Lynne Duke acts like the Washington Post is not part of the media-industrial complex. She’s a disgrace. Stop her before she kills again.
Yes, Bill can deliver political superstardom. He’s a razor-sharp political strategist. He knows the institution of the presidency. His fundraising chops are unrivaled. All that is well and good — perhaps too good, according to a September CNN poll, which showed his favorable rating higher than hers, 60 percent to 50 percent.
But there’s the other Bill, the one who could be a massive and messy distraction. That Bill is the ex-president known for his outsize appetites and indiscipline, the Bill who still revels in the limelight, who runs with global jet-setters. He is prone to pop up in the press for even the smallest of curiosities, like being spotted at dinner with another woman — bad news for an ex-president already infamous for marital infidelity.
If she runs, will voters focus too much on him? Will they remember too much of the national trauma known as “that woman” (Monica Lewinsky) — and the presidential prevaricating, hair-splitting (what is”is,” anyway?) and impeachment that followed? Can voters look at Bill without thinking of sex? If they don’t think of sex, they’ll likely think the word: “president,” which may also not be such a good thing for the spouse who wants that title.
From now until Election Day 2008, the national fascination with the Clintons and their marriage will be central to the race. The media-industrial complex will again feed like hungry hounds on the Clintons, their past and future; on the Clintons and their mysteries; on power and politics as the Clinton lifeblood propelling her run against all odds.
She will face haters. She’ll face sexists. There’ll be folks who think she’s power-mad, including some still queasy about what she knew and when she knew it when it came to Bill’s marital indiscretions.
Look at the polls; opinions on her are strong and run the gamut. Gallup last month asked 1,003 respondents to state what comes to mind about Hillary. Thirteen percent said they disliked her. Ten percent said she’s qualified to be president. Nine percent said she’s riding Bill’s shirttails. Eight percent called her strong. Six percent called her intelligent, and another six percent called her dishonest and said they didn’t trust her.
With numbers like that, plenty of Democrats are asking: Can she win? So the last thing she needs is people asking, as they have in the media and at cocktail parties: Can Bill control himself during her presidential campaign?
Such a familiar circumstance, such a Clintonesque conundrum, which her supporters can only hope won’t lead to a Clintonesque spectacle: Bill, the management challenge.
I am not supporting Hillary for the 2008 Democratic nomination, but it has nothing to do with her electability (she can beat any of the pathetic Republican contenders) and it certainly has nothing to do with her husband’s penis. It’s not the job of the Washington Post to feed the lowest common denominator desires of a crass and superficial electorate. Their job is to educate that public, to elevate that public. It’s ridiculous for them to write stories like this and pass them off as inevitable. JUST…DON’T…WRITE…THEM. Set a goddamn standard.
I don’t need to know that Bill Clinton received counseling for sex addiction.
Idiots.
Sometimes I worry about how having a Clinton in the room will distract the wingers from any more introspection and subsequent possible breakthroughs into reality. They seem, however, to be just about done with all that deep soul searching. [snort]
All they need is a Slick Willie sighting and they salivate all the way back to their keyboards and microphones and cameras. Let them wallow to their hearts’ content; it will be to their peril. Mid-term elections have convinced me that the majority of Americans are getting just a tad better at calling rightwing bullshit.
The point here, I think, is that Lynne Duke isn’t a winger. She’s a serious reporter – the former Washington Post bureau chief in South Africa. She turns in serious copy on a variety of topics, many on important stories coming out of Africa, especially.
This isn’t Rove talking points she’s spouting here. Rather, she sounds like a Maureen Dowd wanna-be: is she a gossip-columnist or a reporter? Only her editor knows for sure, and he or she likely loved this breathless piece, or possibly commissioned it, which could be worse. This isn’t reporting, it’s pandering, and not to the right wing particularly, but to the readers baser instincts. At least Dowd’s work is presented as opinion. This stuff by Duke is just dragging the dead horse’s carcass out once again, and passing it off as a news story.
At a time of rapidly declining newspaper readership, the watchword seems to be “take the low road”. That, of course, meshes nicely with all efforts to distract the public from the serious issues that need discussing.
There’ll be folks who think she’s power-mad, including some still queasy about what she knew and when she knew it when it came to Bill’s marital indiscretions.
Why this matters is still a mystery. Hillary decided that she would remain with Bill. People remain married for a variety of personal reasons, good, bad or otherwise. Her reasons are her own business.
Well put. People remain married for a variety of personal reasons, good, bad or otherwise.
As Zsa Zsa Gabor put it, “Getting divorced just because you don’t love a man is almost as silly as getting married just because you do.”
and it’s a low bar.
It’ll get worse…Bet On IT!…to borrow from AG.
Yes, definitely more objective-need-to-know reporting by a paper by should know better.
But then again, if I had to vote for Bill’s do-wacky or Bush – I’d vote for Bill’s do-wacky every time.
On a personnel level, I’m sure Bill is strong enough and smart enough to get help when he needs it.
On a national level, I’m watching Bush screw our country’s future despite the best efforts by his own party and counselors to prevent further wrong decisions.
So, once again, I’m sure I’m wallowing in the gutter, but I’m positive Bill’s do-wacky on it’s worst day would do a better job running the country than a whole Bush on his best day.
Just my two cents…
Glen