My brother, a lifelong resident of Connecticut and the son of two very northern, English-speaking parents, went to college in Radford, Virgina. In a matter of days, he sounded more like Jimmy Carter than Jimmy Carter.
The last time I visited family in Florida, it took about 24 hours for me to “catch” a Southern accent, much to the amusement of my uncle and cousins.
Fox News is just fabricating more ammo for the right-wing to use against Hillary. Because she has a genuine ability to relate to all kinds of people, their only defense is to accuse her of being ”political” and “fake.”
To paraphrase the Godfather of the vast right wing conspiracy, Ronald Reagan, “There she goes again!”
Today Hillary Clinton once again pledged to work for universal health care. Appearing on Good Morning America, Hillary said she has “learned a lot” from the first attempt back in the mid-1990s.
Hillary told the interviewer, “I believe the American people are going to make this an issue,” said Clinton. “I believe we’re in a better position today to do that than we were in ‘93 and ‘94. … It’s one of the reasons I’m running for president.”
Our fear is that Hillary — in fact, anyone brazen enough to try to provide health care to 43 million uninsured Americans — has not learned enough. The simple fact is that special interests — the insurance lobby, doctors and the American Medical Association, hospitals and other health care providers — have always put profits over the health of needy Americans. Correct that: they have put profits over the health of ALL Americans.
Back during the first Clinton Administration, the main assassins of health care reform were Bob Dole and Phil Gramm. They did the dirty work of the special interests. (See Hillary Has Taken the Tough Political Road Before and Who Killed Hillary Clinton’s Health Care Reform?) The only thing that has changed since 1993-1994 is that more Americans are uninsured and the health care system is even more dysfunctional.
What hasn’t changed is the ideology that says that Americans without health care must fend for themselves, that the taxes of “well-off” Americans should not be used to pay for health care for the poor (i.e. it’s their fault that they are poor and should suffer the consequences), and that in a theoretical free-market economy the health care providers — doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, etc. — should be free to maximize their profits regardless of the consequences.
Do not deceive yourself: those doctors who whined ad nauseum that health care reform would destroy your relationship with them were referring to their relationship with your wallet, not your body. To most doctors, your body is a means to an end: a high six or seven-figure income and the lifestyle of the rich and not-so-famous.
Mark Rake’s words: in the looming health care battle, the attack points of the far right will be identical to those used 13 years ago. If nothing else, their greed is consistent.
After fending off allegations that he possessed child pornography and being embarrassed by a crass YouTube video showing him on a gay web site, New Hampshire Democratic power broker, Ray Buckley, has been elected chairman of the party by fellow Democrats.
The election followed an historical write-in campaign in which state Democrats amended party rules to allow the write-in. Buckley, 47, replaces outgoing chair, Kathy Sullivan.
New Hampshire Congressman Paul Hodes, who had earlier withdrawn his support for Buckley after seeing the YouTube video, was characterized in the AP story as “making amends” with Buckley, who is openly gay.
”I probably was uncharacteristically unartful or undiplomatic in the way I said what I said, but I felt it was important,” Hodes said.
Despite his election, it remains to be seen if Democratic presidential candidates will seek or even want Buckley’s endorsement. Although some liberals and gay rights activists in the state did not find the video offensive, others think it could be potentially damaging to any presidential candidate who is closely associated with Buckley.
Some fear that in the hands of groups like the “Swift Boat” vets or Republican campaign operatives, the video could be lethal to a Democratic nominee. Already far right bloggers are castigating Hillary Clinton just for congratulating Buckley for surviving the child porn accusations.
Recent revelations that eight federal prosecutors working for the Bush Administration were fired for political reasons have revived concerns by New Hampshire Democrats about Republican phone-jamming during the 2004 presidential election. Democrats are accusing the Bush Administration of delaying prosecution of the phone-jamming incident — a federal crime — because of the firings.
In an Associated Press story in the today’s Laconia Citizen, state Democratic chair, Kathy Sullivan, is asking for a new investigation into the delay and its relationship to Attorney Alberto Gonzales and the eight fired prosecutors.
The original case resulted in four criminal convictions, including that of Republican strategist James Tobin, of Bangor, Maine, who was New England chairman of President Bush’s re-election campaign two years later.
”Why did it take so long for the indictment against Mr. Tobin to be brought?” she (Sullivan) asked. ”His name was apparently out there and known to the Department of Justice for several months and yet nothing was done with him until after the 2004 election.”
As noted in the AP story, last week, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton pointed to the jamming case as evidence of a ”vast, right-wing conspiracy.”
“To the New Hampshire Democratic Party’s credit, they sued and the trail led all the way to the Republican National Committee,” Clinton said.
”So if anybody tells you there is no vast, right-wing conspiracy, tell them that New Hampshire has proven it in court,” she said.
My co-editor of the Hillary Clinton Quarterly is an advertising and marketing executive who also teaches graduate courses in advertising. This was his pithy take on the “Vote Different” video.
“From an advertising standpoint, it is predictable and boring. I am sure everyone was (not) surprised when the hammer shattered the image of Hillary. Also, other than its very vague reference to 1984, there was no thematic continuity whatsoever. No video of Hillary from 1894, no audio from 1984. Just a cheap trick. I think throughout this ad we are supposed to be feeling “Wow! How powerful!” Instead, my grad students would give this one a “D” for dumb.”
Perhaps the person who best knows Hillary Clinton (besides Bill) is her former school friend and confidant, Rake Morgan. A retired private investigator, Rake offers his take on politics, Hillary's past and present, as well as the detritus of modern life. He is co-editor of the Hillary Clinton Quarterly and lives in a small town in central New Hampshire.
Email Rake Morgan:
rake at hillaryclintonquarterly dot com
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Rake Morgan
The header image for this blog is "Rake in Bedlam" from William Hogarth's series of prints entitled "A Rake's Progress."
Notebook
"A man is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred to him, that of plants and animals as that of his fellow men, and when he devotes himself helpfully to all life that is in need of help."
--Albert Schweitzer
A Rake Classic
Spanking children -- a euphemism for beating -- only teaches kids that violence is OK. Here is Rake's story about disciplining children and a news article about "hot saucing."
