Philip wrote:The question I have for Ed is, does he think that ALL of this avalanche of known facts of the HillBillies is made up?
Nope.
Slick Willie's various sex scandals are public record. The Juanita Broaddrick episode is troubling, but at the end of the day it's a case of he said, she said. If it could be proven that Bill Clinton committed rape and his wife helped cover it up then that would be a deal breaker for me, but nobody has been able to do that. In an environment where some on the right were, and continue to be, willing to say and do virtually anything to discredit the Clintons I think that skepticism is reasonable. He settled with Paula Jones, although that was never proven, either. Again, it's troubling, but again, I have yet to see any evidence that Hillary Clinton acted to cover it up. And the fact that the Jones case was initially dismissed is also a factor in my skepticism. My biggest issue with Bill Clinton is the Lewinsky affair, although I don't care as much about the sex as about the perjury and the lying. He should have just fessed up, said that it was a personal issue for him to work out with is wife and his pastor, and left it at that. Instead he dragged us all through the mud. That was selfish and it did damage to our ability to have a civil political dialogue.
Having said all that, none of it is Hillary Clinton's fault, any more that Melania Trump is responsible for Donald Trump bragging about his ability to commit sexual assault with impunity.
Regarding the more recent scandals, I don't buy many of them. Benghazi, for example, is mostly political hackery. Yes, an ambassador was killed - not for the first time, but it's still a big deal - but there were 9 hearings about it and none of them showed that Hillary Clinton was either personally negligent or responsible. The email scandal didn't impress me much, either. Apparently using a personal email was standard practice for lots of Secretaries of State. The Wikileaks releases fall under the same category. So far I haven't seen any bombshell revelations. Mostly what comes across is that Hillary Clinton is a cold, calculating, cautious politician. I knew that already. If something awful does come out then I'll reevaluate my position, although literally nothing will push me toward Donald Trump.
Philip wrote:ANYONE asserting that one side of the political aisle is all demonic while asserting nothing but positives and meritorious actions of the other - really, they have no credibility.
I agree. I've never claimed that Hillary Clinton was the ideal candidate, much less a perfect human being, but I think that she's intelligent, educated, and informed. I think that if she's elected she'll work her ass off for our country. I think that she's far too cozy with Wall Street and the big banks, and far too hawkish on foreign policy, but I think that she has the best interests of the nation in mind.
And frankly, apart from all of his idiotic sexual escapades, Bill Clinton was a very good president. When he left office we were prosperous and at peace, and the budget was actually balanced, and he accomplished that by working with Republicans in Congress. It's hard to criticize that. I think that he'd be an asset in a Hillary Clinton presidency.
It's also important to bear in mind that my objection to Trump isn't based on that conversation with Billy Bush. That's just the tip of the iceberg. Trump is a vile human being. He lies constantly, he's reckless and reactionary, and his so-called business success is littered with the wreckage of small businesses he killed, failed ventures he led, and needless catastrophes he created. The guy is brilliant at self-promotion, and he's an expert at walking away from disasters that he caused and leaving someone else holding the bag. That makes him potentially a good autocrat, but not a good president. He'd fit in a lot better in the Russian government than in ours. I think that he's temperamentally unfit to be president. I think that he'd be a disaster for our country. He wouldn't end the United States as we know it - there are enough checks on presidential power to prevent that - but he could do a whole lot of damage. And frankly, I don't think he has any real plans, or knowledge, or the work ethic to make plans or to learn what he'd need to know to be an effective president. Right now, as we speak, Trump is trying to distract us from his sex scandals by undermining faith in the legitimacy of our democratic processes. His recklessness and self-absorption is appalling.
Long story short, I think that Hillary Clinton is the best choice that we have available, and I think that, given the chance, she'd probably be a pretty good president.