When the Going Gets Tough, Blame Clinton!

I admit I have been rather absent from the blog world. Just when I thought I was ready to settle back into writing, a conundrum with my husband's job arrived and I was spending a lot of my free time looking for another job and interviewing. But now my husband has gotten a new, great job and I find myself in the pleasant position of no longer working in retail and being allowed to try out a stint as a housewife!
So what better time to start writing again?
I think maybe I might need to add something about politics in my blog title because the subject is unreasonably taking over all my interest. In the last two months I have read books by Bill and Hillary Clinton, Colin Powell, and watched a documentary on the Iraq War with interviews with countless former intelligence and security officials who worked in the federal government. Which is why I feel slightly entitled after all that study to make the following statement.
Why the heck can't the Bush administration take responsibility for their own mistakes?!?
I realize that President Bush and his cronies think that EVER admitting they've done anything wrong would be perceived as a sign of weakness, but that does not excuse their latest strategy one bit.
I'm talking about trying to dump all the blame for everything this administration has done wrong in the past six years on poor Bill Clinton!
Yah, I said it. Poor Bill Clinton.
You can heckle me all you want about the moral standing of the former president. You have your points to make and I have mine. (Though I think this Republican administration has no right to point fingers right now after all the numerous scandals that have recently plagued them. Let he who is without sin...)
However I will have to stop you at attacking the merits of the Clinton administration.
Let's look at the charges shall we?
1) Clinton did not leave a comprehensive plan for the Bush administration to deal with terrorism and Al Qaida.
HA HA! There is solid evidence and many testimonies to the fact that the Clinton administration did leave a comprehensive plan for the Bush administration. It's just that it was promptly ignored and discarded. Although I guess it's hard to look over a terror strategy when you take the first six months in office off on vacation!
2) September 11th was Bill Clinton's fault.
This just makes me sick. As if any one person could be blamed for what happened during September 11th. Though I think we could come pretty close to blaming Bush since he ignored warnings that terrorists were going to try and fly planes into buildings (testimony of former intelligence officials). But hey, let's blame the man who came closer than anyone else to actually catching Osama Bin Laden (you remember Bin Laden President Bush, he's the guy you SHOULD be going after!). It's particularly interesting that when President Clinton made the decision to bomb Bin Laden (who it is thought escaped by only two hours) he received heavy criticism from Republicans for trying to detract attention from his impeachment trial. Darned if you do, darned if you don't (but only if you're Bill Clinton!)
3)Kim Jong Il being insane and having nuclear weapons is Bill Clinton's fault.
I can see where the Bush administration gets this. Based on their rhetoric, anyone who has diplomatic relations with a country that is not democratic (and we're giving the Reagan administration a big out here for their support of authoritarian regimes that were economically beneficial for us to give aide to) must therefore have been helping to breed terrorism. I guess if you look at it that way, it is Clinton's fault (insert eye rolling here). I'm just waiting for the Bush administration to call Madeline Albright a terrorist for all the work she did. Heck while they're at it, they might as well attack Kissinger. Look at all the work HE did with non-democracies.
Call me crazy but I liked the good old days under the Clinton administration where we were well respected in the international arena and when even the countries that disliked us were still on speaking terms with President Clinton. But then again I like diplomacy and I realize that's not a word the Bush administration either understands or condones (heck I bet President Bush can't even PRONOUNCE diplomacy).
And everyone made such a fuss over Clinton's interview on Fox News when he was accused of not trying hard enough to get rid of Bin Laden and he snapped back at Chris Wallace. Well I don't blame Clinton one bit for being upset about that. The man was constantly hounded for every single thing he did by Republicans while in office. He shouldn't have to be hounded now by "fool and baised" (oh I'm sorry that was supposed to be "fair and balanced") Fox News and their overtly Republican "newscasters" for not suceeding to get rid of of somone Bush refused to acknowledge as a threat until he rammed a plane into the World Trade Center.
So call me a terrorist (I'm sure Ann Coulter would be the first) but I think there's nothing more cowardly then blaming the problems of YOUR administration on a man who, although may have made some personal mistakes in his time, still managed to run the country with dignity, intelligence, and diplomatic skill.
But what do I know? I'm just an Independent moderate who's willing to excuse both Nixon and Clinton's personal failings based on both their excellent foreign policy records and Clinton's ability to jumpstart an economy left stagnant by Reganomics and leave office with a huge deficit turned into a surplus.
A surplus which you managed to squander on an immoral war that has killed thousands of young Americans Mr. Bush.
But don't take responsibility for that either. I'm sure you'll find some way to blame even the Iraq war on President Clinton.