"Donkeys are really nice"

Five year-old reading "colors" book to one year-old.

Five year-old turns to "brown" page.

Five year-old points to brown donkey, states matter-of-factly, "Brown Donkey. Donkeys are really nice!"

True story.

Brilliant five year-old.

Me <-- Really proud Pa.

Bill Clinton, mouthy broad

When it comes to former Presidents of the United States of America, Bill is clearly the youngest one living. At the relatively young age of 61, Bill is more than 22 years younger than his immediate predecessor, George the Elder.

That's all well and good, but does that in itself qualify him to place himself in the middle of the 2008 election cycle? I think so. In fact, when you combine that with his new post-heart surgery gaunt look, and his beautifully formed coif of white hair, I can think of no other person that I would want to see whoring himself for camera time in the name of his presidential bid. By that I mean his wife Hillary's presidential bid, of course.

While I always enjoy seeing Bill in front of the microphones slamming his (Hillary's) political opponents, I particularly enjoy seeing Bill in front of the microphones slamming Barack. It seems that every time he opens his mouth on camera, he's either telling reporters how terrible Barack is, or telling them that instead of conducting this interview, they should be covering how terrible Barack is. Sometimes, he goes to college campuses and tells students (on camera) that they should demand that the media tell them more about how terrible Barack is. In fact, I was watching an old Saturday Night Live episode from the early 90s, and there was Phil Hartman as Bill in a debate with Dana Carvey as Church Lady, and Bill was telling Church Lady that if he were elected, he would demand changes in media practices to include telling the American people how terrible Barack is. As Bill apparently sees it, there is nothing more pressing for the media to focus on than Barack, and his terrible ... terribilit ... terriblenes ... and how terrible he is.

This brings us to yesterday. Bill was busy campaigning on the coast of South Carolina, when a reporter asked him a question that had nothing to do with how terrible Barack is. As anyone would, Bill took offense to the question, and answered with the following tirade:

"They're feeding you this because this is what you want to cover; this is what you live for, but this hurts the people of South Carolina. What you care about is this and the Obama people know that, so they spin you up on this and you happily go along. The people don't care about this. They never ask about it. And you are determined to take this election away from them. One more story. Shame on you. Shame on you."

- Bill, January 23, 2008

As Anderson Cooper Vanderbilt succinctly stated last night, "... the Obama campaign is the only one playing the spin game ..." (paraphrasing). And, he's right, the Barack campaign is the only one playing the spin game. While the media continues to take its cues from Barack, nobody is being told how terrible Barack is.

I look forward to a day when the media returns its focus to what is really important: how terrible Bill thinks Barack is.

The Game of Politics

Congress: "We want an August '08 Iraq pull-out"

White House: "Go fish"

State Governor: "We want revisions to 'No Child Left Behind'"

White House: "Go fish"

White House: "We want another 100 billion dollars for the war against terror"

Congress: "Go fish"

Congress: "We want to blame the White House for everything"

Media: "Yeah, we've got a match for that"

White House: "Anyone up for Simon Says?"