Bill Clinton from Prince to Frog, By Judy Macklin

Bill, Bill, Bill. What has happened to you? Where is the Bill Clinton that American Democrats fell in love with in 1992? We stood by you through everything, Monica and all the smearing. And now you’ve become the Sultan of Smear.

Where did this spiteful Bill come from?

I voted twice for Bill Clinton for President, and I expected to vote for Hillary, but something ugly happened along the way.

Because the Clintons (and fellow Democrats) had faced Karl Rove’s playbook so often, and the Clintons had gotten spattered with mud so often, it became their own tattered playbook. It brings me to tears.

At a time when politics finally — finally – could have been elevated, Bill Clinton decided to stay in the mud. He actually seems to enjoy it there. I hope that’s just a rationalization.

At a time when we could have had liberating courage, we instead got more of the same. We got no courage.

When the game is played in the mud, all the players get sullied. Bill Clinton could have soared; instead he plunged.

Obama, despite his efforts to resist, has gotten spattered. If Obama learned anything from John Kerry, who has endorsed Obama for President, (along with Caroline Kennedy and Sen. Ted Kennedy) it is that you have to defend yourself, even if the accusations are unfair and scurrilous.

Kerry naively thought the public would discern the truth; he thought he didn’t have to defend himself against propaganda. Because of “Swift-Boating,” Kerry was overwhelmed by political surrogates. Obviously Kerry believed there was no way a man who had served in battle would be considered less heroic than a man who hadn’t been in battle. Guess who became President?

You have to drag the public kicking and screaming to the truth. Bill Clinton could have done that in the present campaign, but he chose to take a boat around the truth. Almost single-handedly Bill Clinton has brought the discussion down to a level that is mean and horribly manipulative.

I woke up the other morning, and Bill Clinton had become Dick Cheney. Remember that without Bill Clinton’s tenure, we wouldn’t have gotten G.W. Bush. Will a term of Hillary clear the way for Duncan Hunter?

Pundits have said that Bill is worried about his legacy, so he is going to any lengths to preserve it. But in the process he has changed from a historical statue into a bobble head doll.

Bug-eyed like an attacking junkyard dog, snoozing behind a preacher extolling Martin Luther King, Bill Clinton’s image is broken. The Prince of Hope has turned into the Jester of Hype.

Not always a gentleman, Bill Clinton always exuded grace. But that has changed. Bill likes to garner “firsts” – “the first black President.” It now appears that Bill Clinton has become The First Graceless Former President. He and his cohorts are on attack saying Obama is soft on crime, Obama is in a league with slum lords, Obama had ambition in kindergarten, Obama has a nasty name. Obama is a “fairy tale,” so he must be a fairy.

Are all men frogs? Do all men change from princes to frogs? I hope not. When Bill Clinton played the sax, he sometimes went, “Rib-bit” on his horn. I think I just heard my husband croak. But that’s nothing to hearing Bill Clinton turn into a frog.