Safe in the Clintons' Arms

A few weeks ago (Sept. 25), I posted on Hillary's watch-the-debate-with-Bill lottery. Well, the Clinton campaign has announced the winners. They are two women (undisclosed age and body type) and one man. So, it seems, there will indeed be an outside male chaperon.

Hillary's campaign manager, Patti Solis Doyle, emailed me to say (she's quite diligent to keep me in the loop), "Clare from Beaumont, Texas; Glenda from Spring Hill, Kansas; and David from Melrose Park, Illinois are the winners of our debate contest and will be traveling to New York to watch the October 30 debate with President Clinton and John Grisham."

David of Melrose Park is reported to have said, "I am SO excited to meet former President Bill Clinton and the added bonus of meeting John Grisham! Many of my friends are jealous. I voted for President Clinton twice and was very proud of everything he did while in office and still am, watching all of the good things he's been doing. Now, it's GO HILLARY!" (emphasis added)

I notice that only "most" of his friends envy him (it's envy, David, not jealousy...a common mistake). Some of his friends must be Republicans, or they're Democrats with good memories.

As he voted for President Clinton twice (I assume that he means in separate elections; perhaps I'm naive), he must be at least 33. So he is old enough to be a restraining influence on any potential "living room snugglefest" with the fun-loving former President.

But this may be an unwarranted assumption. The unrepentant, two-time Clinton supporter then adds that he "was very proud of everything he [Clinton] did while in office." Everything? Of course, any President is bound to have a morally mixed time of service to one extent or another. They are drawn from among us, and so, like us, they are human, all too human. But one of the distinguishing features of Bubba's presidency was behavior of a particularly lurid sort with a young intern in the oval office itself that led to impeachment in the House and trial in the Senate, a scandal and controversy that dominated most of his second term.

With reference to this particular President, you cannot say that you are "proud of everything he did while in office" without affirming your moral indifference to his adulterous, lecherous and at times criminal escapades, all of which were well publicized and beyond dispute by reasonable people of goodwill. The Clinton campaign strategists, who no doubt wrote the statements from all three lottery winners, are either genuinely blind to the issue, or they are using the subtext of the statement to signal a reaffirmation of the moral character of the first two Clinton terms and a continuation of it in the next two.

So David of Melrose Park may not be any use to Clare and Glenda as a restraining presence anyway. And perhaps it's not an issue.

One more observation: the campaign has the two women speaking exclusively about Hillary, whereas the only man in the group speaks solely in praise of Bill.

Clare: "Obviously, I think it's important for America and the world that a Democrat wins the White House. Hillary's my choice because she has the best experience and the deepest knowledge of the issues. She is a leader ready to repair America's standing in the world, put the economy back on track, and end the Iraq war with diplomacy and patience." (Then comes David's "quote," followed by...)

Glenda: "I believe Hillary has the qualities to get things done for the American people, to make America the best place to live, and to help America get along with the rest of the world."

There's strategy in that. These are very clever people.