Pat Oliphant has it in for Hillary Clinton. So, of course, do a lot of folks here. I have no problem with that.
But Oliphant is also a widely distributed editorial cartoonist and writer, and when he intentionally twists and perverts what a candidate says, it's the height of asshattery. He's done it before, and here's his latest.
Yes, Hillary Clinton does say that being First Lady is part of her qualifications to run for President. She was involved in many policy issues, some of which I like and some I don't. She screwed up the health care issue six ways from Sunday and put off universal health care by a decade or two, and her NAFTA work is offputting.
But that's not all she has, as this comic implies. She's a Yale-educated lawyer who served on the House staff during the Nixon impeachment and chaired the Legal Services corporation under Carter. She also was a partner in a national law firm and served -- to her discredit but it's still a position of responsibility -- on the WalMart board of directors.
For eight years she was First Lady, but for eight years she has also been a United States Senator during one of the most difficult times in our nation's history.
Splitting out the eight years of her resume where she was married to the President and pretending that's all there is to Hillary is ridiculous on it's face, and it beneath responsible commentary. But Oliphant doesn't care, and has been ripping Clinton up and down unfairly for months.
She's not his only target, and this one about Obama is similarly twisted. But Hillary is a regular target of malicious and spun messages from Oliphant, and it's gotten the point where I don't want to read his stuff anymore.
Which is a shame, because he also has brilliant ones like this piece about the financial industry bailout.
In the long run, does Oliphant matter? Probably not. But he is part of a noise machine that likes to spread these bogus messages and it should be noted.
So noted.