Tag: Clinton

The pundits who cry wolf

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We should all know what it means to “cry wolf” and while pundits across the political spectrum are prone to dong so, those on the liberal end of the spectrum should be kicking themselves right about now that because of the way they demonized a very decent Mitt Romney in 2012 (as well many other decent conservatives over many years) they have exhausted the limits of the English language to the point that they can’t effectively expose Donald Trump as being uniquely dangerous in his unfitness for the office that he is dangerously close to holding. (He was dangerously close as soon as the Iowa caucuses were over.)

Having inured the electorate with their constant invective against anyone or anything conservative, they have squandered any moral or intellectual capital they might have had and made it so that wide swaths of voters think that choosing between Clinton and Trump is a matter of choosing their favorite (or least un-favorite) shade of gray rather than a choice between dirt and radioactive waste. (You don’t want to set either one on your dinner table but while one might gross you out the other will eventually prove fatal even if you don’t actually ingest it.)

Pundits on the right are equally powerless because of their history of exaggerated rhetoric to effectively show qualitative differences between political disagreement and a 5 alarm dumpster fire of a candidate. If the Democrats were to nominate someone as toxic as Trump – which they undoubtedly have a few of within their ranks (lets hope they never stoop as low as the GOP did this year) – these talking heads would be left hoping that the electorate could recognize when it was being offered a dirty bomb rather than a conventional weapon.

I wrote the above on November 2nd. On November 6th I came across this video where Bill Maher makes the same “we cried wolf” statement: http://www.mrctv.org/videos/maher-panics-over-fascist-prez-trump-confesses-cried-wolf-bush

Tags Clinton, discourse, Donald Trump

State

Why Bob Bennett?

I went to the organizing convention for the Utah Republican Party on Saturday. While I was there in the nidst of hundreds of people campaigning for candidates and causes among the state delegates I made a point to talk to a variety of people sporting Bob Bennett t-shirts. With four primary challengers at present it is easy to see that the discontent with our incumbent is widespread. I believe that the reasons for supporting a challenger are not substantially different between those supporting Mark Shurtleff, James Williams, Cherilyn Eagar, or Tim Bridgewater (in the order they will have officially announced) – I understand some of those generic reasons for seeking a change. What I wanted to understand was what motivated those who were actively supporting an embattled incumbent. I tried to present the question in a way that would get them to try to sell the candidate to me rather than leaving them feeling as if they (or their candidate) were being attacked.

I have to say that I was not very surprised by the answers that I received. I talked to more than two people and I always talked to them one-on-one so that one person would not influence the answers of another but they offered only two distinct reasons between them. The first reason was the same one I heard from Senator Bennett back in February at a town hall breakfast meeting – seniority. (Some said experience but it amounts to the same argument.) The other answer I heard – and this would likely be even more disconcerting to many conservatives than seniority – was Bennett’s ability to work with Democrats. Personally I would rather support someone who would drown while trying to swim against the current than support someone who would stay afload by swimming with the current that was swiftly running away from the desired destination. Thankfully I think that we have candidates already in the race who can stay afloat while swimming upstream.

For those who are convinced that seniority is everything we can look to the freshman representative in Utah’s 3rd congressional district. Rep. Chaffetz has done quite a job of defending his positions and even getting bills passed without an ounce of seniority – and he’s earning quite a reputation for standing firm in his convictions which probably helps him to do more than if he were more prone to going along with the crowd. Some would argue that seniority is more important in the Senate than in the House – for those I would point to the example of a freshman senator from New York who was probably more influential in the Republican controlled senate of 2000 than our own two term Republican senator in that same senate. Seniority is not everything – it’s simply useful if you are headed in the right direction.

Tags 2010, Bob Bennett, change congress, Cherilyn Eagar, Clinton, Jason Chaffetz, Mark Shurtleff, senate, Tim Bridgewater, Utah

National

Obama’s First 100

Today is day number 100 for the Obama Administration. This has been a benchmark of measurement for every administration since FDR. There will be lots of stories in the political media attempting to measure how he is doing as a president. This morning on NPR they perfectly captured the measure in only six words:

His backers give him high marks.

I add my own perspective as someone who is not sold on Obama but holds out hope that he will eventually do the best job he could do by focusing on those areas where he is right (things like real increased transparency in government). My position is largely unchanged from when Obama was elected and when he was sworn in.

If we simply add the fact that those who oppose him give him low marks we can easily see the correct answer to “how is Obama doing in his first 100 days?”

The answer is that 100 days is too soon to tell how Obama will fare over the course of 1461 days (or 2922 days for two terms). This is perfectly typical. We could not have known after 100 days what things Bush was going to do well and which things he was going to botch horribly over his two terms. The same can be said of Clinton or any of his predecessors.

So, Happy 100 Days Mr. President. May my greatest hopes for your tenure be realized or at least may we come closer to my greatest hopes than we come to my greatest fears.

Tags Bush, Clinton, history, media, NPR, Obama

culture National

Disturbing Trend

I want to be supportive of our President. I just want to make that clear because I don’t expect this post will convey that feeling.

I’m sure part of it is the spirit of partisanship, and part of it is the media propensity to focus on the scandalous, but I don’t think that any other President has had as pervasive a problem as President Obama is having in getting appointees who have not made very basic financial mistakes.

- Timothy Geithner, the Treasury Secretary owed $26K in back taxes
- Bill Richardson withdrew his name from consideration as Commerce Secretary because of a grand jury investigation into a pay-to-play scheme
- Hillary Clinton’s nomination as Secretary of State was contingent upon some disclosure issues regarding foreign donors to Bill Clinton’s foundation – her confirmation was held up by one day because of lingering concerns
- Tom Daschle will likely still become withdrew his name from consideration to become the Secretary of Health and Human Services despite the fuss about his failure to pay $140K in taxes on a political gift
- Nancy Killefer withdrew her name from filling the position of Chief Performance Officer because of failure to pay unemployment taxes for her domestic help

I’m not sure if it’s comforting or disturbing to think that this may have much less to do with poor picks by the president and more to do with the culture of "anything you can get away with is fine" in Washington.

Tags Clinton, corruption, money, Obama, political figures, taxes

National

Secretary Clinton

This should be very interesting to see how Hillary Clinton fares as Secretary of State in the Obama administration. Clinton has proven herself to be a very able politician. Despite any clashes during the primaries, she and Obama have never been far apart on their policies and goals for gorvernment so I don’t see any unmanageable friction. Aside from any ideological differences I have with Clinton, my major worry with her candidacy was her status as a lightning rod within the political community. I would not expect that to be as big an issue with the position of Secretary of State, but it looks like we’re going to find out.

Tags Clinton, Obama

National

Primary Season is Finally Over

Post author By David
Post date June 4, 2008
4 Comments on Primary Season is Finally Over

With the official end of the primary season I can finally end my self-imposed ban on posting about the primaries. Of course Maureen Dowd has already said everything that needs to be said about the current situation. So there are three options for my vote in November (in order of my preference):

Obama keeps his promise to work out a deal with the republican nominee to stick with public financing for the general election and I vote for Obama.
Obama breaks his promise on public financing but does not put Clinton on the ticket and I am free to vote for someone else.
Obama takes Clinton on as his running-mate (which would almost certainly include opting out of public financing) and I vote for McCain (even McCain would have a better chance at uniting the country that Obama with Clinton on the ticket).

I did not start out in the Anyone But Clinton (ABC) camp but these last two months of the primary campaign have convinced me that ABC is the best course for this country.

I admit that it’s very easy for me to announce how I would vote my conscience far in advance because no matter what I do my vote in the Electoral College is 5 votes for McCain – like it or not.

Tags Clinton, McCain, national candidates, Obama, primaries

National

Hillary Clinton: Babysitter in Chief

Post author By David
Post date May 5, 2008
6 Comments on Hillary Clinton: Babysitter in Chief

Here is another gem from Laura. She came in to my office this afternoon and told me that she had just seen a bit of a speech by Senator Clinton. She thought it very important that I be aware that Hillary Clinton had just told her audience that they wanted a President who would solve their problems, take care of their families and watch out for their children. (I don’t claim that to be verbatim.)

Of course my first thought is that I would prefer a president who would enforce the laws of the land, defend the Constitution, and tell the truth to the American people. I don’t need someone to keep pushing the lies that there are painless, if complex, solutions to the problems we have been busy creating for ourselves.

Upon reflection I realized that maybe Senator Clinton is really making a good offer – free babysitting of my kids. I’ll bet she’s a lot more dependable than many a teenage babysitter. Of course by the time I finished writing this I realized that she never said she would babysit for free – or even for cheap.

Tags campaign promises, Clinton, kids, Laura, national candidates

National

Bill Clinton Endorses Obama

Post author By David
Post date March 22, 2008
37 Comments on Bill Clinton Endorses Obama

I chuckled at the NBC report that Bill Clinton said the following about a general election campaign between Hillary Clinton and John McCain:

“I think it would be a great thing if we had an election year where you had two people who loved this country and were devoted to the interest of this country,” said the former president. “And people could actually ask themselves who is right on these issues, instead of all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics.”

Bill must not have spent much time in this country to honestly think that any election with the name Clinton on the Democratic ticket would be focused enough to allow people to “actually ask themselves who is right on these issues.” Then I got to this part:

Bill Clinton spokesperson Matt McKenna clarifies the former president’s comment: “Actually, as is indicated by the quote itself, President Clinton was talking about the need to talk about issues, rather than falsely questioning any candidate’s patriotism.”

I’ll take McKenna at his word. If President Clinton was talking about the need to talk about issues then he was endorsing Obama because an election with Obama leading the Democratic ticket has a much better chance of being allowed to address issues than one with Clinton.

Tags Clinton, media

National

Really Inevitable

Of all the things that we don’t know about the outcome of this year’s election there is one outcome that would be dependable. If Clinton is elected we will see more news like this. Those who vehemently dislike the Clintons will continue to make comments that most of us consider inappropriate. When they do we can also be sure the Clintons will never let any slight pass unchallenged.

I’m fairly certain that David Shuster meant to elicit a reaction from viewers but did not mean any particular offense towards any of the Clintons. I don’t mean to suggest that his comments were appropriate, but the only apology that might be acceptable to the New York Senator would be an unequivocal endorsement from MSNBC (and even that might not be enough).

The thing we know for certain is that another Clinton term would mean years of investigations and acrimony in Washington guaranteeing that nothing useful gets accomplished. No other candidate would produce such a predictable response from the country.

Tags 2008, Clinton, national candidates