Mark Sanford's Win: Folks Loathe Obama That Much

Time was, a screw-up like Mark Sanford would disappear from the public stage--permanently.

We live in different times, in these times. Bill Clinton actually blazed the trail for Sanford: he was rescued, forgiven, embraced, and is now lionized by the Democrat faithful. Any stones they throw at Sanford for his escapades will seem especially hypocritical, even for them. This is also the party of Barney Frank, whose adventures over time make Sanford look like a rank amateur. Let's not dwell too much on Anthony Weiner, who is said to be contemplating a run for mayor of new York City.

Govenor/Representative Sanford should not congratulate himself too heartily. His constituents don't love him, and many are embarrassed by him. But given the prospect of putting a Democrat in the House seat, who would be supportive of Himself...well, that was even more unthinkable.

Strange, strange times, when a President has made himself that odious to the citizenry.

The Great DNC ClintonGasm: OS Just Had To Watch

Really, he tried to resist the temptation, to instead read more on that book, listen to a bit of music. But just as people sit transfixed when they see a plane fall from the sky, or see trains on a collision course, OS found himself in front of the TeeVee, waiting to see what President 'It Depends Upon What Your Definition of 'IS' Is' Clinton would have to say to the adoring crowds about the man he previously so thoroughly despised.

It is so useful to possess a mind such as Bill Clinton's, which is able to ignore actual events as it explains history.  There was one moment where he asked the rhetorical question about why the federal budget balanced from 1996-2000. OS was half-hoping to hear His Billness utter Newt Gingrich's name.

Nope! He blurted out the word 'Arithmetic!', to the cheers of the adoring crowd.

For any of us who remember the 1990's, this simply was not the case. OS remembers going to the poll early in the morning in November 1994, thinking he and Mrs. OS would arrive to an empty venue. Instead, they found voters lined up out the door, all waiting for the opportunity to vote Republican, here in one of the deepest yeller-dog Democrat counties of the South. HilaryCare had scared them shitless, and they were hopping mad. That was just one item on their list, by the way.

It was Newt who forced Bill to begin to behave like something resembling someone who had completed seventh-grade math. Even then, Bill let the gubbermint shut down before conceding.
(It was during the 'shutdown' he staged that boredom set in and a 19-year-old female intern walked in. His Billness, at one point, even tried to pin the blame for that debacle on the Republicans, for creating the 'shutdown'. Puhleeeeze...)

Newt and his majority later forced Bill to sign on to welfare reform as well.

Now here we are, in 2012, and His Billness is claiming credit for both.

Nothing about the man has changed. Nothing about the party he spoke to has changed, except for their utter willingness to forgive the man anything, so long as he tells what they wish to hear.

His behavior in the Monica Lewinsky affair was just deplorable. He ended up being impeached, and brought the country to a halt as a consequence. He wasn't removed, but he was disbarred, and ended his term admitting in writing to his perjury. In the meantime,  bin Laden had the opportunity to ramp up his operation, and the wacko Left extracted its pound of flesh for protecting his sorry ass. The foundations of the housing bubble were laid as a consequence, as Fannie and Freddie were transformed from sleepy institutions to instruments of social transformation, shoving money toward both properties and buyers that had not a chance of success.

Given his track record with Lewinsky, Kathleen Willey, and so many other credible women--what woman would remain in the room with him, much less cheer for him? Compare what we know about Clinton versus what was only alleged about Herman Cain.

What sort of person does it take to deliberately forget major pieces of history about people such as Clinton, Teddy Kennedy and Barack Obama--simply for the privilege of being told what he wants to hear?

'It's all Bush's Jr.'s fault. It's all Bush Sr.'s fault. It's all Reagan's fault. It's the Tea Party's fault. It's Mitch McConnell's fault. No one could have turned this thing around, not even me. It's all getting better, ya'll just don't feel it yet. It's Paul Ryan's fault. It's the fault of people like Mitt. It's Bush's fault. We had nothing to do with this debacle, even though we oversaw it for the past four years. It's Bush's fault. It's Bush's fault.

They ate it up. They just ate it up.

Forty-seven million people on food stamps.  Twenty-three million unemployed. Sixteen trillion in debt. The House was swept by the GOP in 2010, and almost the Senate with it. Whole swaths of states, such as Kentucky, won't even be contested, because Obama is so completely disdained.

And they just ate it up, Couldn't get enough of His Billness, telling them what they most wanted to hear--that it's all ok, that no matter what that stream of cash will flow endlessly into the pockets of those unionized teachers, government employees, UAW members. No matter what, they'll be ok, even as the culture falls apart around them.

We've got your back, just deliver us them votes.

The Herman Cain Dust-Up: A Couple Of Additional Questions

ABC News asks a cogent question: Who, exactly, are Cain's accusers?

Another good one is: Where are they? After all, if we are to be about the business of tarnishing the reputation of a public person, seems that going public would be the thing to do. A good rule of thumb would be: If'n yew don't wantcher pictcher in the paper or alllllll over the internet, don't deliberately say and do stuff that creates media interest. Sorta' like, don't cover yerrself in hunney and walk into a big anthill.

So, here we are, with the wheels coming off Europe, riots ginning up in California, the professors of Southern Illinois University on strike (Really, ya'll! Why do folks with tenure go on strike?), another trading firm gone tits-up with 700 million of the clients' dollars missing, run by one of Obama's ardent supporters (Jon Corzine, former senator, former governor of New Jersey), large swaths of the Middle East in chaos, Iran working on a nuke--so let's spend our time obsessing about....drumroll please/the envelope please....what Herman Cain did or didn't do in the 1990's (the age of, ummm, Bill Clinton).

Hmmm....

So, OS has another question or two as he scratches hiz ole' grey head in puzzlement: Let's assume, fer the sake of argumint, that all those tarrrible thangs they sayin' 'bout Herman iz true! Does it disqualify him from running or taking office? Really?

Remember the stock phrases about Bill Clinton?

It's not about character, all that matters are his policies.

This does not rise to the level of an impeachable offence.

It's his business what he does with that cigar and that intern, none of ours.

He wasn't lying when he denied 'having sex with that woman, Miss Lewinsky', now was he? All that stuff they were engaging in in that bathroom off the Oval Office, that wasn't really sex, you know.

So, Bill is lionized, with all his actual misbehavior documented in detail.  Herman is vilified, based upon anonymous allegations.

Which leads to another question:

Is there one set of rules for white Democrats, and another for black Republicans? 
(Remember the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court confirmation hearings? This all feels soooooo familiar to those of us alive to have witnessed that dog-n-pony show.) It was a replay of the Robert Bork debacle, only with the hoods and burning crosses on display for good measure.

Which leads to another question, which OS refers to as the 'Homer Simpson Question':

Is there anyone alive, who has really engaged the world, attempted to get stuff done, worked with all manner of people, who hasn't had a few Homer Simpson moments along the way? 

 OS can certainly look back to more than a few moments of 'Dooooh!'. He actually owns up to a 'Decade of Doooooh!' He works diligently to not create more of them, to put another day of distance between him and them with every day that passes. But he, like everyone else alive, is not immune. It doesn't mean he doesn't go out and engage the world today.

Herman deserves the same consideration, in the humble of opinion of a life member of the 'Dooooh!' fraternity. Last time OS checked, Herman only smokes his cigars, and didn't illegally take 700 million of his clients' funds and lose them on the roulette wheel of the European sovereign debt casino.

That, ya'll, is an actual 'Dooooooh!' event.

Bill Clinton Tells Us: Words Matter

Brad DeLong, of the Economics faculty at UC Berkely, shares this post with us.

This, of course, is posted in the aftermath of the tragedy in Arizona. Expect a wave of commentary to the effect that all who publicly disagree with the Vision of Obama share culpability with the deranged man who opened fire.

Strange that DeLong would cite Clinton on the subject, but then again, that Memory Hole seems to be working well for Bill, since Clinton actually appears sane compared to Obama.

So, OS ruminates in response here, since it is unlikely Prof. DeLong will tolerate such impudence from his readership:

Well, yes, words do have meaning.

It is interesting to hear these words emerge from the lips of the man who vociferously declared: I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky; and is most remembered for his most famous turn of phrase 'That would depend on what your meaning of the word 'is' is.'

It is good at last to see that Mr. Clinton finally agrees with the rest of us that words have meaning, and that they matter. His current successor has used the words 'enemies' and 'hostage takers' to describe those who disagree with him, and these words uttered quite recently.

So, indeed it is a good thing to witness Mr. Clinton utter sounds that sound like the words we understand to mean '...the words we use really do matter...'

Let's hope at last he understands them, and means them.

Perhaps, on his next visit back in his old 'hood, he could even remind the current occupant...