"Bill Clinton: President of the World? Hardly"

I am a great believer in authenticity. Being real is very important to me, both personally and in my associations with others. I find being less than forthright cause for caution, and I have been right most of the time. Contemporary Americans, in particular, have mastered the art of socially acceptable bullshit. Everyone knows the game is being played, but no one really gives a damn. It is all part of being “in” these days.

Since corporations bought up all of the major news outlets in the country, journalists in their service have morphed from rugged, independent seekers of the truth to major and minor celebrities in the social swirl of high society and politics. They create and maintain a persona the masks any clear understanding of the real person behind the façade. Affectation has supplanted articulation. No one does affectation quite as well as George Will, Peggy Noonan and Kelly O’Donnell. The syrup almost drips from the ends of their tongues as they treat us to the sheer ecstasy of their prognostications. What would we do without them?

Basic human honesty used to be the standard by which we were judged in the course of our personal and professional conduct. But, hey, that has all become rather passé wouldn’t you say? It just doesn’t play as well as the persona we want to reflect to the world. Media journalists are now “stars” which we dutifully devour. Personalities and images are created and changed on a whim. What is “in” today is “out” tomorrow.

Major excursions into the world of fame and fortune usually require more skilled methods. Hence, the “sanitization” of one’s past in order to transform them into a paragon of virtue for today’s consumption. I don’t think anyone has managed to pull this off quite as well as Chris Matthews on MSNBC and Bill Clinton, recently of the Presidency. Both are very good at it and, coincidentally, have been quite successful at making the transition to an image much more akin to that of real celebrity and change agent.

Chris Matthews managed to do an evisceration of Phil Donohue who, at the time, was the top-rated talk show host on cable television. Chris wanted his job and set himself to the task of making it happen. In a mere twinkling of brutal personal and professional ambition, Phil was history and Chris was the rising star of cable television news. If you watch him closely, he just can’t quite resist the temptation to flaunt his newly acquired status of “star.” He is rude to his guests and interrupts them at will. He is opinionated and dogmatic. In the latest promo for his show, he is shown being primped by underlings as he prepares to face yet another news spectacular for the viewing enjoyment of his many followers. He recently let it be known, on air, that he lived in Chevy Chase, Maryland. How is that for a cardinal dose of humility? “Look at me, I made it!” ‘I am a star!” That is about as megalomaniacal as one can get. Take heart, Phil. You still get the award for being a real professional and a gentlemen, and that no one can take from you.

Recently, and not surprising, Chris Matthews featured an hour-long special on MSNBC titled, “Bill Clinton: President of the World.” It had to be one of the pre-eminent cleansings of a tarnished image as one can get, and skillfully done by one who shares a common past in that regard. For people at my stage of life, Bill Clinton is recent history. He is what he is and no amount of time and effort can erase that. His time in the White House had to be one of the most sordid and base presidencies of my lifetime. He carried out his sexual escapades with little or no shame. He lied under oath about those exploits and embarrassed his family in the process. Was he contrite? He tried to make it look as if he was, but I don’t buy into that. Once the dust began to settle, he announced to the world that he was going to seek counseling from members of the religious community in order to overcome the temptations of the flesh. So long as that ploy seemed to play reasonably well he remained true to the pursuit. When the lights began to fade on that one, he shifted his sights to other more pressing and rewarding matters.

Bill Clinton left one of the largest financial surpluses and created more jobs during his last term than any President in recent history. For that, alone, he still receives praise and adoration for being such a wonder-boy in the Oval Office. However, scant attention is paid to his even more glaring accomplishment on his way out the door of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. He colluded with Phil Gramm, (Republican and Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs), Robert Rubin (Secretary of the Treasury), Larry Summers, Alan Greenspan and a whole host of other major and minor rogue participants in the total deregulation of the financial industries. This succeeded in making them all darlings to the biggest vultures on Wall Street, all of which laid the foundation for the collapse of our entire economy at the end of George W. Bush’s last term in office. You have to go some to top that, but to hold Bill Clinton to account for that one is just too gauche. So, instead, the spin-doctors set themselves to the task of polishing his image so the populace-at-large would soon forget what a reprobate he really is. It worked. How come we never hear about this?

Since leaving office, Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, whose disdain for each other was palpable at the beginning of Clinton’s first term, have now become bosom buddies.
They now head up a foundation for doing all kinds of good deeds around the world, in between excursions to some of the finest golf courses in the world. Then there is that murky venture of Bill’s into Haitian politics that resulted in the exile of Bertrand Aristide to South Africa. Big business interests in the U.S. are reputed to have been most unhappy about the prospect of Aristide raising the minimum wage from 25 cents per hour to 61 cents per hour. But, Billy Boy came to the rescue, snatched success from the jaws of defeat, thus saving the Haitians from anything remotely associated with a higher standard of living. How come we never hear about this?

Conspiracy theories have always bothered me, but I cannot help but wonder how the closeness came about between Bill and Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. For me, it seems like a stretch for it to be taken as coincidental. What follows is only conjecture but it seems logical to me.

I don’t believe it was happenstance that Bill Clinton set a banquet table with the largest budget surplus in history just for the sake of enhancing his presidential reputation. Rather, I believe it was the prelude to what was to follow.

I would not be the least bit surprised to hear that Bill Clinton profited handsomely from his deregulation of the financial industries and gutting the Glass-Steagall Act. If truth be known, his personal wealth was probably enhanced immeasurably from his participation in that wholesale plundering of our national treasury. You just don’t do what he did with some form of recompense. Interestingly, Chelsea is now a hedge fund manager on Wall Street. That position just happens to be one of the highest paid positions in our economy. It has been recently reported that what “hedge fund gamblers,“ earn in one hour is 47 times as much as a middle-class household makes in over 47 years! (Les Leopold, AlterNet 4-11-2011). Now, I don’t know how much the prodigy of Bill and Hillary is making but, given the proclivity of that illustrious family, I rather suspect she is far from even being close to the bottom rung on that particular chart of comparisons.

Now, permit me to digress to the issue of Barack Obama. I don’t believe he just happened to appear on the national scene by some twist of fate. Rather, I suspect his introduction to the American people at the 2004 national convention of the Democratic Party was a trial balloon sent aloft by the wealthy and influential of this country. He was put on the program to see how well he would represent them later on the career path they had already laid out for him. Following his barnburner of oratorical talents on that occasion, his mentors must have been ecstatic beyond their wildest dreams. He could have left no doubt in their minds that he was the boy who would serve them well in the years to come, all at the expense of the common people of this country. Bill provided the feast and Barack led the rapacious appetites of the greedy to the table that had been set for them.

Doesn’t it seem a bit incredulous not to question the stampede of talent from the former Clinton Administration into key positions within the Obama Administration; with replacements by Clinton protégés waiting in the wings should an incumbent decide to leave? If you notice, they always occupy key positions having a strong relationship to Wall Street and related financial interests. You might, also, take note of the number of campaign promises that have been summarily ignored by Mr. Obama. Then, of course, there are his many other talents, not the least of which is the ability to talk out of both sides of this mouth, and the ability to strike deals behind closed doors with those who should properly be perceived as adversaries of his particular political persuasion? He is a marvelous surrogate to those in positions of real power.

That Barack Obama actually won the nomination for President at the 2008 Democratic National Convention still remains a mystery to me. Was he the chosen one should Hillary lose in the primaries, and was he to be the back up if Hillary won? That will forever remain an unanswered question in my mind. I just find it difficult to believe it was a string of random events.

Kudos to the image makers and the mainstream news media for their attempts at sanitizing them and to make them the darlings of the media they want us to see and believe.

Bill Clinton: President of the World? Hardly. Barack Obama: a “real” Democrat in residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? I don’t think so.


Cowboy Bob
April 18, 2011