Ex-prez won't leave the stage

the Boston Herald ^ | Friday, May 30, 2003 | Rachelle G. Cohen

[presidio9]

Half the people came to worship Bill Clinton. The other half came to see if the old guy really still ``had the juice'' and the former president, who always seems to crave adulation, needed to win them all over.

And he's good, dammit, really good. Who else could make eye contact with several hundred people for a couple of hours during a speech and ``conversation'' at the John F. Kennedy Library Wednesday.

``It's amazing how he does that,'' said one young woman. ``I would swear he was looking right at me.''

He was lean (what, are there no McDonald's in Chappaqua?) and he was loose (``I don't care, I'm not runnin' for anything,'' he said and then proceeded to crack wise and say of the 2000 election results, ``At least it gave our Supreme Court a rare opportunity to stand up for minority rights.'')

But the man who once convinced the better part of this nation that he felt their pain wanted his audience to feel just a little of his own in his post-presidential phase.

In answer to a question from historian Michael Beschloss, Clinton said, ``I think I was well suited to the times in which I served because I have a high pain threshold. . . Because of my upbringing I had a particular tolerance for it.''

And while he conceded it was probably OK for historians and biographers to poke around in the private lives of presidents, especially long after they're gone, he added, there's a ``big difference if you have to deal every day with those trying to turn a public person into a private pinata.''

Well, pinata-boy is doin' OK these days. Sure, he misses the perks and he misses the work (``I loved being president,'' he said.), but he added, ``I think I was surprised at how happy I was to have my life back.''

Yeah, we know where we could go with a statement like that, but Clinton clarified that it meant hanging out in the local coffee shop in Chappaqua with the regulars. Whatever. . .

And even Clinton noted that financially he was doin' just fine, thank you very much. Of course, he did so in the context of arguing against the tax cut that President Bush was signing into law that day.

You just can't keep an old triangulator from triangulating, so Clinton beat up on the Republicans ``for whom tax cuts are ideological, almost theological.'' He called this particular one ``grossly unfair'' because it gave some money back to ``rich people'' like him and because ``these tax cuts are too small in the short run to do any good and too big in the long run.''

And then as if Dick Morris were still whispering sweet political nothings in his ear, Clinton added that he, of course, liked the child tax credit and ending the marriage penalty.

Would anyone be surprised that in a column in Thursday's New York Post, commenting on the skill with which Bush will have it both ways on the tax cut, Morris wrote, ``How can a Democrat oppose expanding the child-tax credit, lowering the tax rates on the two lowest brackets and repealing of the marriage penalty?''

Yep, even when it comes to parsing a complex issue like the tax cut, the guy's still a master - just as he is at playing elder statesman while skillfully turning the knife on the Bush administration.

``It never occurred to me that I was in sole possession of the truth,'' he professed about his White House years, then added, ``But we now face those who have exclusive claim to the truth.''

Charming and ruthless, flawed and beguiling, Clinton continues to fascinate because he remains that bundle of contradictions. That and because he remains on the stage. The coffee shop in Chappaqua aside, it's where he really lives.

[Leisler]

"[Propaganda] must be aimed at the emotions and only to a very limited degree at the so-called intellect... The art of propaganda lies in understanding the emotional ideas of the great masses and finding, through a psychologically correct form, the way to the attention and thence to the heart of the broad masses."

-- Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, pp. 180

[Leisler]

It was Bushs to lose, and he did.

[BigWaveBetty]

And while he conceded it was probably OK for historians and biographers to poke around in the private lives of presidents, especially long after they're gone, he added, there's a ``big difference if you have to deal every day with those trying to turn a public person into a private pinata.''

God give me strength! The bolded part of toon's statement shows how completely clueless he is. Please pardon me while I scream:

THIS IS WHY A PRESIDENT SHOULDN'T BOINK INTERNS IN THE OVAL OFFICE!

Really, we're supposed to think this man is the smartest president ever? Yet he thinks that in this day and age he can behave like that and nobody will have anything to say. Please.

[presidio9]

Jesus, has he gotten a lot of mileage out of that Rhode's Scholarship or what? The man won because he is from Arkansas and people from Arkansas are mensa-qualified if they can tie their own shoes (assuming they own a pair). Nothing more.

[timestax]

and he misses the work

What WORK??!

[Cedric]

Yep. But it took a biased, dishonest media, sulking and apothetic Conservatives and Ross Perot to do it!

[Leisler]

The media is a constant. Nothing new. Turning off your base and leaving a political vacume to be filled by others is the price you pay. If you don't define and stand for something, other will define you and you stand for nothing.

[Cedric]

Thgye "Base" acted childishly and it cost us all - big time! So Bush-41 brike his pledge; so Bush-41 didn't excite them; so Bush-41 didn't define him self {to their liking}. So what?!?! Any election is a choice between imperfect candidates and the thumb-sucking "Base" learned the hard way that staying home 'cause your guy isn't perfect can render disatrous results!
As far as the media is concerned, it is not a given: 1. They never went as all-out for a candidate as they did for Clinton. 2. Now that the "alternative media" has matured into potency, the mainstream media will never again be able to carry such a vulnerable and flawed candidate to victory.

[Leisler]

"Don't Go Wobbly, George", Margaret Thatcher to George Bush. Lady Thatcher was known as the Iron Lady. George wasn't.

Lets be blunt. If it wasn't for Reagan, Bush would never have been President. It was Reagan that got him elected the first time. Still though the GOP did learn from the populust Perot, it picked the hottie, Dole. Who's fault was that, Perots ? The media?

[Newbomb Turk]

You can thank Ross Perot for this TURD becoming our president !

Honest Abe said,"You can fool some of the people all the time. You can fool all the people some of the time. But you can't fool all the people all the time." --Abraham Lincoln.

But evidently some of our countrymen have become so stupid they would elect this hole ruler for life.

[Leisler]

The vote split for Perot was about 50/50, Republican/Democrat. Bush and his team blew it, again and again and again. What common touch/vox populi the Bush White House had, died with Lee Atwater.

[Leisler]

"But evidently some of our countrymen have become so stupid they would elect this hole ruler for life"

Yes, and they vote, a la Palm Beach.

[Newbomb Turk]

Oh yes I agree but the no new taxes broken pledge killed Bush senior. And the questions about the cost of everyday items, bread, milk, the comment about bar code scanners. He looked like a dope.

I like Bush JR he must have learned a lot from Reagans style.

When he speaks he makes you proud to be an American.

[Cedric]

....Lady Thatcher was known as the Iron Lady. George wasn't....

True, Bush-41 was not an Iron lady, or any other kind. But, he did enlist in the military at the age of 17. Clinton was a draft dodger. So be careful with the denegration!!!

Are you serious about Bush-41 being unable to beat Snoopy Dukakis?

[Cedric]

....The vote split for Perot was about 50/50....

Balderdash!

[Cedric]

....Oh yes I agree but the no new taxes broken pledge killed Bush senior. And the questions about the cost of everyday items, bread, milk, the comment about bar code scanners. He looked like a dope....

Really? How much did all Clinton's lies hurt him, in terms of reelection? And, Clinton was even more clueless than Bush-41 regarding every day matters, as he {Clinton} never spent one day in the "real" world as an adult, while Bush-41 built a successful oil bisiness.

All this proves my point: Clinton had the media ignoring his monumental frailties and shortcomings and going orgasmic over the most mundane things he did! {And they pounded on Bush-41 mercilessly and exagerated the items you mention and more. The fact that you still hold them against him proves how effective the media was!!}

[wingnuts'nbolts]

Billy Jeff really would be devistated, immoralized and traumatized if he was simply, ignored. Has it occurred to anyone that the opposite of hate is not love. It is indifference! Think about it. Compare it to a love relationship gone bad. It lives, until indifference sets in. It takes some time for this to happen. BUT when it does it is FOREVER and COMPLETE.

[Cedric]

....the opposite of hate is not love. It is indifference....

I love this country!

I hate what Clinton did to it!!

I am not indifferent about it!!!

[McGavin999]

Guess the guy is still hanging around on the stage because he can't find anything useful to do with his time. Other presidents go on with their lives, becoming elder statesmen and devoting themselves to a cause. Poor Clinton just isn't qualified for that. He couldn't find anything useful to do while he was president, why should it surprise us that he can't be useful now?

[Leisler]

You're out there. Bush would of never gotten the nomination.