  |
|||
|
|
"It is always the best policy to speak the truth, unless, of course, you are an exceptionally good liar." - Jerome K. Jerome.
IT HAS BEEN SUGGESTED THAT BASEBALL is uniquely suited to appeal to and nurture the civic virtues indispensable to a successful democracy. While a few teams dominate many professional sports, baseball's best teams loose about a third of their games during the course of a season. The worst teams defeat the best on occasion.
Democracy is also defined by the acceptance of compromise and temporary victories. One political party may win today, but fail tomorrow. Rarely does one political party dominate the national agenda for long. The democratic temperament accommodates itself to the discipline of a long season of discussion and persuasion. Now it appears that baseball also serves another purpose - a venue for the revelation of political character. Recently, long-time and self-proclaimed Chicago Cubs fan and aspirant to the New York Senate seat, Hillary Clinton explained to Today's show host Katie Couric, "The fact [1] is, I've always been a Yankees fan." This is rubbish and she knew it was rubbish when she said it. Whether or not Hillary Clinton was always a closet Yankees fan is of little consequence or relevance to her capacity to serve as a U.S. Senator. However, her willingness to gratuitously lie when truth would have served reveals a cavalier and reckless disregard for the truth, the very definition of Clintonism. Not so long ago Hillary Clinton claimed that she was named after Sir Edmund Hillary who with (Nepalese mountaineer Tensing Norkay) was the first to ascend the summit of Mount Everst. Unfortunately, Hillary Clinton was born in 1947 and Sir Hillary's quest came in 1953. Unless Hillary Clinton's parents named their precious daughter after an obscure New Zealand beekeeper, Hillary told a colorful white lie. No one cares about boorish self-aggrandizing exaggeration by a self-esteem-challenged private citizen, but one would aspire for more dignity from a potential U.S. Senator set to replace stately Senator Daniel Moynihan. Politics is not pure. Careful and studied avoidance of clarity has its place. Ronald Reagan often confused apocryphal parables with real events. But thoughtless and unnecessarily lies are a throwback to the 19th century snake oil salesman.
The conventional wisdom about the Clinton political alliance is the Hillary is the Liberal true believer, while Bill is the charming rogue eager to shade the truth and fearless about compromising principle for political convenience. It seems that Hillary is not so adverse to the half-truth. This is really unfortunate. She seems to have a lot to say and it may be lost in mendacity. Go To Page: 1 2
The copyright of the article The Other Clinton Embraces Clintonism in Conservative Politics is owned by Frank Monaldo. Permission to republish The Other Clinton Embraces Clintonism in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
For a complete listing of article comments, questions, and other discussions related to Frank Monaldo's Conservative Politics topic, please visit the Discussions page. |
||
|
|
|||
