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Tuesday, July 27, 2004

Hey 22nd Amendment---go fuck yourself! 

Bill Clinton is the greatest politician and political orator of his generation, and it could be a long time before we see anyone like him again.  His speech last night at the Convention was brilliant.  And tens of millions of people were surely as veklempt as I was as he took the stage to Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop,"  his 1992 campaign theme song.  Quite simply, people want him back.  America needs him to come back.  It's hard to believe he can't serve again.

In his 25 or so minutes (shockingly, he kept it short!) Bill proceeded to remind us how a President should sound and think.  Or rather, he reminded us that a President should be able to think.  The man is a brilliant policy analyst, strategist, and motivator.  He reminded us of the relationships he made with leaders around the world and the image he projected of this great country.  And more than anything else, sadly, he reminded me that this country is in big trouble if we put the Idiot back in office for four more years.

The entire speech was vintage Clinton.  I thought the most superb turn of phrase was his ability to rub it in that he -- the man hated most by right-wingers -- is sitting pretty with his huge tax cut!  Time and again he said, "my tax cut," "my tax cut."  And he reminded us that huge projects like a Republican-rejected bill to make our ports safer could be funded if millionnaires like him simply gave up part of their tax cut.  And I really believe what he said about the will of the people is true -- that the vast majority of those millionnaires would give back that $5,000 to make the country safer.  But that's not how W sees it:  We'll be fine if the rich just get a little richer, the deficit gets bigger, the world gets more and more angry with us, and more US troops are sent into harm's way to make it look like they're going to stop the next terrorist attack.

If Bill Clinton had been able to run again in 2004, there would have been no Florida controversy.  We wouldn't have squandered the chance to unite all Americans and capitalize on the world's sympathies after September 11-th.  We wouldn't be in Iraq without damn good evidence that our people were in imminent danger.  We'd be taking it to Al Qaeda with the billions wasted on building fire stations in Iraq instead of in our own cities.  The deficit wouldn't be ballooning because, as every prior President could tell you, you don't cut taxes in a time of war and sacrifice.  And foreign leaders wouldn't snicker at our great country's President, nor would they dwarf him intellectually or politically.

That said, it's a good thing they put his speech a full three days away from Kerry's.  Because Kerry would have to undergo quite a transformation to put on a performance like that.

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