancy Pelosi, criticized the ad.

But Senator Clinton refused to condemn the ad. Instead, she said on camera to General Petraeus that his sworn testimony called for “the willing suspension of disbelief.”

That’s a theatrical term. When we go to a play or movie, we willingly suspend our disbelief. We allow ourselves to forget that it’s fiction, that it’s untrue, so we can enjoy it. So Senator Clinton told the general that the only way she could possibly believe his report was if she pretended it was movie entertainment.

In essence, she called our commanding general a liar to his face.

In his September 18 Washington Post column, Richard Cohen criticized Senator Clinton for missing her chance to be a moderate. He even said it revealed bad character on her part. It’s devastating when a liberal columnist like Mr. Cohen says that the biggest problem with Senator Clinton is whether she has “the character to be president.”

It also shows that Hillary is no Bill Clinton.

President Clinton was a master of the politics of triangulation. Designed in large part by his strategist Dick Morris, triangulation was all about resisting the right, but then finding a counterpoint on the left to push against, to appear moderate by being in the middle.

I disagreed with many things President Clinton did, but while much of his triangulating was for political benefit, it sometimes made him appear to be fairly moderate. He was a pragmatic politician, and despite his liberal leanings, he often went with the moderate move because it was the smart move.

President Clinton would have condemned this ad.

But not Hillary Clinton. She could do it. She’s opened up a big enough lead over Senator Barack Obama that she could now turn on parts of the left to portray herself as moderate to Middle America. MoveOn.org is such a rabidly extremist organization that it would be politically smart for her to publicly break with them.

But she will not. Senator Clinton has gone so far to the left, she is so committed to the priorities of the blame-America-first, anti-military extremist fringe, that she cannot bring herself to denounce even a vicious attack piece against a heroic soldier. Even when she could hide behind Speaker Pelosi’s comments and has full political cover, she refuses.

This is the man she voted to send to Iraq just earlier this year, when everyone was singing his praise. Now she calls him a liar, and defends those who call him a traitor.

I thought she would be smarter than this. Senator Clinton has done more damage to herself than she knows. She has distanced herself from what her husband would do, and from Middle America, going to the left of many prominent liberals to join forces with radicals.

Senator Clinton expects Americans to believe that she is as centrist as her husband appeared to be while running to the left of Speaker Pelosi, Senator Kerry and General Clark to attack our commanding general and defend an extremist, ultra-left group.

Yet she wants us to believe she’s moderate. Believing that now would require the willing suspension of disbelief.


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 110th; hillary; petraeus; petraeusreport
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1 posted on 09/22/2007 6:13:47 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

One of many errors to follow. They can’t help themselves..


2 posted on 09/22/2007 6:20:47 AM PDT by vietvet67
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To: Kaslin
The willing suspension of disbelief:

Chelsea Clinton.

3 posted on 09/22/2007 6:22:49 AM PDT by DTogo (I haven't left the GOP, the GOP left me.)
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To: Kaslin
Continue to screw up hillary, and We'll continue to give you the rope.

This will continue to haunt her. The Htsu connection, and the her pathetic performance in the hearings with Gen. Petraus.

She's so far out on the limb, she'll use a saw to get down.

4 posted on 09/22/2007 6:22:58 AM PDT by Northern Yankee (Freedom Needs A Soldier)
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To: Kaslin

I’m sorta surprised that no one has mentioned that “Suspending Disbelief” is a Hollywood term. It’s normally used in regards as to whether a film can get an audience to buy into a story even though there are aspects that are incredible in it. Such as Superman flying, an Alien ship landing in Wash DC, George Clooney being a regular nice human...


5 posted on 09/22/2007 6:26:18 AM PDT by DGHoodini
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To: Kaslin
And let's not gloss over the fact that this was the Senate's Armed Services Committee that Hillary is on
6 posted on 09/22/2007 6:28:51 AM PDT by nuconvert ("Terrorism is not the enemy. It is a means to the ends of militant Islamism." MZJ)
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To: DGHoodini

...In other words..we *know* who is coaching her on her public performance(pnoney face)...Hollywood types...it’s all an act.


7 posted on 09/22/2007 6:29:29 AM PDT by DGHoodini
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To: Northern Yankee

“Yet she wants us to believe she’s moderate. Believing that now would require the willing suspension of disbelief.”

Oh please. After winning the nomination, she will be inteviewed about this, will say she was wrong and the MSM will talk about her “courage” in admitting she was wrong, unlike GWB.

It’s in the DNC playbook.


8 posted on 09/22/2007 6:30:07 AM PDT by EQAndyBuzz (When O'Reilly comes out from under his desk, tell him to give me a call. Hunter/Thompson in 08.)
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To: Kaslin
Yet she wants us to believe she’s moderate.

She doesn't care what you believe Mr. Blackwell... you or anyone else who's paying attention.

9 posted on 09/22/2007 6:33:02 AM PDT by johnny7 ("But that one on the far left... he had crazy eyes")
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To: DGHoodini

It’s the Hollywood Lefties waiting off camera to rush in and put more lipstick on the pig, and coach her lines. Phoney Hollywood/Manchurian trash, through and through.


10 posted on 09/22/2007 6:35:37 AM PDT by DGHoodini
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To: Kaslin

she can’t attack the Shadow Party, they own her.


11 posted on 09/22/2007 6:40:00 AM PDT by gusopol3
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To: Kaslin
I hope the GOP, during the general elections, has the cojones to play back her interrogation and insulting remarks to the general in the senate hearings. I also hope that we don't let Hillary off the hook on the "Betray Us" ad. A political commercial needs to remind the people about how Hillary can't possibly be trusted to command the troops. The commercial should remind people about how Hillary is not brave enough to condemn moveon.org. Her face needs to be superimposed on the "Betray Us" ad, and then, her insulting remarks should be played while the ad covers the screen.

After all, the number one job of the president is as commander-in-chief, not "insulter in chief of the military". Her refusal to condemn moveon.org is the only betrayal in this whole episode.
12 posted on 09/22/2007 6:44:00 AM PDT by adorno
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To: DGHoodini

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1897688/posts?page=6#6

I noted it a while back.


13 posted on 09/22/2007 6:59:26 AM PDT by sportutegrl
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To: Kaslin

She is an extreme leftist, from the very beginning. Look at her senior thesis - Saul Alinsky. Hillary Rodham Clinton is a clear and present danger to the safety and well-being of the USA and must be stopped form being elected President at all costs. Nothing is more important in the 2008 election.


14 posted on 09/22/2007 7:05:25 AM PDT by astounded (Democrats in Congress = A Clear and Present Danger to the USA)
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To: DGHoodini

Such as Superman flying, an Alien ship landing in Wash DC, George Clooney being a regular nice human...

...Hillary being female?


15 posted on 09/22/2007 7:07:05 AM PDT by Gil4 (Time Man of the Year 2006 - and I'm darned proud of it)
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To: Kaslin

She is pure evil. If elected expect HillaryCare II to bankrupt the middle class. Expect Brady II, which would make it a federal felony to keep more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition or to have any handgun not on an “approved list.” Expect full citizenship for criminal aliens (and gee... what party do you think they’d vote for?) I give better than even odds that a Hillary presidency will precipitate a shooting civil war, resulting in her declaring martial law. If she is not defeated our future is grim.


16 posted on 09/22/2007 7:07:48 AM PDT by pabianice
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To: vietvet67

They (Liberal candidates) are “All In” with the hate bush crowd.


17 posted on 09/22/2007 7:26:23 AM PDT by tomnbeverly (Self pity and the sour sounds of Liberal whining will certainly frighten away any chance of success.)
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To: Kaslin

a willing suspension of disbelief...that half a nation will back the pig into the white house...almost assuring the destruction of the US as we now know it!!!


18 posted on 09/22/2007 7:34:14 AM PDT by nyyankeefan
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To: Kaslin

The left proclaims Hilary as the “smartest woman in the world”...well, I say that requires “the willing suspension of disbelief.”


19 posted on 09/22/2007 7:39:35 AM PDT by highlander_UW (I don't know what my future holds, but I know Who holds my future)
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To: Kaslin
>Senator Clinton expects Americans to believe that she is as centrist as her husband

This is simply wrong.
The issue for the 'Rats now
isn't about who

is in the middle
and who's 'far' Left. All that counts
is that none of them

is George Bush, and none
is hopelessly old like all
Right wing candidates.

The country will vote
for anyone who seems young
and who has a plan.
20 posted on 09/22/2007 7:44:04 AM PDT by theFIRMbss
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