| 15th November 2007 08:50 AM |
|
|
| Jumping Jack |
Things Are Tough All Over
But Mrs. Clinton is no Iron Lady.
Friday, November 9, 2007 12:01 a.m. EST
http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/
The story as I was told it is that in the early years of her prime ministership, Margaret Thatcher held a meeting with her aides and staff, all of whom were dominated by her, even awed. When it was over she invited her cabinet chiefs to join her at dinner in a nearby restaurant. They went, arrayed themselves around the table, jockeyed for her attention. A young waiter came and asked if they'd like to hear the specials. Mrs. Thatcher said, "I will have beef."
Yes, said the waiter. "And the vegetables?"
"They will have beef too."
Too good to check, as they say. It is certainly apocryphal, but I don't want it to be. It captured her singular leadership style, which might be characterized as "unafraid."
She was a leader.
Margaret Thatcher would no more have identified herself as a woman, or claimed special pleading that she was a mere frail girl, or asked you to sympathize with her because of her sex, than she would have called up the Kremlin and asked how quickly she could surrender.
She represented a movement. She was its head. She was great figure, a person in history, and she was a woman. She was in it for serious reasons, not to advance the claims of a gender but to reclaim for England its economic freedom, and return its political culture to common sense. Her rise wasn't symbolic but actual.
In fact, she wasn't so much a woman as a lady. I remember a gentleman who worked with her speaking of her allure, how she'd relax after a late-night meeting and you'd walk by and catch just the faintest whiff of perfume, smoke and scotch. She worked hard and was tough. One always imagined her lightly smacking some incompetent on the head with her purse, for she carried a purse, as a lady would. She is still tough. A Reagan aide told me that after she was incapacitated by a stroke she flew to Reagan's funeral in Washington, went through the ceremony, flew with Mrs. Reagan to California for the burial, and never once on the plane removed her heels. That is tough.
The point is the big ones, the real ones, the Thatchers and Indira Gandhis and Golda Meirs and Angela Merkels, never play the boo-hoo game. They are what they are, but they don't use what they are. They don't hold up their sex as a feint: Why, he's not criticizing me, he's criticizing all women! Let us rise and fight the sexist cur.
When Hillary Clinton suggested that debate criticism of her came under the heading of men bullying a defenseless lass, an interesting thing happened. First Kate Michelman, the former head of NARAL and an Edwards supporter, hit her hard. "When unchallenged, in a comfortable, controlled situation, Sen. Clinton embraces her elevation into the 'boys club.' " But when "legitimate questions" are asked, "she is quick to raise the white flag and look for a change in the rules."
Then Mrs. Clinton changed tack a little and told a group of women in West Burlington, Iowa, that they were going to clean up Washington together: "Bring your vacuum cleaners, bring your brushes, bring your brooms, bring your mops." It was all so incongruous--can anyone imagine the 20th century New Class professional Hillary Clinton picking up a vacuum cleaner? Isn't that what downtrodden pink collar workers abused by the patriarchy are for?
But even better, and more startling, people began to giggle. At Mrs. Clinton, a woman who has never inspired much mirth. Suddenly they were remembering the different accents she has spoken with when in different parts of the country, and the weird laugh she has used on talk shows. A few days ago new poll numbers came out--neck and neck with Barack Obama in Iowa, her lead slipping in New Hampshire. There is a sense that Sen. Obama is rising, a sense for the first time in this election cycle that Mrs. Clinton just may be in a fight, a real one, one she could actually lose.
It's all kind of wonderful, isn't it? Someone indulged in special pleading and America didn't buy it. It's as if the country this week made it official: We now formally declare that the woman who uses the fact of her sex to manipulate circumstances is a jerk.
I call it that because it seems to me now less like a dynastic tug of war than a symptom of deterioration, a lazy, unserious and faintly corrupt turn to be taken by the oldest and greatest democracy in the history of man. And I say sickness because on some level I think it is driven by a delusion: "We will be safe with these ruling families, whom we know so well." But we won't. They have no special magic. Dynasticism brings with it a sense of deterioration. It is dispiriting.
I am not sure of the salience of Mr. Obama's new-generational approach. Mrs. Clinton's generation, he suggests, is caught in the 1960s, fighting old battles, clinging to old divisions, frozen in time, and the way to get past it is to get past her. Maybe this will resonate.
Mr. Obama should go after them, not a generation but a type, the smug and entitled. No one really likes them. They showed it this week.
|
| 15th November 2007 08:59 AM |
|
|
| Blowey |
Book it. Hillary Clinton will be, god willing, the next president of the USA.
Book it!
Blowey Mihn!!!!! |
| 15th November 2007 09:06 AM |
|
|
| Shmoey |
quote:
Blowey wrote:
Blowey Mihn!!!!!
-------------------------> http://www.maxlugar.com/ |
| 15th November 2007 09:48 PM |
|
|
| tumbled |
I will happily vote for Hilary in the presidential election. She has white house experience, she is a hard worker, very intelligent, gives a damn about the downfall of the quality of life in this country and can speak in complete sentences. This country needs a smart person of whatever gender to straighten out the corruption and I think she has the will, the brains and the conscience to do do a good job. Tho I feel sorry for whomever has to straighten out the budget and the Iraq "war".
[Edited by tumbled] |
| 15th November 2007 10:01 PM |
|
|
| oldkr |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33YUALnF3JY
OLDKR |
| 15th November 2007 10:07 PM |
|
|
| robpop |
Hillary and Rudy are both terrible candidates. They are both getting the attention because of the money they have raised. Even more proof that a two party system sucks. |
| 16th November 2007 03:06 AM |
|
|
| Dan |
quote:
tumbled wrote:
I will happily vote for Hilary in the presidential election. She has white house experience, she is a hard worker, very intelligent, gives a damn about the downfall of the quality of life in this country and can speak in complete sentences. This country needs a smart person of whatever gender to straighten out the corruption and I think she has the will, the brains and the conscience to do do a good job. Tho I feel sorry for whomever has to straighten out the budget and the Iraq "war".
[Edited by tumbled]
You lost me at "straighten out corruption." |
| 16th November 2007 07:36 AM |
|
|
| corgi37 |
What stupid right wingers dont get is this
Its over. Goodbye. Pack it up. You got no one to offer and you destroyed you cuntry. Idiots. Only fools in recession is you. We all living high on the hog. Pay for Iraq. Tools.
Bet Cheney aint short for a quid.
Suckers! |
| 16th November 2007 07:47 AM |
|
|
| Blowey |
quote:
corgi37 wrote:
What stupid right wingers dont get is this
Its over. Goodbye. Pack it up. You got no one to offer and you destroyed you cuntry. Idiots. Only fools in recession is you. We all living high on the hog. Pay for Iraq. Tools.
Bet Cheney aint short for a quid.
Suckers!
Like I've been saying...CORGI IS KING!!!
Come to the Blowey! |
| 16th November 2007 10:12 AM |
|
|
| gimmekeef |
I dont care who wins..they'll suck like all the rest.But I do find it amusing that the "righties" are all focused against Hillary instead of rallying behind their own choices. |
| 16th November 2007 10:29 AM |
|
|
| Blowey |
quote:
gimmekeef wrote:
I dont care who wins..they'll suck like all the rest.But I do find it amusing that the "righties" are all focused against Hillary instead of rallying behind their own choices.
I've made a choice. A clear choice.
To have an OSCAR PARTY!!!!!!
YEAH!!!!.........................................
I'll bring the brie if you bring the wine coolers!!!
BLOWEY!!!! (H.R. Blowin'Stuff!) |
| 16th November 2007 10:37 AM |
|
|
| Shmoey |
quote:
Blowey wrote:
I've made a choice. A clear choice.
To have an OSCAR PARTY!!!!!!
YEAH!!!!.........................................
I'll bring the brie if you bring the wine coolers!!!
BLOWEY!!!! (H.R. Blowin'Stuff!)
will Keith be coming?
what about the bartenders from The Brazen Head??
tell me young Bloweykins, i got to knows!!
HeienekenLitecakes!!!!!!! |
| 16th November 2007 10:40 AM |
|
|
| Blowey |
quote:
Shmoey wrote:
will Keith be coming?
what about the bartenders from The Brazen Head??
tell me young Bloweykins, i got to knows!!
HeienekenLitecakes!!!!!!!
Amy Alcott
Herman Barron
Bruce Fleisher
Jonathan Kaye
Cristie Kerr
David Merkow
Rob Oppenheim
Corey Pavin
Morgan Pressel
'KINS!
|
| 16th November 2007 10:45 AM |
|
|
| gimmekeef |
With all due respect...wine coolers are for fags..... |
| 16th November 2007 11:21 AM |
|
|
| tumbled |
quote:
gimmekeef wrote:
With all due respect...wine coolers are for fags.....
yea and your point is? |
| 16th November 2007 11:24 AM |
|
|
| oldkr |
wine coolers are for fags, blowey for wine coolers -> bloey is a fag?
Schmoey? Blowey? Joey? Faggy?
OLDKR
[Edited by oldkr] |
| 16th November 2007 11:26 AM |
|
|
| Joey |
quote:
gimmekeef wrote:
With all due respect...wine coolers are for fags.....
|
| 16th November 2007 11:27 AM |
|
|
| Shmoey |
quote:
oldkr wrote:
wine coolers are for fags, blowey for wine coolers -> bloey is a fag?
Schmoey? Blowey? Joey? Faggy?
OLDKR
[Edited by oldkr]
|
| 16th November 2007 11:30 AM |
|
|
| Joey |
quote:
tumbled wrote:
your point is?
*** 2008 = 1964 ***
|
|
V
....
[cc:ss]
[Edited by Joey] |
| 16th November 2007 11:35 AM |
|
|
| oldkr |
quote:
Shmoey wrote:
Now we all know WHY his eyes are wide! its those damned wine coolers - he knows whats coming
OLDKR |
| 16th November 2007 11:46 AM |
|
|
| Barney Fife |
quote:
tumbled wrote:
I will happily vote for Hilary in the presidential election. She has white house experience, she is a hard worker, very intelligent, gives a damn about the downfall of the quality of life in this country and can speak in complete sentences. This country needs a smart person of whatever gender to straighten out the corruption and I think she has the will, the brains and the conscience to do do a good job. Tho I feel sorry for whomever has to straighten out the budget and the Iraq "war".
[Edited by tumbled]
If Hillary's so fucking smart, she should be able to "straighten out the budget and the Iraq 'war'," right?
|
| 16th November 2007 11:51 AM |
|
|
| mojoman |
quote:
gimmekeef wrote:
With all due respect...wine coolers are for fags.....
where bartles and james domestic partners? |
| 16th November 2007 11:51 AM |
|
|
| glencar |
quote:
tumbled wrote:
I will happily vote for Hilary in the presidential election. She has white house experience, she is a hard worker, very intelligent, gives a damn about the downfall of the quality of life in this country and can speak in complete sentences. This country needs a smart person of whatever gender to straighten out the corruption and I think she has the will, the brains and the conscience to do do a good job. Tho I feel sorry for whomever has to straighten out the budget and the Iraq "war".
[Edited by tumbled]
"White House experience"???? Throwing lamps doesn't qualify one for the position of CIC. She is a horrid pol & let's hope "the boys" pile it high on her. I'm tired of the Bushes AND the Clintons. This country deserves to be done with both those families. |
| 16th November 2007 11:56 AM |
|
|
| Blowey |
quote:
mojoman wrote:
where bartles and james domestic partners?
Ahhh the force is strong within you Mojo...
I can feel it!
I can FEEL IT!!!!
 |
| 16th November 2007 12:28 PM |
|
|
| Joey |
quote:
Blowey wrote:
Ahhh the force is strong within you Mojo...
I can feel it!
I can FEEL IT!!!!
 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
|
| 16th November 2007 12:34 PM |
|
|
| glencar |
Hilly is now trailing in Iowa!!! |
| 16th November 2007 12:36 PM |
|
|
| mojoman |
quote:
Blowey wrote:
Ahhh the force is strong within you Mojo...
I can feel it!
I can FEEL IT!!!!
For over a thousand generations, the Jedi knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the old Republic... before the dark times... before the empire |
| 16th November 2007 12:38 PM |
|
|
| monkey_man |
quote:
glencar wrote:
I'm tired of the Bushes AND the Clintons. This country deserves to be done with both those families.
A-Fucking-MEN |
| 16th November 2007 12:39 PM |
|
|
| glencar |
Yeah if she gets in it'll be 4/8 yrs of scandal all over again. I don't like Obama & certainly not Edwards. I keep hoping Biden'll break through but he's probably too old at this point. |
| 16th November 2007 12:46 PM |
|
|
| monkey_man |
Biden is too deep in the pockets of the credit card companies . . . I mean his constituents. His support for the new bankruptcy reform was shameful!
[Edited by monkey_man] |
