At 10:36 AM -0400 13/10/01, D. Simmons wrote:

>    We've had 8, some would say, 24 years to get used to "cringing".  This is
>especially true after the last eight years of the "but" president.

The fellow who claimed he didn't realise that oral sex was included in the definition of sex. I don't think an outright lie is quite the same thing though and surely you woke up long before Clinton that politicians tell lies?

As I say, I'm getting used to cringing when politicians talk myself, but its a new experience for me to respond this way to overseas politicians.

> >  >>How on earth does a retard like that get elected to high office?>>
>>
>    1. Surround one with a management team that reflects a corporate board
>room.

Normally a dim-wit would also be able to hire some competent speech-writers as well. Either Bush can't even remember his lines, or his management team can't get good help these days.

>    2.  Spend lots of money and have Daddy call in heaping shovels full of
>political favors.
>
>    3. Demonstrate that, like your predecessors, you know how to play ball
>and take care of the "big boy's" interests.
>
>    4. Run against eight years of a White House characterized by corruption,
>personal , immorality, hatred or disdain for traditional American views,
>hypocrisy, scandal, and lie after lie placing one's self interest above that
>of the country.

This is really odd. From where I'm standing Clinton epitomised the "American way". Lying about your sex life (rather than simply telling people to mind their own business) seems to indicate that he is completely in tune with traditional Puritan "American values".

>    5. Have a fella like Al Gore as your opponent.
>
>    6. Let people, especially your enemies, think that you are a simpleton.:-)

He's *very* convincing! Either its no act or he's the greatest actor in human history.

>    7.  Convince the gullible that you are one of them.

Gullibility doesn't come into it. Being over-trusting is a personal trait almost always associated with being honest oneself. So it is rarely found in career politicians, who don't expect honesty from anyone else either.

>    8.  When the opponent attempts to steal an election in a fashion that has
>become routine for them, show them that the rules have changed.
>
>    Understand this.  The current administration is the most corporately
>structured and corporately loaded group to occupy the White House in recent
>memory.  They think and act like CEOs and members of a corporate board.
>Neither Bush nor his board are simpletons.

Its worse than I thought then, because if they aren't simpletons the speech-writers must believe that their audience are simpletons.

>They have a different worldview
>based on never having actually had to make a living as a part of the labor
>force or experience the horrendous insecurities that are a part of modern
>life. They also view the world as a place in which one accumulates personal
>power, using whatever tools or individuals are available.
>
>  They are also fellas who have never had to think "outside of the box" -
>that is, come up with creative solutions or views. They are used to snapping
>their fingers and having their bidding done.

I've noticed. This seems to be the main plank of American foreign policy these days. "Do as we say, not as we do!" Its as if they think unquestioning obedience is something due to them as a natural right. The "born to rule" mentality is usually the beginning of the end of empire though. It will probably come as a terrible shock when the barbarians at the gate just ignore the orders to go away.

Bill Bartlett
Bracknell Tas