In the post-Fahrenheit 9/11 cinematic world, it's easy to lose sight of some other great docs. About a month ago, I attended a screening of "The Hunting of the President." This wonderful effort chronicled the Mr. Toad's wild ride that was the Whitewater "investigation." Like Moore's films, it uses a mix of stock footage and music cues to comic effect. However, as narrated by Morgan Freeman, it carries more emotional heft, especially when focusing on Susan McDougal.
After the screening, it occurred to me that despite the overwhelming evidence that Whitewater was a partisan witch hunt, fully 50% of Americans were convinced that Clinton actually did something nefarious. This in the face of being led into a war of convenience against a sovreign nation that posed no immediate threat to our country. The negative Clinton public opinion shaped Gore's decision to distance himself from the enormously popular (pre-Lewinsky) president and tipped some Dems over to the Nader column. We're living the result of that folly.
I wondered... how is it possible that so many people can exist in a state of intellectual denial that allows them to believe that A) Bush is a capable leader and B) Kerry is a wimpy liberal? Bush cannot account for his "honorably served" National Guard time. We see no end to the evidence that he is unaccounted for several months. Yet, prickly GOP flaks continue to press the outright lie that he completed his duty. "He was honorably discharged," they scream. "That's the end of it."
Of course, the $70 million of bulldog-like tenacity used to transform Whitewater from a real estate investigation to the most costly blow job in history would never cut Clinton the same break. You can believe that Clinton or Kerry would be mercilessly excoriated for a discrepancy of this magnitude.
In a time when his approval ratings have dipped to historic lows, Bush is in a statistical dead heat (or even a lead) in many polls. In the face of millions of jobs lost, a record-breaking deficit, a shameful and sham-filled war, I am astounded that a $600 tax rebate has bought so many votes from the polarized constituency. Who knew that America could be had so cheaply?
After the screening, it occurred to me that despite the overwhelming evidence that Whitewater was a partisan witch hunt, fully 50% of Americans were convinced that Clinton actually did something nefarious. This in the face of being led into a war of convenience against a sovreign nation that posed no immediate threat to our country. The negative Clinton public opinion shaped Gore's decision to distance himself from the enormously popular (pre-Lewinsky) president and tipped some Dems over to the Nader column. We're living the result of that folly.
I wondered... how is it possible that so many people can exist in a state of intellectual denial that allows them to believe that A) Bush is a capable leader and B) Kerry is a wimpy liberal? Bush cannot account for his "honorably served" National Guard time. We see no end to the evidence that he is unaccounted for several months. Yet, prickly GOP flaks continue to press the outright lie that he completed his duty. "He was honorably discharged," they scream. "That's the end of it."
Of course, the $70 million of bulldog-like tenacity used to transform Whitewater from a real estate investigation to the most costly blow job in history would never cut Clinton the same break. You can believe that Clinton or Kerry would be mercilessly excoriated for a discrepancy of this magnitude.
In a time when his approval ratings have dipped to historic lows, Bush is in a statistical dead heat (or even a lead) in many polls. In the face of millions of jobs lost, a record-breaking deficit, a shameful and sham-filled war, I am astounded that a $600 tax rebate has bought so many votes from the polarized constituency. Who knew that America could be had so cheaply?
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