Politics 2008: A Heroine with Clay Feet

Earlier, I turn on the TV, decide to watch news until primetime. The pickings are really slim. On CNN, they have the farsical Democratic Presidential Debate. I mean, those questions. I'm not a Democrat, but that format seemed unfair and unproductive. Anyway, I can't take them anymore. On MSNBC, Chris Matthews is apparently devoting the hour to Michael Moore. Hardball these days is usually enough to send me into apoplexy, so I definitely will not watch that. Eventually, I wind up watching the historical underpinnings of the "Exodus" or something like.

But the whole thing gets me to thinking about Hillary, who may very well make it. You have to admire the woman. When the Lewinsky scandal broke, I was highly contemptuous of her. "Some feminist!" I thought. "What a prostitute." And yet as time has gone on, and life has thrown me some curveballs, I have come to view her as my idol. Can you imagine the strength of will it took to carry on, when all she wanted was to do a Lorena Bobbit? And she got hers. She took the hit, but she got what she wanted.

Much as I'd love to reward that singlemindedness, though, I can't vote for her. First of all, I am constitutionally unable to vote for anyone who ever took part in a "Venceremos" brigade. I don't care how young or foolish she was, not that she's ever repudiated the adventure. By the way, it's amazing that she's been in the limelight for years, and I had never heard a word about it. Interesting, huh? Anyway, I never volunteered to go pick rice in Vietnam. Second, her politics are just too bad. Forget the mess she made of healthcare reform way back when. Take a gander at an excerpt from a recent speech:

It's time for a new beginning, for an end to government of the few, by the
few and for the few, time to reject the idea of an "on your own" society and to
replace it with shared responsibility for shared prosperity. I prefer a "we're
all in it together" society.

Gee, haven't I heard something like that somewhere before?