Book of Versus
[2008-04-19 09:37]
After the recent Democratic debate, held last Wednesday in Pennsylvania, Hillary Clinton responded to Barack Obama's comments about the debate by saying
"I know some of my opponent's supporters and my opponent are complaining about the hard questions... Well, having been in the White House for eight years and seeing what happens in terms of the pressures and the stresses on a president, that was nothing."
This statement illustrates what I dislike and fear about Hillary Clinton. Here, Hillary had a valid point that she could have made. But instead, with the use of one word, she changed that into an inaccurate, disrespectful personal attack, not just on Obama, but on everyone who disliked the debate. That word was hard.
She could have left the word "hard" out of her statement and gotten much of the same point across -- that her opponent is complaining, and that's what life in the White House is like. But, by including the word "hard" in there, she implies that Obama and his supporters are complaining because the questions are hard, which implies that Obama and his supporters are dumb (too dumb to handle hard questions).
The fact that Hillary could not make her point without turning it into a personal attack is what I dislike and fear about her. I dislike it because it's unnecessary, deceitful, and disrespectful. I fear it because, if Hillary does become president, then this is the behavior I expect she will have when dealing with Congress and in (shudder) foreign relations.
It seems to me that Hillary views people as either allies or adversaries, with nothing in between. It's the "you're either with me or against me" mentality. And, as she's demonstrated, adversaries are not worthy of respect, and are fair game for any and all tactics (and note how her statement mirrors the conservative response to the democratic debate). This, I think, is what people mean when they say she's polarizing.
As I've mentioned before, I believe that one's methods are as important, if not more so, than their results. Unfortunately, with this behavior, Hillary demonstrates that her methods are bad.
Hillary has also said recently, "I'm not as bad as you think." Yes, Hillary, you are that bad. You are because I base my judgment of you on your own actions. In fact, I fear that you are actually worse than I think.
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Speaking of terrifying, a longnose lancetfish recently washed ashore in the state of Washington. That's one creepy looking fish -- I love it!
Just as creepy, I recently ran across the website for Blackwell Synergy. Aside from the name, which conjures visions of a powerful organization conducting covert operations to control the world (like the Umbrella Corporation), their website is also rather imposing with its red-warning-label theme. Since I routinely block cookies, the only page I can view is the one telling me that I haven't been assimilated. Cue dastardly music.