Letters to the Editor
maureenodonnell
Published Letters: 590 Editor's Choice: 5
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"A whiter shade of pale" - Procol Harum"
[Read the article: An old-fashioned thumpin' in South Carolina]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"We skipped the light fandango, did cartwheels cross the floor, the room was kinda croded but the crowd called out for more" - words to that general effect anyway. This is going to be a fascinating election, with huge consequences for America and the rest of the world. I look forward to reading an objective analysis by a great writer when it's all over.
Just now, you have "holy roller" types in the South preaching hell and damnation, in the style of Aimee Semple McPherson, a contender whose underwear could be embroidered with cabbalistic or runic symbols, a candidate with a ghoulish relish for hanging around the tragedy of 9/ll, a "black" candidate whose mother was white but has written about his Kenyan father's "dreams" although he only met that father once in adult life. I'm wondering if that candidate, triumphant among African-Americans in South Carolina, will get "paler" as he leaves the Harper Lee country of Alabama and Georgia. Time will tell. Last but not least, is Hillary Clinton, the feminist, who has been ambushed by a high-priestess of feminism,Paglia, and another of the sisterhood, Maureen Dowd, who went weak at the knees about "the handsome young price from Chicago" although the "handsome young prince from Hawaii" would have combined a touch of alliteration and far greater accuracy. I gather that there are women in the US who regard Hillary as a traitor to the cause of uber-feminism because she did not divorce Bill after his rampant randyism became known to the whole nation. "A woman's right to choose" does not extend to choosing who to stay married to or not, if I read these women correctly.
Then there's Bill, huffing and puffing and blowing the house down. I must say that Bill is very popular in Ireland because he, above all your Presidents, did so much to bring the feuding factions to peace talks in British-ruled Northern Ireland. I'm not an aficionada in any sense but I recognise that he's a really intelligent man who has an easy way with him, which Hillary lacks. I have to laugh at those Clinton-haters who bring feverish speculation into the debate about what hanky-panky Bill would be up to (wrong words!) in the White House if Hillary is elected President. The man is 60 years old and has had a triple bypass, for heave's sake. There is a medical connection between sexual impotence in a man and cardiac problems so that Bill must be immensely flattered that he is still perceived as a sexual Rambo. It's his brain, stupid, his political savvy, that's recognised worldwide and his appendages don't come into that equation. Perfection is boring anyway. I loved watchin Bill narrowing his eyes, his skin reddening and jabbing his finger at some other gormless reporter asking the same old question about something irrelevant to real issues. This is the same media that did not have the backbone to give King George 11 a thorough going-over when he led you into a war from which you are now desperate to escape. George 11 gave you Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, waterboarding and "extraordinary rendition" which is basically kidnapping and has caused uproar in the world - the world outside the US, that is. I hope Bill stays in this campaign and gives everyone a good run for their money.
Every cloud has a silver lining, so we're told, and my bet on John McCain is looking better by the day.
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To Benbochner
[Read the article: An old-fashioned thumpin' in South Carolina]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You say that "what Clinton did to Monica Lewinsky was shameful". Although this is a distasteful topic to most people of emotional maturity, I would welcome some clarification. namely (l) What is the age of consent in the United States? I understand that Ms.Lewinsky was 21. (2) From what I can remember, the muckrakers found that she had sent a Valentine's message to Bill Clinton, via the New York Times which suggests that she was infatuated with him. (3) Do you see anything just the teeny-weeny bit wrong about a young woman (not a child!) setting her cap on "getting" the most powerful man in the world, a married man and the father of a teenage girl? (4) As I understand it - and I don't want to dwell on it - it was what Monica "did to" Bill that's getting people of a certain type all sweaty and hot under the collar. A cold shower might help.
All this fake sympathy for Ms. Lewinsky disgusts me because it is so patently false. She was interviewed recently and told of how she dreaded the imminent campaign. She left the US to get away from the hyenas nipping at her heels; she is now in her thirties and believes that she can never have a normal life in the US because she will always be used as a political weapon when it is expedient to do so. Have you, and people like you, no heart? I don't know or care what your religion is but if you think you are a Christian, you need to think again. The essence of Christianity is the promise of redemption. The judgmentalism and hypocrisy of those who drag up the name of "Lewinsky" from a decade ago makes me puke. Coming right out and saying you hate Bill Clinton would be honest but that's not what you're about, is it? Leave that woman live her life in peace now. She didn't murder anyone nor did she support the bombing of another country.
I'm sure Sigmund Freud could draw some fascinating inferences from the unhealthy preoccupation some of you people have with a younger Monica deluding herself that she was a "femme fatale". She has learned. It's a pity that you have not.