Why the hate for Hillary?
While chatting with my Republican brother (the only one in the family), even he agreed that the white-hot hatred that most of his brethren feel for Hillary... is a bit over the top.
But as soon as he got there, he said, "but it's the exact same thing that you all have for Bush. You either say he is evil personified or a complete idiot." Well, he had a point. Then I said something like, "Well, Hillary may not be my favorite pantsuit wearer, but she certainly didn't get us into an unnecessary war that killed thousands of Americans and many, many more innocent Iraqis (although some would say that she is responsible for her part in voting for it). And she has not single handed-ly taken the goodwill that we had from the world after 9/11, and thrown it down the tubes. I could go on, but I won't."
My new smart and thoughtful conservative friend, who we will name, "The Benign Conservative" (he has a sort of famous other career), is also bothered by Hillary's personal life. He says she is a terrible role model (for say, someone's daughter). After having been cheated on and humiliated several times, she still took the bastard back.
He does have a point, but I do find it funny when, all of a sudden, people on the right turn into ardent feminists. Personally, I think forgiveness is a great thing, but more importantly, I could care less what the White House couple do to each other. I just want someone to do a good job, or at least fair to middling.
Anyway, the benign conservative has given us at the Provocateurs his latest take on Hillary and her display of emotion last week. Next post, we will hear from
"The Weepies"
By The Benign Conservative
Heck, we all get them. I can watch Field of Dreams 100 times 100 and still get misty at the end. Heck, I know it's his dad and I know they are going to play catch. But this red-meat eating red stater can't help it. Or the Friday night shabbat prayer and blessing of the children, (I'm not Jewish but it still touches me deeply when I am invited for sabbath). Or talk of my sainted grandmother or my cursed San Diego Chargers. Tears are not a bad or evil thing but cleansing and human.
So why does the sight of Hillary getting vaclempt make so many people's teeth itch? Because the moments of emotion I describe are all external. For a President, (or their many wannabes), tearing up over wounded or deceased soldiers, the suffering of others or even how fast their children have grown is acceptable. Maybe even expected.
Hillary cried for herself. That a campaign is hard. Oh, so very hard. For her. The enemies, her enemies, are everywhere. The corn-husking morons of Iowa who are unable to see her as the clear and obvious presidential heir apparent. It was so very, very Nixonian. If you listened closely you could almost hear the faint ringing of bygone political self-pity, "Think of what you'll be missing: You won't have Hillary to kick around any more".
Unfortunately, it seemed to work. Women voted in record numbers in New Hampshire. Many in exit interviews noting "we saw the real Hillary". For what? Ten seconds. Then it was back to transformer woman.
And if the result was to unveil a self-pitying, paranoid politician why in the name of feminism did it work?
Thank you, Mr. Benign Conservative
I bet some of you out there have an opinion on this.
Side note: Curiously, how many of you have been cheated on? And if so, did you forgive or move on? Or, the other way around. I want to know. I'm not sure why. But, I thought I would take this opportunity to post a rare song of mine about a cheater:
Also, are you all going to watch the debates tonight? I bet they won't be as nasty.
In response to your quote above I must say that she is just as responsible for our part in the Iraq war as any other legislator who voted to approve giving GWB the power to declare war. The flimsy liberal excuse of having been fed false information is absolutely bogus. Her only job as a legislator, and as a representative of the people of New York, is to act as the voice of those who elected her. If she, and other democratic leaders did not take the time to verify source information before voting then shame on them.
Secondly, Hillary single handedly destroyed our health care system in the mid 90's, and helped her husband to create economic policies that robbed our country of both our manufacturing base, and of our ability to sustain ourselves as an economic superpower. This was done in the best interests of the rich, those who exploit the less fortunate around the world, those employers who did not want to pay going wages or to insure their employees, but would rather build sweat shops around the world and import their goods back into our country tariff free. And now she still says outsourcing is good for our country?? I fail to see the good.
Lastly, her part in several criminal matters in the early 90's may have faded in others memories, but I still clearly remember the name White Water. Bill and Hillary Clinton are both very skilled scam artists, and on top of that they are both soft socialists. If we want to take a giant step backward as a nation, and as a society I say elect her. If not, then we all need to stop poll watching and being influenced by the clearly liberal propaganda that is spewed forth on our evening news and think for ourselves.
It made me wonder how many other songs there are with the word "Goodnight" in the title.
Goodnight, Irene
Goodnight, Sweetheart, Goodnight
Goodnight, Saigon
Don't Say Goodnight Tonight
That's all I've got.
1) Friendliness. Friendliness is the threshold of likeability
2) Relevance, how you connect with another person's wants or needs
3) Empathy (not sympathy)
4) Realness or authenticity. Lack of realness, like lying, hypocrisy, or insincerity can make you unlikable.
For me, Hillary hits # 2 at a high level. She is a smart lady who has a vision and can play politics with the best of them.
She is luke warm to me on # 1, she has social skills but she is no Tom Hanks (whom I would rate as appearing very friendly).
Hillary bottoms out for me on #3 and #4. I think Hillary is trying to be all things to all people. You may disagree with Huckabee or McCain, but I think both of them are more focussed on serving others than being smarter than everyone else in the room.
Another thing that makes her hard to like is that mad laughter of hers. That is really driving me crazy. She uses it whenever she gets a tough question. I think she is trying to come across as above the fray, but to me she is being dismissive and evasive. I saw Chris Matthews try to ask her about the "right wing conspiracy" and she laughed at him and answered the question she wished he would have asked, instead of the one he did ask.
The Monica incident is not a factor and actually makes her more human to me. I mean, who has not suffered betrayal and pain from someone you love? How she and Bill conduct there marriage is really their business, not mine.
i never understood why that is a positive. why is obama seen by some negatively for inexperience?
personally i see experience with politics a bad thing. what? she knows how to lie better? how to deal with scandals? how to talk the washington talk?
forget that......give me an intelligent person with common sense and no experience. that is my perfect president., but it would confuse americans not to here the generic crap.
in the last two presidential elections my choices were gore/bush and kerry/bush ..... all privileged career politicians and bad people. oh wait....al gore saved the earth and hangs with leonardo.....he's a good guy (who's wife tried to destroy the music industry and artist rights in the 1980's)
as could care less if hillary was a woman or a tranny or the grand wizard of the KKK. she simply has no independence.
bush is the dumbest person ever elected to a major public office, but it doesn't really matter because presidents are just puppets in modern american politics that say and do what his handlers tell him to.
i am proud to be a registered independent and laugh at the predictable turns each candidate's platform takes. good luck to the american bipartisan fools with your 2008 bumper sticker wars.
plus.....how can these experienced reigning senators be running for president. they say it is so hard and exhausting.....um don't they have full time jobs that we elected them to.....it proves these people do nothing.
i was feeling pretty good in 2000 when the clintons left so........
OHHHHH WAIT !!!!!!!! bush gave me a check for a couple hundred bucks when he took office. 4 MORE YEARS !!!!! 4 MORE YEARS !!!!! 4 MORE YEARS !!!!!
please note that it is impossible to win an argument with an independent. go back to bad america.
You look great for a 27-year-old. What is your secret?
And what a nice new web site for everyone to unwrap;
http://www.jillsnextrecord.com/
I know this will be the best year for you ever. Happy Birthday, again. I hope you get everything you wished for.
JILL - My husband was a friend/acquaintance of yours in Denver. He worked at a radio station. The two of you enjoyed breakfast together on the morning you left Colorado.
No, I think Senator Clinton's getting momentarily choked up revealed her to be *human* -- nothing more or less than that.
The thing is, this hatred for Hillary is way more bipartisan than Democrats would like to believe. People on the right hate Hillary, and do so with quite a bit of glee, I suspect. But there are many on the left, and probably in the center as well, who hate her just as much -- maybe even more. But these people, in essence, hate her *reluctantly*. They would rather love Hillary, but they can't bring themselves to do so.
Many on the left who dislike Hillary do so because of their perception (probably true) that she is a polarizing force in American politics, and that she, of all people, should know that she will never win a general election (so these people believe), and that she should therefore get out of the way for the good of the country.
But there are a lot of other people -- Democrats, and quite liberal ones at that -- who hate Hillary because of her personality, or at least what they think her personality is, and because of a vague sense that she represents something "old school," something manufactured, and something out of touch.
Not long ago, on the eve of the NH primary, I had an interesting discussion with my cousin Ruth. Ruth is close to 18 years old, a senior in high school, and a straight A student with a healthy interest in politics (she's planning on a Political Science major in college). She is also an unapologetically bleeding heart Liberal and an ardent feminist.
And she hates Hillary Clinton. And I mean *hates*, an emotion she normally reserves for Mr. Bush and his cronies.
I asked her why, and she had a hard time explaining it. It was, she said, just something about the woman's personality. But Ruth did, finally, say one really interesting thing: "I really hate her 'I am woman, hear me roar' routine," she said.
I thought that odd, at first. How can she say this and call herself a Feminist in the next breath? But then I realized, Ruth was not objecting to the message, she was objecting to its delivery. She finds Hillary to be cold, to be all slogan and no substance, to be an old style politician who tells people what they want to hear rather than what she really believes.
I think a lot of people feel this way, and that's why Senator Clinton's teary moment resonated so well. Because, for a brief moment, she seemed real. Human. Not an automaton.
And for those who *want* to like Hillary but find they can't, that may just be enough.
I have myself never cheated, but, looking back, there were at least two situations, possibly three, which I think it might have ended up better for me if I had. Funny thing -- it's always been important to me to "do the right thing," to be honorable and take the high moral ground, but, strangely, that attitude doesn't seem to have served me all that well. Turns out my ex always thought I was cheating anyway (transferrence, much?), so basically she treated me like I did, and I got the punishment without having had the pleasure, so to speak, of committing the crime.
(There's got to be some analogy with cows and milk in this story, but it's eluding me.)
So anyway, I don't know what I think about cheating now, except that I've become increasingly convinced that everyone does it, and I've missed out on a lot of potential fun by NOT doing it.
Who, me? Cynical? I don't know why you would say that. :)
my bad. In a prev. post, I noted that you joined my husband for breakfast on the day YOU left for NY. He says, wrong! Apparently you and he had breakfast at Denny's on Colfax on the day he left for Juneau. Sorry! Also, he's trying to come up w/a way to sign on and help w/ your new CD. He say's we need to have a party and wants to be a $5000 contributer - and a concert in North Dakota. I think he'll get it done.
This week he honestly answered that his greatest weakness was that he has trouble staying organized and he needs to have detail oriented people around him to stay focused. Hilary and John Edwards did the typical job interview thing and said, I am just too impatient for change or I care too much about the poor. Obama said, in an interview I heard today, I actually thought they asked me about a weakness, not a strength, so I answered the question honestly.
On the one hand, I really respect that. On the other hand, one could say - see, he is so inexperienced he's going to tell the truth and for goodness sake I do not want to hear that.