I am going to rag on the Clinton gang for a minute, but let me begin and end with this.
Clinton did a lot of great things for this country. I will write another essay on this later. Maybe. But with rumors of Hillary '08 corresponding with Yet Another Democratic Hand Wringing Session, I wanted to take a few moments and list some things that really irritate me about the Clinton clan.
1. Clinton beat Bush and Dole. For all the claimed mastery of the Clinton folks, they didn't exactly defeat Abraham Lincoln or JFK. Bush Sr. and Dole were old Cold War die-hards just waiting to be put out to pasture.
2. The Brass Ring. With some exceptions, as soon as Clinton won and established himself, the Holier Than Thou Carvilles and Stephanaphaololuses immediately ran for the gold and cashed in their winnings. They have now retired to their armchairs where they say "shoulda done this" and "shoulda done that". Carville, in particular, enjoys wagging his finger, but the question I have for him is ... if you really care about the progressive cause beyond your royalty checks, why don't you get back on the trail, ole boy. Or are you afraid that you might lose and take a hit to your earnings.
3. Hillary's Me First Attitude Hillary was nowhere to be found for this election cycle, and we all know why. She wants to save her capital for her own run. Why help Kerry and the Democrats when Hillary comes first? Already, she is at the absolute bottom of the list of who I will support in the future. I resent her naked ambition and her me first attitude. When she starts cracking wise about how much she cares for the future, I am going to stand up and say, "Oh really? Where were you in the 2004 presidential elections?"
4. Less Snake More Hydra Clinton's success tricked the Democrats into thinking his strategy generalized across the party. I don't think it has. I think Clinton's success, a success built on strategy wonk and the charisma of one man, has actually hurt the Democratic party. We moved from a culture of values to a culture of personality and data mining, and when the Monica bullshit arose, our Achilles Heel was exposed. The Republicans won the war by killing the leader. Cheap and dishonorable, yeah, but it worked.
5. The Wesley Clark Affair. That was just plain slimy. I think Wesley Clark is an OK guy, but I don't like the slimeball tactics the Clintons used against Howard Dean. Howard Dean makes me feel good about being a liberal. The Clintons make me feel slimy.
6. Posturing. When the news reported that John Edwards wanted all the votes to be counted in 2004, a Hillary supporter criticized Edwards for posturing. What ... the ... fuck. It is the night we lost probably one of the most important elections in our lifetime, and Hillary's Baby Eaters are already attacking John Edwards. It will probably take at least 10 million dollars of TV advertising to get that bad taste out of my mouth.
Pshew, I had to get that off my chest.
By and large, I am thankful for most of Clinton's policies, but I am not convinced his administration was really good for the Democratic party. Quite the contrary, when any of his surrogates pop up in the world, including Hillary, they don't start out with an advantage to capture my vote or opinion, they start out with a disadvantage.
My .02.
