ThinkVox

In the category of I Couldn’t Have Said It Better Myself But I’ll Try . . .

An excellent post by Susan Jacoby of the New York Times really crystallized for me what I detest about Hillary Clinton.

Quite frankly, she is insulting to mine or to even any  moderately educated citizen’s intelligence.  She is  constantly repurposing the same old lame brained “throwing red meat to the dogs” Roveian tactics and talking points of the right-wing neocons to promote her own agenda.  So distasteful have her unscrupulous attacks on Obama been that it’s obvious that she is little more than a Lieberman Democrat — one whose only reason for membership in the Democratic party is to stand out as opposed to blending into the same-sounding cacophony of power-hungry Republicans who mindlessly echo talking point after talking point like the good little soldiers they are.   I am by no means a loyalist of any political party,  in fact I’ve purposely never registered for any party as my allegiance is to America not to a party.  Hillary, however, should be.  A high ranking elected official of any party, particularly one that is running for the highest office in the Land should at a minimum comport themselves politically in a manner aligned with that party’s values. 

Like her red brethren, Hillary constantly ridicules her opponents as “elite” as if such a desirous trait is somehow un-American or bad for us.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  What makes American “great” is the status and position in the world community we have achieved with this wonderful democratic experiment.  Despite the United States’s relative historical youth, we have achieved supremacy and are the elite military, cultural, and (for now) economic power in the world.  Other nations or civilizations such as the Roman, Turkish or British Empires existed for many centuries before achieving supremacy.  It took us a mere 232 years to reach our zenith and, perhaps begin our decline.  Sure the advancement of technology played a role in speeding us up, but could the rapid rate of technological advancement even have been possible without the innovative benefits that our democratic capitalism brought to this world?  What allowed this democracy to achieve such heights was that it enabled ordinary unprivileged people to become intellectually and economically elite through the merits of hard work, ingenuity and perseverance, rather than the preordained benefits of class privilege.  

The definition of “elite” is: the best.  So yes, there is somewhere the “elite” West Virginia coal miner or Walmart check-out clerk and that is what every check-out clerk and coal miner should strive to be.  Or, they can strive to be even better and get a more elite job or move into a more elite industry.  How could bettering oneself to the point of being the best be bad?  

At a recent stump speech, John McCain gave us some straight talk:

“My friends, I will have an energy policy that we will be talking about, which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East, That will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East.”

Yes, you read that right — again– for oil–.   Hmmm, let’s think back . . . what were the reasons proffered to justify the invasion and ongoing war:

• Iraq’s aluminum tubes were intended to enrich uranium.
• Iraq tried to purchase uranium from Africa.
• Iraq possessed stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons.
• Saddam has mobile weapons labs.
• Iraq’s unmanned drones could attack enemies near and far
• Iraq would mount unprovoked attack on U.S.
• Iraq has trained Al Qaeda members in bomb-making and poisons and deadly gases.
• Saddam Hussein aids and protects terrorists, including members of al Qaeda.
• Saddam is a bad guy.
• Iraqi’s want freedom.
• The spread of democracy.
• Iraq is part of the Axis of Evil.
• Iraq was developing nuclear weapons.
• The smoking gun could be a mushroom cloud.
• Waging the War on Terror.
• We have to fight them over there so we don’t have to fight them here.
• To make America safer.
• Saddam was planning on providing WMD to terrorists.
• Saddam was capable of launching a chemical or biological attack in 45 minutes.
• We must stop Saddam from ever again jeopardizing the stability and security of his neighbors with weapons of mass destruction.
• Iraq was 6 months away from producing a nuclear weapon.
• Mohamed Atta met with Iraqi officials in Prague.
• Saddam was responsible for 9/11.
• To liberate the Iraqi people.

Interesting, Oil’s never mentioned.  I wonder why?  Perhaps because it’s the true reason, and one so horribly poor at justifying the war that the Bush Administration had to obscure it with their ever-shifting rationale.  Let’s not forget that the Bushes are oil-men from way back and also that Cheney was the architect of the administration’s energy policy.

The irony here is that McCain probably just forgot to keep the O-word on the down low and let it slip that the paramount reason for war was oil.

If Senator Clinton doesn’t realize that now it’s finally, over the she truly delusional.  Her only hope was to win Indiana convincingly and pull out a squeaker in NC.   Since she got pummeled in NC and won Indiana by a very slim margin, it would be downright ridiculous or her to continue.   I hope she throws the towel in come later this morning, because she would just be an embarrassment if she let this go on much longer.   Look for there to be a slew of previously uncommitted super delegates siding with Obama immediately, in the hopes that they can end it now and start preparing for McCain.   Although we’ll probably never know, I’d be very curios to see how many of Hillary’s voters we actually Republicans following the Almighty Pumpkinhead’s Operation Chaos marching orders?