Thursday, April 14, 2016

When Hillary Met Bernie (in Brooklyn)




Brooklyn may not be like the rest of America, but watching the debate tonight Mad Dog had a strong premonition of things to come: Mad Dog's fearless forecast is that Bernie Sanders will be and should be the Democratic nominee and he will be elected President and he will become the Democrats' Ronald Reagan, garnering support from "Bernie Republicans" just as Reagan got "Reagan Democrats."

Listening to Bernie respond to the question about whether he owed an apology to the parents of Sandy Hook for his opposition to laws that would hold gun sellers and gun manufacturers liable for the use of guns in killings, he said, no, he owed no apology.  If a gun shop owner sells a gun to a crazy person, having got all the clearances and followed the law, he should not be responsible for seeing what nobody could predict, the buyer was a lunatic.  Simple, direct and fundamentally correct.

When Sanders is asked about his statement that the Israeli response to rocket attacks from Gaza was disproportionate, does he not think that Israel has the right to defend itself, he says, of course Israel has that right, but that is not the question. The question is when Israel launches an attack which causes 10,000 casualties and 1,500 deaths among Palestinians in the Gaza strip, that is disproportionate. And if we really want to be a friend to Israel, sometimes we have to tell them what they don't want to hear, namely that Palestinians are suffering too. You got to love Bernie.  You have the feeling he is capable of saying more than the proper thing.
When Bernie speaks, and says something which will be received poorly in some quarters he is unapologetic: He is saying. I believe we cannot be afraid to criticize Israel. If that offends you, tough, that's the truth. And you have to respect that candor.

Hillary sounds with each answer as if she is trying to find the one sentence which contains the applause line, the one safe thing to say. She uses lawyers' words, "revisit"  and "take into account."  She sounds as if she is trying to speak in a way which nobody can find fault with. That's not the role of a leader. Offend some, but let everyone know where you stand and what you think right is.


And, after all this time, she has not come up with an answer to those $250,000 Goldman Sacks speeches and she still refuses to release the transcripts "until everyone else does." And Bernie has the perfect response: "I'll release every transcript of every speech I made on Wall Street behind closed doors--because there are none."

Hillary stands there, mouth open, with nothing to say, other than she does not like the insinuation, which Wolf Blitzer spells out in the question, "That you are in the pocket of Wall Street." She insists nobody can show that all the money meant to buy her vote ever actually succeeded in buying her vote. Oh, they can give me the money, but they can't count on me voting their way. But that's not the point. The point is, you have participated in this way of doing politics: You took the money. 

And now you expect us to believe they were paying you to spend the night with them, but you never actually went to bed with them. You did business from the brothel, but you never actually prostituted yourself.



Oh, poor Hillary. She has done everything right, her whole life. She has learned the rules, played the game by the rules, passed every course with flying colors and now she expects to be handed the prize.  

This, the ninth debate revealed all her weaknesses and vulnerabilities and very little of her strengths.  After 90 minutes, with the debate still raging on, I had to turn it off. I like Hillary enough, I just could not watch it any more.


2 comments:

  1. Mad Dog,
    I'm not so certain I agree with your take on the debate-I do agree Bernie's candor is a beauty to behold, and he prevailed in the segment of the debate on Israel. But on guns I think Hillary nailed him when she stated he opposed the gun lobby in his first election and lost, but in subsequent elections he favored some of the positions of the NRA and won..Really Mad Dog do you really think the gun industry should have protections no other industry does-they're not all little Mom and Pop gun stores..c'mon..I eventually fell asleep-for part of it- it was rollicking for a bit, but I eventually realized I just want this part of the election over and bring on the nuts on the other side..
    Maud

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  2. Maud,
    One of Hillary's many problems is she cannot articulate anything effectively.
    What exactly is the law and what exactly is the special privilege to gun stores and gun manufacturers enjoy?
    As far as I know, anyone can sue anybody, and as Bernie pointed out there is a suit from Sandy Hook right now.
    But on the other hand, try suing General Motors or Ford because a crazy drives his Chevy or Ford into a crowd in Times Square. How many lawyers would take that case?
    Hillary has not explained what law could be passed, what government action could be taken to prevent a Sandy Hook or an Aurora or a San Bernadino or an Oklahoma City or a Boston Marathon or any of the instances where a deranged citizen plans to do harm and executes that plan using the element of surprise.
    The absurdity of Wolf Blitzer asking Bernie whether he doesn't think he ought to apologize to the parents of Sandy Hook because he hasn't jumped on a driverless band wagon is beyond comprehension. I think Bernie answered that question spot on: No, I do not apologize to those parents. Nothing I did or could do could have prevented or would prevent future Sandy Hooks. I have voted against assault rifles and continue to think these have no business being sold to private citizens, some of whom are lunatics, but there is a gun for every single person, infant to old age right now in this country and we are engaging in self delusion to think we can pass a new law every time one of these crazies opens fire and then we sit back and say, "Oh, okay, we've passed a law. Now we can wash our hands of this."
    Yes, his answer on Israel was effective, but Hillary missed her chance to say, "Hey, the reason there were 10,000 Palestinian casualties was not because Israel over reacted, but because Hamas hides behind women and children, fires its rockets from the backyards of residential neighborhoods, sets up bases in hospitals. If there were high casualties, it was because Hamas hid behind the skirts of Palestinian women in Gaza. That was on Hamas, not Israel." She attempted to make that point in her dainty legalese type phrases but it got totally lost.
    Bernie sounded bold and morally correct to emphasize we need to acknowledge the suffering of the Palestinians and he said subtly, if we want to be a friend to Israel we have to tell them what everyone else is saying--you cannot ignore that suffering.
    Hillary is an inept candidate. Trump will eat her alive. Bernie, on the other hand, will have Trump for lunch and not even burp.
    Mad Dog

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