I know it’s time for unity, but I have to get this off my chest. I loved Bill Clinton. I loved that he was very smart, articulate, funny, and really appealed to the average voter, in spite of being very smart, articulate, and funny (New England elitist that I am). I loved the way his campaign fought back fast & hard when things got rough. I loved that he seemed to have a team of advisors & friends who got together just for the intellectual fun of it, like the New Years "Renaissance Weekends" they had – and maybe still do have. I loved that he turned Reagan’s deficit into a huge surplus. I loved a lot of things about him.
So I was really disgusted when the whole Monica thing happened. It was a terrible kick in the face – first, that situational ethics had been so grossly violated. Teachers should not mess with students. People in power should not mess with their underlings. The President of the United States should not drag the whole country into the mire. At the time I felt that whatever way his family dealt with it should be private – nobody’s business but theirs – but that exposing the nation to that mess was terrible, unforgivable.
Because worst of all, Bill Clinton took the 2000 election from us. Remember "Bill and Al’s Excellent Adventure" in 1992? What should have been a smooth transition into eight years of the Gore Presidency ended up with – I don’t need to tell you what. Bill Clinton’s disastrous behavior is at the core of what killed the 2000 election for the Democrats. And I can’t forgive him for that.
I know there are plenty of Republicans and Independents who hate the Clintons & would never vote for Hillary, but who oppose Bush and plan to vote for Obama. But I don’t think Hillary Clinton realizes how many life-long Democrats, former supporters of Bill Clinton, people like me, have a deep-seated aversion to putting the Clintons back in the White House. It’s the image of Hillary in the Oval Office, and Bill roaming the halls with not enough to do.
Obviously Hillary Clinton has a lot of support. I don’t understand it – but that doesn’t matter. But her supporters should understand that for many of us, it’s not just about her vote on Iraq – it’s the fact that, were it not for Bill Clinton, we wouldn’t be in Iraq, we wouldn’t have had the past eight years of Bush/Cheney criminals in Washington, we wouldn’t be torturing people, we wouldn't have such a conservative Supreme Court, we wouldn’t have lost international regard – the list goes on and on. So no, I don’t want her in the White House, and I don’t want her as V.P., and that’s why.