We all know that the bar has been tremendously lowered with Bush. With him, words have no meaning and 9 times out of ten he makes the tackiest jokes, usually at tacky times. ("I thought you were going to ask me about the pig." "I used to come to New Orleans and have a good time...perhaps too good of a time, [lol]." "...just so long as I'm the dictator." The runnning gag at the correspondents dinner about not finding WMD.) So does that mean we're now supposed to lower our standards of what is acceptable in a presidential candidate? Now more than ever we should expect and demand candidates who don't misuse words to misconstrue reality. Nor should we tolerate inappropriate jokes about issues of life and death. This week both Hillary Clinton and John Edwards showed, by these standards, that they are not fit to be president--and don't even know it.
If anyone still doubts that Hillary is a joke and an insult after her speech last week, let me underscore something for you about her so-called "joke" that she has handled "evil, bad men." First of all, she said she wasn't referring to Bill, so, then, where is the joke? Second of all, in what universe is dealing with evil tyrants who are responsible for so much tragedy and destruction a laughing matter? Third: Excuse me, Senator Clinton, but what the hell are you talking about? You dare to stand there on live TV and tell us with a straight face that we should make you president because on matters of such gravity you have direct experience in dealing with them? You mean, like the time when you sat down face to face with Slobodan Milosovic and told him, "If you don't back down, they're going to tell me to bomb you--and I'm going to bomb you good"? Oh wait, that was General Clark's direct experience. So what direct experience are you referring to? Because I sort of think it's important that the president DOES have such experience...and that he or she is forthright about whether or not he or she has actually has such experience--and not lie straight to my face about it.
Furthermore, as any fan of Al Franken and/or David Cross knows, they have great bits about how people often use the word "literally" when they actually mean "figuratively." Sadly, watching Edwards on C-span tonight I discovered that David Cross was right on the money when he pointed out that with a word like that, when you screw it up, you REALLY screw it up. According to Edwards, HE WAS "LITERALLY" AT WAR WITH THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION OVER THE CLEAN AIR ACT! Great, just friggin great. A top contender for the presidency has to be corrected when using the gravest word in the English language.
...Or am I just expecting too much?