Sen. Clinton: God got me through marital strife
In a rare public discussion of her husband’s infidelity, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday that she probably could not have gotten through her marital troubles without relying on her faith in God.
Clinton stood by her actions in the aftermath of former President Clinton’s admission that he had an affair, including presumably her decision to stay in the marriage.
Call me cynical (ed. You’re cynical!) but I wonder how many focus groups this particular admission satisfied.
1) Putting the “hubby adrift” question to rest (since threatening was getting them nowhere).
2) Showing humanity and evoking sympathy. Couldn’t hurt.
3) Earning some credibility for stolid stick-to-it-iveness. “Stand by your man,” and so on.
4) Positioning more centrally to the left center – once you get past the primaries, you’ve still got to siphon off some of those godbothering southerners. Because once again, I suspect it’s going to be a nomination based not around who has the best ideas, or even who has the best machine, but who is perceived as being electable.
5) The emerging need to differentiate.
I wonder if she choked as she said it? She doesn’t strike me as the type to be happy that she has to say that she “needs” anyone, God or hubby or, ya know, PEOPLE. Pure stage effect.
Humbug.
P-3: everything about her is “pure stage effect”. She’s extremely adept at changing her stories just enough to keep people guessing, yet like at train wreck, you can’t look away. What IS it about this woman that seems so fascinating?
“What IS it about this woman that seems so nauseating?”
Fixed it for you…
Shame on you cynics for doubting the veracity of a Democrat seeking office. I’m sure that Ba’al, held her hand the whole way. In fact, I’m reliably informed that he’s on staff.
Good one, Tim.
I give all sorts of people with whom I disagree the benefit of the doubt when it comes to religion. But this is just too much. I don’t believe it for a minute.
FbL, she’s going to have that problem for the rest of her life. No one’s going to believe what she says without checking her motives first for what she might be gaining vs. keeping mouth shut.
Hillary reminds me of those WCTU Illinois Methodists. Wait, she *is* an Illinois Methodist! (“Do-gooder”, she said herself!)
Like the guy in the movie, I hate Illinois Nazis as much as the next fellow, and I don’t see much difference here.
And, I write as someone who is still officially a Methodist. (*Southern* Methodist, thankyouverymuch)
One of my favorite books is “Jubilation Gap” by Dan Parkinson. He calls the WCTU the We See to You-ers. I always liked that. I believe it means “do as we say because we say so,” since they know so much more than we do, right?
Love it, Ens Tim! I don’t find her one smidge fascinating. In fact, when she happens to hit my TV screen, I usually hurt myself trying to get to the remote as fast as I holler “Shut UP!”. It has ruined my faith in human intelligence that so many people profess to support her.
This seems like a good place to paraphrase Winnie.
She has none of the vices I admire, and all of the virtues I abhor.
She has virtues?
Yeah, catty. But I’m serious. I consider her nothing more than a total fraud. Seriously. She’s one of the few people in public life about whom I think that.
Cap’n, et al,
Imaging that woman professing any kind of faith is something other than herself is the same as imagining Teddy ‘The Fish’ Kennedy staying off booze or Patrick ‘Leaky’ Leahy abstaining from passing confidential information to the Media.
Remember, this is the same woman who permitted condoms to be used as White House Christmas tree decorations. This is the same woman who spent her formative years as a disciple of a prominent Socialist/Communist professor. This is the same woman who confessed she had no idea how the Rose Law firm billing records appeared (must have been fairies).
Her political partner (I refuse to use the term ‘husband’) could lie with a straight face. She, on the other hand, dares you to say she’s lying and then put you in the brig when you prove she did.
Lord help this country if she suceeds in her quest.
Oh, if anyone doesn’t get the impression I’m anti-Hillary I’m not trying hard enough!
OK, so fascinating was the wrong choice of words. Thank you Ens Tim for the appropriate correction.
She’s a very polarizing figure – even those of us who can’t stand her – can’t stop talking about how much we can’t stand her.
So I repeat – why is that?
Ah, FbL, she just brings our strong emotions in everyone — mostly those agin’ her. Just wait, those that are “for” her will eventually be agin’ her and will join the snarkin’ and snipin’. She won’t stand a chance if she loses them that are “for” her now.
And she will. She take them for granted and abuse them and they’ll drop her like a hot potato. Then she whine and wonder what happened. And don’t you know, it won’t be her fault. It’ll be because all those that left her were too stupid to see how smart she is.
Gah — I need a bath and mouthwash.
Don’t feel bad Kris, he’s freshly educated, and hasn’t forgotten anything yet.
Shipmates,
Well, the aristocracy always seems to accept the fact that the “lesser people” will just HAVE to believe whatever they deign to say.
After all, the “lesser people” wouldn’t be anything without the benign forbearance of their betters. Noblesse Oblige and all that….
Must be nice living at Tara, up in the big house…
Respects,
I’ll never forget one of David Letterman’s Top Ten lists during the Clinton Years. He read off the “Top Ten Things We’ve Learned From the Clinton Administration”.
#1:
It takes two people to sustain a cold, loveless marriage of political convenience.
As far as their marital woes due to his Page bj’s from under the desk of the Oval Office while she slept upstairs..it is likely she invoked God to help her:
“Goddamit it Bill you’re a F%^&ing GD A^&Hole, I say Goddamit, Goddammit, Goddamit!”
B2
I too find her utterly dislikable, but I also feel some pity for her. Under all the layers of calculation, she’s still a woman married to a faithless husband. That has to hurt her – it would kill me.
Kristen – you are right, it had to hurt – back then. She made the decision to stay with the faithless husband. For that I have no sympathy or pity. She made her choice and she has to live with it. Interesting that as with most everything else, she’s found a way to make that choice a political football for herself. Turned to God for help – my a$$.
P3 – got any mouthwash for me?!
Hmm, Proverbs 20:11 comes to mind…
11 Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right.(KJV)
- SJS
I still think she’s the Antichrist.
You would
And if the truly god-fearing elements of this society were less dismissive of other perfectly valid points of view, every candidate would not feel the need to blatantly lie through their teeth and express the usual god-is-great bs. (Like slick willie carrying a bible to church in a completely absurd but repeated weekly political manuever.) The electorate might have a tad more truth in campaigning. Not a lot, as conformity is so highly prized by congress-critters and other political animals who understandably drool when pondering the great flock of believing sheep, but just a little more straight-forwardness. Not that an atheist sees a great deal of difference between a liberal who truly believes in god, virginity until marraige and the seasonal predictive infallibility of the ground hog versus a liberal who only pretends to believe in the tooth fairy. The difference between a deluded manipulative appeaser and a cynical manipulative appeaser being effectively very slight. Though a cynical manipulative appeaser might have a leg up on understanding the true mechanisms of democratic rule.