The Anti-Hillary Virus


Something very odd has happened to me over the past couple of months. I have slowly turned hostile to the Clintons. It seems only a year ago ... actually it was only a year ago ... when I was a big fan of Bill Clinton, and by extension, liked Hilllary just fine. She was, after all, in the White House not because she was chosen to occupy it, but because he was.

Now it has reversed. Because I have developed a viseral dislike of the woman, it has extended to Bill as well. I find myself thinking, "This is why they don't like them." And I wonder if Bush supporters are having the same moment about him, finally seeing what the rest of us dislike so much in him. I remember when I was young thinking that nobody should be elected President who is seeking the job; someone should be elevated to it by the people. I think there was a time when it worked that way. Certainly Thomas Jefferson didn't campaign, nor did George Washington. They were elevated to the office by others.

Maybe being President is like being an artist in Spain. You don't call yourself one. You wait for somebody else to call you one.

I especially resent Hillary's talking up her experience and disparging Obama’s experience, which to me is like Melinda Gates running against Michael Bloomberg on her financial acumen.

When the primary started, I was happy to support either candidate; actually, I was happy to support any one of the Democratic candidates. When it came down to three, I liked all three. Then I made my choice, as did a lot of Americans. I decided on Obama, and the decision hardened as he showed the strength to move to the general election.

Then something curious happened. I saw that Hillary Clinton would do anything to pull it back out of the fire. This led me to suspect that she would be willing to destroy Obama in order to get what she wants. This is exactly what makes me dislike George W. Bush so much. I won’t vote for somebody I dislike, regardless of party, and I intensely dislike George W. Bush because I see him as corrupt, a small time fixer elevated to high office, like Spiro Agnew as a gym rat.

It has taken about a month for me to go from an ardent supporter of the Clintons to developing the same kind of distaste for them as fixers. It happens when I see something come out in the face, which I cannot explain other than by saying that it is like Bilbo Baggins when he seeing the ring again in old age. It reminds me of Lincoln's saying he would not appoint a certain man to a cabinet post because, "I don't like his face."

When admonished that this wasn't a good reason, as the man couldn't help what his face looked like, Lincoln said "After age forty, every man is responsible for his face."

I won't vote for Clinton because I have decided I don't like her face. I do like Obama's face. It doesn't twist and contort trying to grasp the ring.

This leaves me wondering how many other hard core Democrats, like me, are watching this primary becoming about the person instead of about the party, and remembering that John McCain has supported legislation to reform the system. I normally wouldn’t even consider McCain because of his war stance. The problem is, I still sort of like McCain.

I used to like him a lot more, before I saw him sucking up to George W. Bush, hugging him and fawining over him. I lost a lot of respect for him. I know what Bush did to him in South Carolina. I would have preferred that when they went into the clench as Republican brothers, McCain had chewed off a piece out of the sleazy little prick’s ear.

But of course if he’d done that he wouldn’t be a Presidential nominee now, and if Hillary comes up as the nominee for the Democrats, there wouldn't be any alternative. I would vote for her if somebody like Bush was the nominee again. I'd vote for a yellow dog before I'd vote for somebody like him. But with a viable alternative, I will not vote for her. At best I will disengage from the process, along with a lot of other people who had a brief surge of hope for the future of the country, I suspect.

What Hillary presents as her great strengths are to me weaknesses. For example, all the Pentagon types who are lining up behind her signal that she isn’t going to do anything about the defense budget. It is my sincere belief that we are headed over a cliff because we invest most of our wealth in products which can only give a return if we use them to kill people. But worse than this, when we escalate militarily we force worldwide military escalation, because despite our certainty that we are the good guys and should rule the world with our military, other countries do not embrace that idea. They think we should limit ourself to what we need for our defense.

But what makes me want to just turn and walk away if Hillary does manage to beat Obama is that I see her now as a plastic person, molded by political operatives, doing what she thinks will advance her toward her goals. I think if it comes down to what’s good for the country and what she perceives as in her political interests -- as happened in the vote to invade Iraq -- she will go the wrong way every time.

McCain, for all my disagreement with him on issues, has courage at least sometimes. His repudiation of that dickhead Cunningham was certainly a breath of fresh air coming from a Republican.

Posted: Tue - March 4, 2008 at 10:28 AM