Don't Be Sorry...

October 12, 2008

RE: Sorry, Dad, I'm Voting for Obama, by Christopher Buckley

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2008-10-10/the-conservative-case-for-obama

THE BLAZING TRUTH RESPONDS:

My dear Mr. Buckley, I would hope that you as a learned man would accept a criticism from someone who has already been where you wish to go.

Election day is 3-1/2 weeks away, and your article calls to mind 1992, the year a challenger named Bill Clinton went up against George H. W. Bush and won. Like today's Republicans, Bush had lost his way. Never a social conservative, Bush broke his iron-clad no-new-taxes pledge and voters remembered it. The ever-so-short Bush recession was played up by Clinton as "the worst economy in 50 years," and there was a giant savings and loan debacle.

No longer would the public believe a tax pledge from Bush, and in the end this was the principal undoing of Bush in favor of the younger, hipper Bill Clinton.

The Clintons promised an ethical Administration; they delivered a nightmare. They promised a fix for Social Security; they didn't even offer one. They promised school reform and delivered nothing. It took so long to connect Osama bin Laden to the 1993 WTC bombing, Clinton refused to accept bin Laden as a prisoner because he didn't have a legal reason to hold bin Laden.

Selecting Mr. Clinton gave ground when ground should have been taken. Ronald Reagan won the Cold War because he wouldn't back down. Clinton lost round one of the War on Terror to Osama bin Laden because Clinton refused to fight. Reagan fostered democracy in Nicaragua; Clinton sent troops to a Muslim v. Christian conflict in Bosnia and backed the Muslims. Reagan reduced marginal federal income tax rates from 70 percent to 28 percent. Eight years of Clinton increased the marginal rate to 39.6 percent, flooded our Southwest with illegal aliens and increased our prison population by one million persons.

Eight years of Clinton cost us the current Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac crisis and the current North Korean standoff. Eight years of Clinton cost us a rededicated Saddam Hussein, the head of Osama bin Laden, and 9/11. Eight years of Clinton cost us a trillion dollars in new taxes. Eight years of Clinton cost us an Emmy for Al Gore and made him a superstar tree-hugger worth 100 million dollars.

The Clinton years were a cipher and a retreat when an advance was sorely needed. As our military was taken apart to produce the savings promised by "reinventing government," Jamie Gorelick produced a "wall" that kept the CIA and FBI from sharing terrorist intelligence, and sensitive nuclear, satellite, and missile technology went to the Chinese.

Somewhere in the eight years, Hillary Clinton became enough of a New Yorker to represent them all in the United States Senate. The Supreme Court tipped left with Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Stephen Breyer. Marc Rich, Pincus Green, and many others received late-night absolutions while Clinton received late-night donations. Clinton actually met with Yasser Arafat.

Somewhere along the way, every school child learned that oral sex is not sex, lying under oath is OK sometimes, and a subpoena isn't worth squat if you can ignore it for two years and find the documents later in a box in your closet.

Mr. Clinton himself, sans Presidency, has developed assets of more than 100 million dollars and retains potentially many years to spread his infections to the public, and by infections I refer mostly to his political views.

My greatest foible as a voter, Mr. Buckley, was to cast a vote for William Jefferson (nee Blythe) Clinton under the guise of disciplinary action against Mr. Bush Senior. If I could recall that ballot, like a defective Pinto, and in so doing magically undo the damage done by Mr. Clinton's two dismal terms, I would gladly surrender my (meager) worldly possessions. But I cannot, and when you assign Mr. Obama to lead the nation and the world, you cannot undo the damage that shall be done.

One, or two terms of Mr. Obama will warp this country and the world; I doubt that any of us will recognize the country in 2017.

The Supreme Court will be forever altered? Or John Paul Stephens will still serve at 96, Ms. Ginsberg at 83, both Antonin Scalia and Anthony Kennedy at 80, and two more justices into their late 70s -- statistically not one chance in two hundred. These are lifetime appointments.

The new President does not face an ongoing Independent Counsel, which was the only check of the Clinton appetites for money, power, and libido; appetites which were strong enough to require the public destruction of Kenneth Starr.

Mr. Obama's slim resume, dirty hands, and support for radical enemies in both church and state, foreign and domestic, should have shocked you away from him and I cannot grasp why this has not happened.

I can tell you that I appraised Mr. Clinton very badly. I thought that he, having already experienced the negative effects of a sex scandal and having learned from it, could not possibly risk the damage of a relapse, but I was wrong. I thought that he was much too smart to be duped by treaties without teeth and trust without verification, but I was wrong. I thought that he was a "new" Democrat who would work in bipartisan fashion, but I was wrong. I thought he cared about values or people, but I was wrong. The most remarkable abilities of Mr. Clinton were to say and do as he damned well pleased and get away with it; to assess the winning side and take it; to shift blame; and to destroy opponents by any means.

In a contest between Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama, it is patently obvious who holds the stronger resume, who holds the values similar to yours and mine, whose friends are fiends, who will abuse appointments and pardons, who is extreme left and who is center-right, and this will not change.

Using the ballot box to discipline Mr. Bush who is not running is insane, and using it to castigate Mr. McCain for a few campaign mistakes is an empty gesture.

Mr. Buckley, I challenge you; do not do this thing, do not support this most liberal of liberals, and you shall not be sorry, neither to your Mum and Pup nor to your own mirrored face.