THE MEANING OF THE WORD 'IS'

At one time I had a picture of Bill Clinton in my home office. I took it down after he lied to the American people about Monica. I didn’t think what Clinton and that bimbo did was any business of the public, but I didn’t like the way he tried to evade by twisting words. That’s when I realized why some people called him “Slick Willy,” and I took down the picture. If I still had the picture on my wall, I would have to tear it down and stamp on it now.

In South Carolina Clinton compared Obama’s primary victory to Jesse Jackson’s. This comparison attempted to diminish the senator’s achievement by evoking a black man who was not popular among whites. Although this was not as overtly racist as Geraldine Ferrara’s comment a month later that Obama would not have the lead in primary votes if he were not an African-American, Clinton’s statement was nevertheless racist. Without saying so, the former president was trying to put in the minds of white voters that here is another man like Jesse Jackson, a man who will blame whites for everything.

On Friday Mr. Clinton said “it would be a great thing if we had an election year where you had two people who loved this country and were devoted to the interest of this country.” Merrill McPeak, a retired Air Force general and co-chair of Obama’s campaign, countered Bill Clinton’s statement by calling Barack Obama, John McCain, and Hillary Clinton as “great patriots who love this country and are devoted to it.”

Unfortunately the general then went on to compare Bill Clinton to Senator Joseph McCarthy, who back in the 1950s “was accusing Americans of being traitors.” A spokesman for Hillary Clinton said that the general’s comments were a “deliberately pathetic misreading of what the president said.”

That is true. Bill Clinton never suggested that Barack Obama was a traitor, but his remarks did suggest that the Illinois senator was not really patriotic, and Clinton’s evasions can’t get around that. There is no way to look at Clinton’s statement and see it as other than a careful parsing of words to question Obama’s patriotism: “It would be great if we had an election year, etc.” The way the statement stands suggests that we might not have two patriotic candidates. Clinton can say he never questioned Obama’s love of country, but the question is there nevertheless. It’s a really sleazy way of doing things.

I no longer have a picture of Bill Clinton, but I am going to the Internet and print one out so I can throw it on the floor and stomp on it.