Brent Bozell has a column on the media double standard when it comes to drug use.
We have Barak Obama, the media darling of the moment. Obama has admitted that he used both marijuana (we can assume he inhaled) and cocaine, yet no one on the Left seems to care.
Yet since 1999, these same people have touted the story that George Bush used cocaine. Why concern about Bush but not Obama?
Please, Sharon, get with the program! It only matters when a Republican doesn't admit it.
ReplyDelete*slaps forehead*
ReplyDeleteI keep forgetting that drug use by Democrats is something to be admired, while Republicans who are merely accused of drug use are guilty and should be locked up.
I don't generally care about drug use. Drug use in the past I don't care about at all; drug use in the present, I only care about if it is interfering with job performance.
ReplyDeleteI was pissed at Clinton because he lied about it in a way that was obviously weaselly. I'm happy that Obama is forthright about it.
As for Bush ... I've never cared much, but I think the thing is that there's a leftish narrative about Bush which says that he's basically always been a failure who has had to be bailed out by other people, and he's never admitted the causes of the failure or owned up to them, because he's always been bailed out and never had to face the consequences ... and the drug use, when i've seen it mentioned, has been in the context of a data point to bolster this narrative.
also, how did i end up as 'robert' now, and not 'aphrael'? *puzzled look*
ReplyDeleteThat's strange that it came up Robert. :X
ReplyDeleteI do care about drug use, but, as usual, my point here is about consistency. It would be one thing if Dems didn't care about drug use at all (and a lot of them don't, actually).
I don't necessarily think Republicans are any better if they overlook known drug use because they think the candidate is right on "the issues." That would bother me, as well. Here, we have allegations without proof, and just as I'm willing to buy that Bill Clinton didn't inhale (well, I let him have the benefit of the doubt), I'll allow George Bush to have not used cocaine till there's real proof.
I understand the point Democrats try to make about Bush and I think there's some validity to it. I even read something about "dry alcoholism," where the person talking said that President Bush exhibits the symptoms. But IMO, the symptoms could also just be conviction and dedication. In other words, some of it is in the eyes of the beholder.
In any event, I think Obama is smart to have admitted the use himself so that it is less of an issue in the campaign. The idea that anyone running for president can bury bad behavior from their past is naive, to say the least. For him to have admitted it himself is a good move.
I figured it out; it's a strange side effect of the way google and blogger have merged.
ReplyDeleteI can understand caring about consistency. I think, though, that many of the people complaining about Bush's drug use aren't complaining about drug use per se, but about the larger picture they have of Bush.
I'm impressed you gave Clinton the benefit of the doubt; I never did. :)
I wondered if it was something about that.
ReplyDeleteAnd I think you're right about President Bush. For the people who don't like him, it is just one more thing on a stack of things.
For me, past drug use in this day and age (sad to say) isn't going to be the make-or-break issue because so many people at least experiment in their youth. I suppose if I dislike the politician, I might stick this in that pile.
And, being the stickler about consistency that I am, I have to accept that Bill Clinton didn't inhale, don't I? ;) Of course, that's still smoking pot to me, since I don't think a person doesn't smoke just because they don't inhale.
Bush was accused not only of cocaine use, but of being arrested for it. When asked by the press he refused to deny he had used cocaine. When pressed he named a date and said he hadn't done any sense then. He excused his less than forthcoming answer by saying he didn't want to send a bad message to the nations children.
ReplyDeleteBarack Obama admitted he used cocaine right off the bat. He didn't wiggle a squirm, refusing to either deny nor confirm, or make ridiculous excuses about it. Bush made the story MUCH bigger than it would have been had he just fessed up... or outright denied it... one or the other. It was Bush's own attempt at playing coy that changed it from a complete non-issue into the relatively minor issue it became.
You're wrong. The reason George Bush's perported (there was never any evidence) cocaine use was a story was because he is a Republican candidate who had a frat boy reputation. Democrats were desperate to find something to pin on him, and the cocaine rumor seemed good enough.
ReplyDeleteBarak Obama wrote in a book that he used cocaine in his youth. Regardless of the circumstances, it should be treated as a scandal but will not because (a) he's a viable black candidate, (b) the MSM and Dems don't want him tarnished, and (c) anyone pointing out his drug use will be labelled a racist.