Miscellaneous

Bill Clinton: You're Breaking My Heart, Man

I've mentioned it before, but it bears repeating: I grew up on Bill Clinton. He was my governor and then my president for 20 of the first 26 years of my life. In an era when idols have all but died, he was nevertheless mine. I worked his first presidential campaign when I was only 17, and again four years later, when I could actually cast a vote. I had a fucking life-size cardboard stand-up of the man in my college dorm, which scared the bejesus out of me every morning when I woke up thinking there was a stranger with a saxophone standing over me.

In short: The man meant a great deal to me. Sad as it may seem to some of you, he was a huge influence in my life, and the fact that a small-town kid from a single parent home could come out of backwoods Arkansas and be the President of the United States was a huge inspiration for me; in a lot of ways, Bill Clinton was the reason I wound up in law school in the first place.

And despite the man's many faults, his personal setbacks, and his political blunders, I've nevertheless maintained a huge affection for him. But for the first time, really, he's starting to lose a lot of luster for me. It's heartbreaking, in a way, to see how he's orchestrating his wife's campaign. He's not only damaging his wife's campaign, he's hurting his own image. Maybe irrevocably. And a statement he made earlier this week has put it over the top:

"I think there is a big reason there's an age difference in a lot of these polls," he said. "Because once you've reached a certain age, you won't sit there and listen to somebody tell you there's really no difference between what happened in the Bush years and the Clinton years; that there's not much difference in how small-town Pennsylvania fared when I was president, and in this decade."

Essentially, what Bill is saying here is that young people are supporting Barack Obama because they're not smart enough to know better. And in saying so, he's completely alienating the younger demographic. And the irony here is that Obama has done more than anyone since Bill Clinton to galvanize the American youth. College students are people in their 20s, for the first time in decades, really, feel honestly excited about a presidential candidate, and what does Bill do? He discredits them. The very same demographic that put him over the top in 1992 is now too dumb to know any better.

Well, you know what, Bill? Fuck you. Kids are excited about politics again, and how dare you try to take that away from them. Don't be that guy, Bill. Don't be the crusty old fogey who tells kids to get off his political lawn. Instead of discrediting younger votes, try to embrace them like you did in 1992 and 1996.

And stop being a douchebag.

Full post as published by Quiz Law on April 17, 2008 (boomark / email).