I am watching Aaron Brown and he's talking with the fairly lame Jeff Greenfield about Clinton's book and it's the normal blah blah with a couple of obligatory he "connected" pats on the back and I was thinking, it is absolutely right, they should hate Clinton's book. It really fits.
History will get Clinton largely right I think. And I also think it will get the Media right also. I think there is no doubt now that fewer Democrats will be fooled by the Media on anything - and to those who doubt the Blogosphere is largely responsible, well, I disagree.
But I was interested in this thought - sure once the war between Clinton and the Media started you could see how it would keep going, once the Clinton team showed it would fight back - remember the Media thought they had left him for dead in New Hampshire - but the War Room fought back. And after that, it was just a simmering War. Luckily, the Media hated Bush 41 more at the time.
And I don't want anyone to think that I am unaware of the GOP Campaign that started during the primaries in 92 against Clinton - they feared him the most, and rightly so. The Media was fed.
And then there was Whitewater, which brings us to the prime suspect, the New York Times. Did it start with Gerth and Whitewater? Why? did Lelyveld hate Clinton? I don't think so. I think if you look at the TImes overall in that period, it wasn't incredibly rough on Clinton, but memory may be faulty.
Well when then? I say it started with the rise of Howell Raines, his legitimization of Whitewater, and his visceral hatred of Clinton. It was Raines that made Limbaugh mainstream - no, not directly, but by constantly attacking Clinton, Raines made Limbaugh's idiocies seem not so mainstream, and then the floodgates opened.
The scene was set, and Lucianne did her work, with Ted Olson and the VRWC - and then all hell broke loose. And then, there was no turning back - all the way to Iraq they took us. (Sounds like a stretch? Think what chance Bush would have had of coming close had the Media not had an 8 year War with Clinton?)
And make no mistake, no Bush no Iraq Debacle.
So, in conclusion (get it?), FUCK Howell Raines.