Salman Rushdie lived for years with a worldwide price on his head — a fatwah by the Iranian Ayatollah. So I was blown away by his comment about Hillary last night on Bill Maher (at about :55):
I know a little bit about what it is like to spend decades of your life being vilified and demonized by another culture’s equivalent of Fox News (the Ayatollah Network).
I know in a liberal personal way what it takes to have to stand up against that non-stop cartoonizing, demonizing, creating a lie about you which you are powerless to resist because the people putting out the lie have a megaphone larger than you.
If that’s me, if you would magnify that to the National scale, perhaps somebody facing that in America every day for decades and she comes through as strong and tough as she does — Respect!
Wow. A guy facing a sanctioned death threat for years thinks Hillary has shown as much or more strength and resilience as he has. “Official” invective against Hillary has not included death threats (though I’m sure she has and still faces countless ones). But the relentless abuse against her, and her determination in the face of it has been extraordinary.
Thank you Salman.