The Anchoress misses Bill Clinton
She raises a very valid point:
By that what I mean is, I miss old-fashioned American presidents; flawed men who had no allusions that they were perfect. Men who (in Clinton’s case) needed to be loved too much and (in Bush’s case) didn’t need it enough, but who still, for all the personal and political mistakes, were simply trying to lead America, not to rule it, or “remake” it or “save” it from its stiff-necked, fussy, independent, generous, vulgar, valiant, dreaming, energetic, creative, preening, heroic, world-leading, free and glorious self.
Bring back the flawed human president who we were free to love or hate without reserve, fear or condemnation, because the target was strong enough to take it. The president who could sometimes be petty but sometimes be pretty damned gracious, too. The president who could make a mistake at a doorway and laugh about it, and whom the press did not have to protect from the passing mockery such a mistake would bring.
Barack Obama may be all that and a bag of hope-flavoured chips for all I know (although thus far, two major policy decisions in, I am utterly and thoroughly unimpressed with him), but he has a number of glaring flaws. And I’m not just speaking about the “this is the One” near-hagiography that he has been subjected to. I’m talking about his petulance, his inability to take criticism or answer hard questions from reporters. I’m talking about his petty streak, most amply evidenced in his 3 AM text message to supporters announcing his victory in the primaries, which was a clearly spiteful move apropos of Hillary Clinton’s comment about 3 AM phone calls.
I’m no fan of Bill Clinton, but at least he could take both a) a joke, and b) the heat of a press scrum. And you can say what you like about George W. Bush, but he could take criticism with a smile, and he could admit to his mistakes with a kind of humility.
All of these qualities seem to be lacking in the former Senator from Chicago who has become the latest occupant of the Oval Office. And that isn’t a promising thing at all.
