If you want to read revisionist history, look no further than this column at the Huffington Post. After reading it, you will think that:
1. John Kerry is a war hero undeserving of the ridicule he's received.
2. Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis are "respected leaders who are both true American success stories."
3. Al Gore is "one of the most remarkable leaders our country has had over the last 25 years.
4. "Every single American should have a favorable impression" of Hillary Clinton.
It's truly mind-boggling sometimes to watch liberals convince themselves that the problems with their leadership isn't because their leaders are liars, crooks, and ego maniacs, or that the reason so many of their "respected" candidates have lost so badly is because of their wrongheaded policies. No, according to Dave Johnson and James Boyce, the problem isn't with the Democrats. The problem is (cue scary music) THE REPUBLICAN SMEAR MACHINE.
Yep, that's right. It isn't that Walter Mondale saying he was going to raise taxes was a stupid idea that Americans didn't want. It wasn't that Michael Dukakis prided himself as being an environmentalist candidate for president at a time when Boston Harbor was a sewer. It wasn't that Hillary Clinton wanted to hijack healthcare and ram a universal program down the throats of an unwilling public. Nor was it that Al Gore's character problems directly related to his involvement in the ever-corrupt Clinton administration. Nope. It was those mean ol' Republicans.
Here's probably the most laughable part of Johnson and Boyce's column:
How about character and morals? The Right tries to tell us there is a "culture war" and they are on the side of morals and character. But look at the corruption scandals of the Nixon, Reagan and Bush presidencies and the Republican congress, or the parade of sex scandals involving Right Wing and Republican leaders. How many members of the Carter or Clinton administrations do you think were found to be corrupt? So why the oddly skewed perceptions? Because they spent billions telling us so.
Let's just look at the supposedly corruption-free Clinton administration:
--Selling of military technology to the Chinese
--Illegal campaign contributions from the Indonesian Lippo Group
--Attempts by the Chinese to funnel money to Clinton campaign
--Henry Cisneros, who plead guilty to lying to the FBI
--Harold Ickes, Deputy Chief of Staff, had so many ties to corrupt unions that it would have been impossible to put him in a position requiring Senate confirmation.
In fact, there could be an entirely separate category associated with the Clinton administration and campaign funds:
--Illegal funds from Chinese
--Lippo group contributions
--Al Gore's Buddhist temple money
--Al Gore's illegal phone calls soliciting money for the DNC
--Misuse of DNC funds to bypass spending limits in 1996 campaign
--Giving donor lists from Clinton campaigns to PBS for fund-raising
And none of this involves the various Clinton scandals that didn't directly violate federal law (but certainly reflect character):
--Selling out the Lincoln bedroom for $150,000 per visit
--White House "coffees" which netted $25 million for the DNC
--Abuse of the IRS by auditing supposed enemies
--Misuse of FBI files
--Perjury and jobs for Monica Lewinsky
--Misuse of the White House e-mail system, a "glitch" which allowed thousands of e-mails to escape record and which may have been evidence of other Clinton malfeasance
--Selling of presidential pardons
If Johnson and Boyce don't think the Clinton administration was corrupt, that probably explains why so few Democrats have won the presidency in the last 40 years.
|