No candidate for President has ever been as thoroughly vetted as Hillary Clinton. Although her enemies have made many false claims against her and she has been the target of numerous investigations from her earliest days in the Whitehouse (as first lady) till now ,she has never been convicted or indicted for anything illegal. This is what you hear from the Clinton campaign when the question of Hillary's numerous scandals comes up. It's mostly true too, well ,apart from that false claims business. Not all the claims against her have proven false. Many have been proven true, some in the strictest " legal" sense of the term, some only true as far as one can reasonably interpret events given the facts at hand. It reminds me of a great line from one of the Adam's Family movies. Gomez greets his brother ," Fester, you old lady killer". "Yes" a beaming Fester replies ," but never convicted".
After so many investigations , if the best you can come up with is" but never convicted" you're not making a particularly strong endorsement. That's especially true when these probes and investigations give us a picture of someone who will stop at nothing to get her way. I admire people who are relentless, but relentnessness has a flip side too. There's relentnessness on the wrong path, and there's relentnessness driving you to the wrong means. You can have all the right goals and relentlessly still destroy everything in your path. Having a sense of right and wrong, a moral sense, makes all the difference. Without scruples you're a danger to everyone around you, especially anyone that gets in the way. Determination alone is neither a virtue nor a vice. There's many a future suicide bomber out there who is wonderfully determined. Determination becomes a virtue only when it's tied to virtuous acts. I refer you to Hillary's first Washington scandal, travelgate. Take a look at what she put Billy Dale through. He was fired from his job and given just minutes to clear his desk and leave the Whitehouse. He was repeatedly and exhaustively investigated by the IRS and FBI. He was brought to court on trumped up charges, defending his innocence at great expense. His only offensive was to hold a position that Hillary wished to reward to a friend. The charges that came against him were a smokescreen to justify his firing. The first lady instigated the initial firing of Dale and his staff and the cover-up, then lied to a special prosecutor about her role. But she was never convicted. She does have the Clinton knack for getting away with anything, everything, outside the unlikely event of someone having preserved the semen stained blue dress.
I swear I didn't start today's column with intentions of writing about Hillary Clinton. I thought I'd take a few more whacks at the Donald, maybe make the case for why we can't elect this world class buffoon. Why bother? Everyone should be able to make that case on their own by now, unless they're supporters. That bunch are unreachable. Their minds are made up. As Trump himself has said, he can shoot someone in the middle of 5th avenue, and they'd still vote for him. I have no reason to doubt that.
In 1801, second president, John Adams moved into the Whitehouse. He was the first president to live there. On his first night in that large, lonely,and as yet unfinished presidential palace, he wrote to his wife, Abigail, who was caring after their children in Quincy Massachusetts. At the close of his letter he made a now famous prayer ,or blessing on the new digs. " Before I end my letter I pray that heaven bestow the best of blessings upon this house, and all that hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise men rule under this roof." he wrote. It's a wonderful sentiment. My only quibble is with the "rule" part. Presidents don't rule, they don't reign, they preside. It's hard to disagree with the rest. Those we elect to the highest office ought to be honorable, just, fair-minded, not exclusively self serving, honest, and reasonable. They ought to reflect the best our society has to offer.
Voting for someone just because we like their style, or what they say, or because of their party affiliation, isn't enough. We have a duty to look beyond their positions and question the carefully cultivated image they try to project. We have a duty to judge their character.
In the upcoming presidential election that leaves us with exactly two choices. There's none of the above, and anyone else please.
After so many investigations , if the best you can come up with is" but never convicted" you're not making a particularly strong endorsement. That's especially true when these probes and investigations give us a picture of someone who will stop at nothing to get her way. I admire people who are relentless, but relentnessness has a flip side too. There's relentnessness on the wrong path, and there's relentnessness driving you to the wrong means. You can have all the right goals and relentlessly still destroy everything in your path. Having a sense of right and wrong, a moral sense, makes all the difference. Without scruples you're a danger to everyone around you, especially anyone that gets in the way. Determination alone is neither a virtue nor a vice. There's many a future suicide bomber out there who is wonderfully determined. Determination becomes a virtue only when it's tied to virtuous acts. I refer you to Hillary's first Washington scandal, travelgate. Take a look at what she put Billy Dale through. He was fired from his job and given just minutes to clear his desk and leave the Whitehouse. He was repeatedly and exhaustively investigated by the IRS and FBI. He was brought to court on trumped up charges, defending his innocence at great expense. His only offensive was to hold a position that Hillary wished to reward to a friend. The charges that came against him were a smokescreen to justify his firing. The first lady instigated the initial firing of Dale and his staff and the cover-up, then lied to a special prosecutor about her role. But she was never convicted. She does have the Clinton knack for getting away with anything, everything, outside the unlikely event of someone having preserved the semen stained blue dress.
I swear I didn't start today's column with intentions of writing about Hillary Clinton. I thought I'd take a few more whacks at the Donald, maybe make the case for why we can't elect this world class buffoon. Why bother? Everyone should be able to make that case on their own by now, unless they're supporters. That bunch are unreachable. Their minds are made up. As Trump himself has said, he can shoot someone in the middle of 5th avenue, and they'd still vote for him. I have no reason to doubt that.
In 1801, second president, John Adams moved into the Whitehouse. He was the first president to live there. On his first night in that large, lonely,and as yet unfinished presidential palace, he wrote to his wife, Abigail, who was caring after their children in Quincy Massachusetts. At the close of his letter he made a now famous prayer ,or blessing on the new digs. " Before I end my letter I pray that heaven bestow the best of blessings upon this house, and all that hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise men rule under this roof." he wrote. It's a wonderful sentiment. My only quibble is with the "rule" part. Presidents don't rule, they don't reign, they preside. It's hard to disagree with the rest. Those we elect to the highest office ought to be honorable, just, fair-minded, not exclusively self serving, honest, and reasonable. They ought to reflect the best our society has to offer.
Voting for someone just because we like their style, or what they say, or because of their party affiliation, isn't enough. We have a duty to look beyond their positions and question the carefully cultivated image they try to project. We have a duty to judge their character.
In the upcoming presidential election that leaves us with exactly two choices. There's none of the above, and anyone else please.
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