May 14, 2007
Bill Clinton's paean to Hillary.
Discuss!
Well, let me say a couple things:
1. The music gets soooo annoying! About halfway through, I realized I had stopped listening to Bill and was only monitoring the sequence of cornball musical flourishes one and vaguely dreaming of the movie trailer it seemed to belong to. It was some triumphant, heartwarming summer movie that I would avoid like death.
2. Bill completely gave me the impression that Hillary's core policy interest is children's health. Children's health is an important policy interest, but why would I want a President whose core policy interest is children's health? The main idea here is that Hillary is a good person with her heart in the right place. Even if I am willing to be sold that story -- and why should I be? -- I am not going to fall for the notion that we are somehow having an election for Saint of the United States. At most, this ad prepares us to accept her as Secretary of Health and Human Services... even as it acknowledges that her main achievement in the field is a failure. But Bill is good at spinning the failure as an asset. She kept fighting...
3. Really, now, if you've seen the video, tell me: What are her major achievements?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
32 comments:
Really, now, if you've seen the video, tell me: What are her major achievements?
The video does a good job of underlining her one real achievement: marrying Bill Clinton.
They figure that if they can corral enough of the female vote with the caring card they're in.
Jimmy Carter was a good person with his heart in the right place.
Enough said.
I had to stop watching. The video made me feel icky.
What are her major achievements?
I guess I have to wonder if a candidate’s ‘achievements’ are something we need to look at as opposed to say, having the leadership qualities that IMHO are what is required for that office. I think too many people look at the Presidency as the one stop shop for all our needs as opposed to someone who sets policy and has the ability to rally the nation behind those policies. As for Hillary, she certainly doesn’t inspire me, mainly because I don’t subscribe to her political ideology. That said, the question is whether those that do see her as a leader.
As for national health care, how about proposing this: Create a single payer system that is funded entirely from a national tax on all tobacco products, alcohol and fast food. Hit those three main things which can easily be attributed to the main causes of disease and illness in this country. Rather than picking my pocket every 15th of April, assert those costs on the industries which contribute to the ailing of America.
I won't watch the video but it is a telltale sign of escalating desperation in Hillary's campaign about poll results and especially her nagatives over 50%.
"Nagatives" was a typo but it seems to be appropriate.
She's running for president, right?
Ok its about her particular interest in children's health, and its obvious she's been very interested for a long time, but its a valid question. What has she achieved?
"The video does a good job of underlining her one real achievement: marrying Bill Clinton."
She then successfully achieved enduring the "pain" I had caused in our marriage when I engaged in an extramarital affair with an Arkansas lounge singer that, in 1992, on the TV program 60 Minutes, I denied but years later admitted to having had.
In 1998, Hillary achieved clarity regarding my other extramarital affair - this one with a young intern who was in my employ. At the time, before I was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives for lying to a grand jury regarding a silly little two letter word, Hillary believed in a theory, popular at the time, that extremist conspirators had made the whole thing up in order to discredit me. Bless her little overachieving heart. Later, when forensic evidence of my seminal body fluids were found on the intern's clothing, Hillary achieved insight into having been misled by my intial claims that no affair had taken place with that woman, the intern.
As First Lady, Hillary achieved the singular ability of supporting women's rights and children's welfare around the world while making critical exceptions for individuals whom I chose to deny specific rights to so that I could use them as sexual objects for the gratification I, in my grandiosity, was entitled to, thereby maintaining political power and emotional control over millions of my codependent enablers worldwide while still meeting my personal needs.
(Surging flourishing music: UP)
The question about a lack of Hillary's achievements can be spread fairly far and wide amongst the Democratic Party. Obama comes to mind. John Kerry comes to mind. Howard Dean comes to mind as well. While Bill Clinton takes negatives and spins them into positives, he still neglects that they are still negatives. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, as the saying goes, so I wonder how much per mile the do-gooder leftists and liberals have cost the American public for their life long sacrifice of impaling us with their good intentions. I'm sure it's a road well traveled, but there is no destination in sight, are we just walking aimlessly and endlessly with little to no pay-offs for their ideas?
"Hillary's core policy interest is children's health"
What about baking cookies? And finally getting that damned spot out?!?
Re Children's health: after my recent stint in public health, it isnt just Hillary Clinton; Maternal anbd child health services consitute a major grant for many states. The only problem with that program choice, however, is their are even more significant problems with an aging population. Medicare aside (and a big aside, of course) there are not that many specific grant funded programs for older citizens.
This will vary state by state, of course, but Maternal and Child Health programs really do appear more popular than programs for an aging America. So Hillary isnt the only one; its a general bias in our public health funding system.
Re Children's health: after my recent stint in public health, it isnt just Hillary Clinton; Maternal anbd child health services consitute a major grant for many states. The only problem with that program choice, however, is their are even more significant problems with an aging population. Medicare aside (and a big aside, of course) there are not that many specific grant funded programs for older citizens.
This will vary state by state, of course, but Maternal and Child Health programs really do appear more popular than programs for an aging America. So Hillary isnt the only one; its a general bias in our public health funding system.
According to this ad, her achievements are pretty much the same as Obama's: she's got an impressive academic resume, and she got herself elected to the Senate. Like him, the achievements are all about advancing herself.
I'd never vote for HRC, but fair is fair. She was elected twice to the Senate. That's not a trivial achievement. In some ways, though, I see it as a disqualifier rather than a qualifier for the Presidency. My sense is that Senator Clinton is very intelligent, disciplined, tough, but sorely lacking the charisma and leadership required by the Presidency.
Bill: Hillary has worked tirelessly to make socialism more platable to a once free and proud people so that it can be shoved down their throats without compaint while I worked tirelessly to shove something else down a few throats and she stood behind me every step of the way. She took one for the team, so to speak, and now it's my turn to stand behind her while the shoving gets done. Open wide, your gonna love it.
It seems that senators, as opposed to governors, have a hard time pointing to recognizable achievements. With the exception of LBJ, perhaps.
What were the achievements of Senator JFK, for example? Senator McCain's major achievement was his getting shot down and the aftermath along with his bill to limit free speech.
Achievements are what Giuliani, Schwartzenegger, and Romney, and maybe Richardson and Thompson can point to. Next in line of achievements would come some general, I suppose.
In the realm of great achievements in math, the sciences and even engineering and especially economics, its hard to name but a few women of great achievement. Apart from Hedi Lamarr, Florence Nightingale, two Curies, Lise Meitner, Rosalind Franklin, Sandra Day O'Connor,and Rose Director Friedman, you would be hard pressed to name any, and you're allowed to start at 500 BCE.
The main thing Hillary has going for her is the penchant of Americans to elect persons totally lacking in achievement, intellect, moral principles and decent grammar.
. Really, now, if you've seen the video, tell me: What are her major achievements?
She didn't kill the sonuvabitch.
Create a single payer system that is funded entirely from a national tax on all tobacco products, alcohol and fast food. Hit those three main things which can easily be attributed to the main causes of disease and illness in this country.
Few health problems have anything whatsoever to do with alcohol, tobacco, or fast food.
Few health problems have anything whatsoever to do with alcohol, tobacco, or fast food.
Mine doesn't
Rev: understand the point, but it might be worth generalizing; that is, many health problems are in fact behaviorally based. As a general statement, morbidity could be reduced if Americans ate less, exercised more, drank in moderation, and didnt smoke. Those are primarily behavioral issues.
Yeah, just what we need, Hillary joining Pelosi as two faux-nurturing National Madonna-Dictators claiming every new government intrusion, regulation, tax is for the children! The children!
Hoosier Daddy - As for national health care, how about proposing this: Create a single payer system that is funded entirely from a national tax on all tobacco products, alcohol and fast food. Hit those three main things which can easily be attributed to the main causes of disease and illness in this country.
As revenant said, few significant health costs are due to fast food or alcohol. Tobacco actually reduces national health care costs by dramatically reducing the timespan of Social Security and Medicare payouts once someone retires and enters the "parasitic elderly years".
The biggest savings in healthcare would be as Gingrich and Hillary both agree, stripping out the administrative and insurers that comprise 22% of healthcare costs down to the 3% or so cost of other advanced nations.
Then the next biggest savings would be in tempering the demand for services by the underclass, the heavist by far users of public health dollars next to the elderly. A few proposals have mentioned encouraging and incentivizing dysfunctional people not to breed, or deducting fees for more than one ER visit a year from their welfare, food stamp, WIC booty. Liberals hate that as "Orwellian", while seeing things like Hillarycare as somehow not Orwellian.
There is also a point where government gets so onerous on "popular sin taxes neighbors hit less 'morally upright' neighbors with" that you reach natural economic laws of diminishing returns and substitution. Tobacco taxes now pay more than the health cost, plus the hefty cut the Democrats wealthy trial lawyers and connected lobbyists get from their extortions. Beer and wine and hard liquor taxes cover that. Taxing fast food would just send the poor who eat the most of it back to their cheap, high fat, high starch home-cooking diets that were the 1st "obesity epidemic" noticable in America.
And finally, if people get fed up with others taxing their lifestyle but not their own for the children! The Children! you get fed up to a point like a mild survivalist friend of mine in Illinois is. He pays no cigarette taxes. He buys 40 pound sacks of tobacco when he visits NC and also loads up on illegal, "child-hazardous" fireworks. He makes his own beer and wine, and for the heck of it, once built a still that he used to make some 20 gallons of 60-proof applejack before neighbors complained of the smell of a truckload of fermented, squeezed out apple pulp. He also made a few guns from steel scrap just to prove he could do it. Curiously, he told me the mechanism for a full-auto pistol is far easier to fabricate than a semi-auto, and pistols are incredibly easy to make "once you know how - you could set up a line and crank out 10-15 a week in a basement, then maybe 40-50 once you got all the kinks out and were a pro at it" but that making a good rifle or shotgun is far harder...specialized tools vs. homeshop standard tools for pistols.
As a general statement, morbidity could be reduced if Americans ate less, exercised more, drank in moderation, and didnt smoke. Those are primarily behavioral issues.
That's true, but irrelevant. I was responding to the following idea (emphasis mine):
Create a single payer system that is funded entirely from a national tax on all tobacco products, alcohol and fast food.
Thus my observation that the overwhelming majority of health problems have nothing to do with those three things.
If your concern is obesity, smoking, and alcohol abuse, just deny national health coverage to smokers, alcoholics, and overweight people and let THEM take the steps necessary to qualify. Raising the cost of a bottle of wine from $20 to $150 and the cost of a Big Mac from $5 to $50 just so winos and fatties can get health coverage is moronic -- it punishes the overwhelming majority of people for the sins of a few, and cripples two innocent industries in the process.
Note also that all of this assumes that smoking, drinking, and obesity would actually be a drain on a national healthcare system -- which is questionable. As Cedarford noted, tobacco use actually saves the government money by killing people off, on average, shortly after they switch from "taxpayer" to "tax consumer". Drinking probably has a similar effect.
Why is it so hard for millions to see that Bill Clinton is a snake oil salesman? That sincere tone. That tucked in lower lip manouver. Cripes!
Regardless of your opinion on Hillary, Bill Clinton is a very powerful ally to have. Monica-gate aside, he'll probably go down as one of the greatest politicians to sit in the oval office. (mind you, I said politician, not President!)
Like numerous other posters, I'll admit I have a huge crush on Ann, but where did this come from?
Children's health is an important policy interest, but why would I want a President whose core policy interest is children's health?
When did Hillary Clinton go public with her "No child left to die" platform? Even if she really really really cared about children's health, congress won't spend 4 years debating the merits of her proposal. If you're critiquing Bill's delivery, I'm willing to wager that there is very good reason behind his approach!
Annnd, lets not forget Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, North Korea, China, Mexico, affirmative action, abortion, illegal immigration, general health care, social reform, a nasty federal deficit, to name a few policy issues that will likely receive attention when the War isn't distracting our public officials.
Besides,Yale grads are multi-tasking nerds.. not over-focused maniacs! (well, with one exception)
Bill said "she improved care for women with breast cancer and then with prostate cancer"...do women get prostate cancer? I think I'm being sarcastic.
Why is everyone calling him Bill?
He's "President Clinton" to you and me.
You wouldn't call President Reagan "Ronnie".
"...do women get prostate cancer?"
Well, if there ever was a candidate, few would know better than President Clinton!
Judging from the comments, which are actually tame, the Clintons have opened themselves up to nothing but merciless mockery with this video. I'm sure SNL is writing the skit as we speak.
I guess I understood she was his wife, but this video drives it home in a very creepy, smarmy way. "Ah'm a good little feminist husband (wink, wink)." Icky, indeed.
I don't see her as evil, just ambitious, but do we really want him back in the White House with nothing but time on his hands?
"Caring, working, and delivering."
The vid was light on the "delivering", and without that who cares about the "caring" and "working"?
It did mention that she once made a very nice speech in Beijing. There's that.
Hlllary knew of Bill's affairs since they were governor of Arkansas. She went along for the ride.
Post a Comment