Sooner Be Blue

Mostly politics, a few current events, a squirt of seltzer down yer pants .. a little blog for my rambles and rants.

2008/11/15

Secretary of State Clinton?

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@ 07:14 AM (16 months, 11 days ago)

The word is floating around that President-elect Obama has offered the job of Secretary of State to Hillary Clinton. Well, when Hillary's Secret Service motorcade goes sailing through the streets of Chicago it's sort of hard to keep the word quiet.
 
Which makes me think the story is true. I just can't believe that Obama would invite Hillary to Chicago for a meeting -- that is sure to be public -- unless he was serious about the offer.
 
It's also hard for me to believe that Hillary would go to Chicago to have such a discussion unless she were seriously interested.
 
That's not to say that she's made her mind up...just that it must intrigue her.
 
It would be a hard choice for her -- whether to stay in the Senate to possibly help pass a good health care plan, a long time dream of hers...or whether to, in a sense, mold the world.
 
The Senate thing is a little iffy. She's not a senior Senator. She doesn't run a committee. She's not part of the leadership...a leadership that can sometimes take years. To have a chance to be Secretary of State and go change the world...now that's pretty exciting.
 
She has proven to be a team player...there shouldn't be any doubt that as Secretary of State she would advance Barack Obama's policies around the world, not her own.
 
I think she'd make a great Secretary of State. With the economy still tanking, Obama will be preoccupied next year with domestic affairs. He needs somebody who could hit the ground running as Secretary of State...who knows all the players around the world, players who are familiar with her. She could concentrate on rebuilding our image abroad...she and Bill are beloved around the world.
 
Yes, we would get two for the price of one. But surely Bill will return to being engaged in international affairs through his Clinton Global Initiative...fighting AIDS and helping tsunami victims, etc.
 
You really have to hand it to that Barack Obama. It is a strength of his that he wants to go for the best...that he's not worried about former rivals, or who is associated with prior administrations. He wants the best.
 
Obama is a student of history, and it's been widely reported that he studies Doris Kearns Goodwin's book, "Team of Rivals." A book about the political genius of Abraham Lincoln and how he selected his Presidential Cabinet...how he asked heavyweights, who were much more prominent than he was at the time, to come join his Cabinet. As it turned out, his secretary of State, who was a rival, became his closest ally.
 
People are saying that Obama, like Lincoln, is "keeping his friends close and his enemies closer." But you could also say that with Hillary as part of his Cabinet, he is establishing the Democratic Party as Barack Obama's party...eliminating any claim the Clintons may have to a "Clinton wing of the Democratic Party."
 
One smart cookie, that Barack Obama.
 

2008/4/4

Randi in trouble for calling Hill a Ho

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@ 10:21 AM (23 months, 26 days ago)

Air America suspended Randi Rhodes for using nasty language NOT on the air, not on her show, but in a comedy performance at a private event weeks ago.
 
"NEW YORK, April 3 (UPI) -- Air America has suspended radio talk show host Randi Rhodes for making "abusive" remarks about Hillary Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro, the U.S. network said.

Rhodes -- speaking at a recent sold-out appearance on behalf of the liberal talk radio network and Clear Channel station KKGN-San Francisco -- referred to each of the women as a "f---ing whore," radioandrecords.com reported Thursday.[..]"
 
http://tinyurl.com/44rchx
 
She didn't mean it in the actual streetwalking, Spitzer-type whore. She meant it in the politician getting-in-bed-with-whoever-gives-them-money whore. Whore--as in prostituting political favors.
 
She calls male politicians whores on air -- meaning she thinks they were bought and paid for -- and were it not for the FCC, she'd probably have used the f-word too.
 
I tell ya, wouldn't it be a freakin' outrage if a conservative talk show host talked like that? <snort>
 
I agree that she stepped over the line...I don't abide abrasive sexist comments anymore than I do abrasive racist comments. Randi does not serve her Democratic party well by calling fellow Democrats four letter words.
 
I did get a kick out of her saying Geraldine Ferraro was "David Duke in drag" though. Ferraro had said Obama is where he is because he is black.
 
I'm glad Randi didn't hear me say that Obama wouldn't be where he is if he were a black woman.
 
Randi rants on her radio show that Hillary whores her vote to those who contribute a lot of money to her campaign. Like voting against a ban on clusterbombs because campaign contributors are Defense contractor lobbyists.
 
Randi was upset that Hillary recently sat down with Richard Mellon Scaife--the founding father of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy that ravaged Hill and Bill unmercifully in the 90's--to trash Obama. That's kinda whorish.
 
Randi wonders about a possible conflict of interest Hillary might have with the $10 million the Saudi royal family contributed to Bill's presidential library...does Hill have any kind of access to that money?
 
I don't listen to Randi regularly, but a while back I do remember her saying that she'd remain netural about the Democratic nomination, that she liked both Clinton and Obama. Well, apparently Hillary's tactics have pissed Randi off....
 
Anyway, here's the offending routine...I'm not saying it's very good, but it's obviously in a comedy genre that is quite common...especially in nightclubs. F-bombs all over the place.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfdhWi5MILo
 
Gee, she's been bashing the Right like this all along, and no reaction from management...
 
Randi says that Air America is in breach of her contract. Maybe there's specific language in her contract protecting her freedom of speech when she is not on the air. Since the San Francisco appearance was not broadcast and was apparently financed by the local affiliate and/or paid audience admissions....well, we'll just have to wait and see.
 

2008/1/9

One word for you, baby--WOMEN. Iron THAT!

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@ 06:56 AM (26 months, 22 days ago)

They said it couldn't be done....Obama's momentum was just too strong. He was the second coming. He was "the one." Obama believed it too, looking a little smug at times...never mind that less than 1 percent of the US population had voted. The people of New Hampshire had other ideas.
 
Hillary Clinton did what the pollsters, the pundits, her own staff, probably Bill Clinton, not to mention everyone else, didn't believe would happen. She somehow turned a much written about and fawned over double digit Obamarama into a victory for herself that left all the TV pundits sucking their own breath back into their pie holes.
 
They said she was through ...but it looks like she hasn't even begun to fight. It was shrewd that she was alone up there giving her victory speech...no Madeline Albright, no Bill Clinton, no remnants from her husband's presidency. Smart move Hillary, it should be only about you. I hope you've learned this much.
 
Hillary Clinton rose above the fray...despite their sexist, vicious, biased, good old boy bullcrap day after day, night after night, week after week for what seems like an eternity.
 
Last night, Hillary Clinton led Barack Obama, John Edwards and Bill Richardson all night long. The numbers never switched. She never gave up the lead.
 
Even with neo-con Fox News trying to make judgments before the polls closed, maybe subtly trying to stampede the herd in another direction. Their Major Garrett actually made reference to 'Hillary's emotional outburst'...yes, he used the word 'outburst'...now, we all have seen that teary moment and it certainly wasn't an outburst.
 
I was one who didn't think Hillary Clinton would win New Hampshire. I didn't like it the night before when her husband gave a hoarse speech bashing Obama, calling him "a kid" and saying he had been untruthful about his stance on Iraq. I thought it gave her even more negatives. The speeches should be about what Hillary stands for, not slanging matches. But then...she won didn't she? So maybe I shouldn't question the Master Politician.
 
This all puts me in a quandary because I'm still hoping that John Edwards gets a toehold somewhere. I really do think he's the most 'electable.' But the feminist in me celebrates the progress Hillary has made. And if things keep going her way and she gets the nomination...well, even though I think she's too Republican Lite, I might be working to get her elected.
 
She's waaaay better than any of those guys in the Republican Clown Car. Except maybe John McCain....another come-back kid. But he's too old and war-hawkish and not pro-choice.
 
And there *was* something so real, so human, about her little emotional moment....which showed a side of her, her love of country, that we hadn't seen before.
 
It IS tougher for a woman. Like Ginger Rogers said about dancing with Fred Astaire--"I have to do everything he does, except I do it backwards and in high heels."