humanities.misc

Former President Clinton recently described his wife's relations with
Senator John McCain as "very close." He added that "they like and
respect each other." This friendship apparently started when the two
went on a trip together and engaged in a drinking contest. The snotty
comments are coming from the Hillary Clinton camp toward Barack Obama
on an almost daily basis but are rarely directed toward McCain. And
the Clinton family and the Bush family are said to be on friendly
terms, too. Is this because Hillary isn't a real liberal? It seems to
me there would be some animosity of a true traditional liberal toward
those who want to privatize Social Security, like Bush and McCain, for
example. Remember that Hillary started out as a Republican. She was
the president of the "Young Republicans" at Wellesley College.

I remember that the Clinton administration did nothing for the poor
homeless people. They went along with the Republicans on welfare
reform, which did away with our comprehensive welfare system. They
failed to get national health care passed, even with a Democratic
majority Congress, because they didn't do much arm twisting, but they
did the arm twisting and successfully got the anti-labor NAFTA passed.
I remember at the time the Clintons called themselves "New Democrats"
which reminded me at times of the "Old Republicans." I guess that term
was supposed to mean a new kind of Democrat a lot more moderate than
the traditional FDR, Kennedy, and Johnson Democrats. The Clintons
weren't anti-war - they attacked Iraq and Yugoslavia. I also recall
the violent Waco and Ruby Ridge incidents domestically on their watch.

So I guess what I'm saying is I think we need a real change in
direction. Barack Obama was the top lawyer out of Harvard. He could
have worked for corporations and become wealthy, but he chose to work
for the poor in Chicago. He opposed giving Bush the authority to
attack Iraq while Hillary Clinton supported it. Barack's mother was
known for her liberalism and was a very intelligent anthropogist,
while his dad attended Harvard and became an economist in Kenya. I
don't think Barack is secretly a Moslem as some have suggested, but I
think he is an old fashioned traditional liberal, and strangely enough
he goes to an old fashioned left wing liberal church. I like that. I
think we should have a real choice in this election, not just between
a very conservative candidate and a somewhat more moderately
conservative candidate. See
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/01/25/bill-clinton-john-mccain-and-hillary-are-very-close/