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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: greenspirit who wrote (9050)	9/23/2003 3:50:37 PM
From: Bill	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 793731

I hate ex President Bill Clinton. There, I said it. I think his policies rank him among the worst presidents in U.S. history. And, while I'm tempted to leave it at that, the truth is that I hate him for less substantive reasons, too. I hate the inequitable way he has come to his economic and political achievements and his utter lack of humility (disguised behind transparently false modesty) at having done so. His favorite answer to the question of his vocation -- "I feel your pain" -- conveys the laughable implication that he is doing a public service for us instead of himself. He reminds me of a certain type I knew in high school -- the kid who won a fancy sports car and believed that he had somehow earned it. I hate the way he walks--shoulders flexed, chest pushed out and eyes scanning the crowd for girls like a teenage boy feigning machismo. I hate the way he talks--blustery self-assurance masked by a pseudo-populist twang. I even hate the things that everybody seems to like about him. I hate his lame nickname-bestowing-- a way to establish one's social superiority beneath a veneer of chumminess. And, while most people who meet Clinton claim to like him, I suspect that, if I got to know him personally, I would hate him even more. There seem to be quite a few of us Clinton haters. I have friends who have a viscerally hostile reaction to the sound of his voice or describe his existence as a constant oppressive force in their daily psyche. etc. etc.

To: greenspirit who wrote (9050)	9/23/2003 7:07:28 PM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793731

Visceral reactions to politicians are funny. Most conservatives seem to hate Hillary worse than they hate Bill. I don't hate either one but I do have a visceral loathing for Gore, which became tempered when he danced like a fool at his concession party, and almost disappeared when he grew his beard. Hated him as a politician, think he's ok as a pundit. And liberals hate Dubya. I've heard they hate him worse even than Nixon, Goldwater or Reagan, but that can't be possible. I know people who were glad that Reagan got Alzheimer's. Still, my guess (without googling) is that the greatest visceral hatred for a politician - highest negativity rating - is for Hillary.

To: greenspirit who wrote (9050)	9/23/2003 7:12:30 PM
From: KLP	Respond to of 793731

The party of hate... At least the author had the guts to admit it. BOY, is that ever the truth!!! Especially when one reads as many articles from all sides. Exactly when did any of the left media say one single thing positive about Bush??? Has anyomne posted Dean's latest rant???

To: greenspirit who wrote (9050)	9/23/2003 8:34:34 PM
From: KLP	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793731

NYT ~~ Poll Says Iraqis Believe Hussein's Ouster Was Worth Trouble By PATRICK E. TYLER nytimes.com AGHDAD, Iraq, Sept. 23 — After five months of foreign military occupation and the ouster of Saddam Hussein, about two-thirds of Baghdad residents believe the removal of the Iraqi dictator has been worth the hardships they have been forced to endure, a new Gallup polls shows. Despite the systemic collapse of government and civic institutions, a crime wave of looting and violence, shortages of water and electricity, 67 percent of 1,178 Iraqis told a Gallup survey team that within five years their lives should be better than before the American and British invasion. Only 8 percent of those queried said they believed their lives would be worse off as a result of the military campaign to remove Mr. Hussein and his Baath Party leadership. The survey was conducted in late August and early September across the ethnically diverse landscape of the capital. The results showed that Iraqis in the capital still maintain a great deal of skepticism about the motives of the United States and Britain, and residents said they hold France and its president, Jacques Chirac, in higher regard than President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair. Mr. Chirac's favorability rating was 42 percent, compared with Mr. Bush's 29 percent and Mr. Blair's 20 percent. The poll results also showed that Baghdad residents were nearly evenly divided on whether the American-British occupation authority headed by L. Paul Bremer III was doing a good job, with 28 percent giving it a positive rating and 25 percent saying it is doing a poor job on a five-point rating scale. But half of the respondents said the occupation authority was doing a better job now than it was two months ago, and their view of Mr. Bremer himself was remarkably positive, with 47 percent holding a favorable view of him compared with 22 percent who hold an unfavorable view. One possible explanation for the improving view of the occupation authority was its decision in July to turn over significant powers to a 25-member Governing Council of Iraqis, the Gallup findings suggested. While 75 percent of those polled said the council's actions were "mostly determined by the coalition's own authorities," the interim government's performance received a favorable rating from 40 percent of those polled. Thirteen percent said it was performing poorly. Meanwhile, the Governing Council issued a decree today banning the two main Arab satellite networks, Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya, from "covering the activities of the Governing Council" and other official events. It accused them of inciting violence against the new Iraqi government and its officials. Several members of the Governing Council told Arab and Western news organizations on Monday that the staffs of the two networks would be expelled from Iraq for a month, but that decision appeared to have been modified in the last 24 hours. When the text of the decree was issued today, the council accused the Arab networks of promoting the return of the Baath Party in Iraq, promoting sectarian violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims and inciting attacks on the government and its members. Spokesmen for the Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya denied the allegations, saying their correspondents in Iraq sought to air the views of all Iraqis during a time of national crisis. An informal sampling of Iraqis on the streets of Baghdad found that people were inclined to support the government's crackdown on the Arab channels, reflecting a popular view here that Arab leaders supported Mr. Hussein's repressive government for too long and failed to support his removal despite evidence of widespread human rights abuses. But some Iraqis defended the Arab networks, as Al Sahib, 33, did when he said that expelling them or restricting their coverage "will give them a pretext to bark more and to cry with other Arab countries about there being no freedom of press in Iraq."