by Thomas Lindaman
02/16/05
When I watched this year's Super Bowl, I saw two things that positively amazed me. One was the CareerBuilder.com ads featuring the chimps in the office environment because I swear they have been spying on me at work. The other was Bill Clinton, and it wasn't because he managed to keep his pants on. In a pregame show interview regarding the recent tsunami and his role as one of the two heads of the American effort, Clinton sounded like a mature statesman.
Meanwhile in Hades, the Devil is investing in long underwear due to an unexpected temperature drop.
When I saw Clinton interact with the Fox sports anchors, I was genuinely impressed with him. This was the guy we wished would have been President for 8 years instead of the man we had. In situations like this, I often try to figure out the motivations behind the perceived change of heart. Either he's grown up following either 9/11 or his bypass surgery, or he's trying to clean up his Karma for his Presidency before he goes the way of the dodo bird.
And to be honest, I think he's changed his public image for the better. This is big, considering I'm not exactly Bill Clinton's biggest fan. Granted, his public image couldn't have gotten that much worse (he was the most powerful man in the world and the best he could do was Monica Lewinsky????), but it truly would take a Herculean effort to get me to shift as much as I have on the man. But watching him in public lately acting like a statesman instead of a frat boy has given me a reason to pause. Could this be the real Bill Clinton, a man who really does care about his country and its people when outside the halls of political power? If so, then I hope we see this Bill Clinton from now on.
Just up the East Coast from Jacksonville, Florida, another Clinton is trying to pull off a reversal of image. Yes, I'm talking about Socks the Cat. (By the way, his memoirs titled Paws to Reflect is the best book by the pet of a former President since…well, since Millie the Dog's book.)
Seriously, I'm speaking of Hillary Clinton. In recent weeks, she's raised a few eyebrows by sounding more conservative than she has in the past. Of note has been her comments regarding how she believes the pro choice and pro life sides of the abortion issue need to find common ground. She's also backed President Bush's plan to go into Iraq and voted for Condoleezza Rice to be Secretary of State. Hey, Hill, if you keep this up, you'll have to turn in your "Women Who Think Republicans Are Icky" membership card!
The odd thing is that Hillary has done this sort of image change before, but with less success than her husband. Remember during the 1992 campaign when she went from independent woman to happy homemaker, complete with cookie recipes and different hairstyle? That worked for a short time, but was eventually ditched in favor of the independent woman image. Since then, she has danced between the two whenever she's needed to, but it hasn't been as effective because any change has usually been connected with politics. In this case, Hillary is in the running to be the Democrats' Presidential candidate in 2008. So, to have her go from one of the more consistently liberal Senators to one willing to find middle ground with conservatives is a shift that will be hard to sell. It simply smacks of political opportunism.
Some of you may be saying, "You're only going after Hillary because you hate her." Nothing could be further from the truth. (Well, nothing this side of Kitty Kelly, anyway.) One of Hillary's biggest faults is that she doesn't know how to gradually move in the other direction. With her, it's either full speed forward or full speed backwards. As any car enthusiast or teenage boy can attest, you can't go 80 on a highway and then throw the car into reverse without there being some damage. In Hillary's case, the thing that's being damaged is her credibility. Sorry, Hill, but you just can't go from zero to conservative in 3.6 soundbites.
The irony here is that the man who is like a chameleon politically is the one with more credibility when there is a shift in his politics. It's hard to explain, but I'm going to try to anyway. I think it's because we don't expect as much from Bill as we do Hillary. We've gotten used to his inconsistencies and smoothness. He didn't get the nickname "Slick Willie" because he has an affinity for wrestling in baby oil. (But that is how I got my nickname "Slick Tommy.") We've pretty much thrown our hands up and said, "Okay, Bill, we believe you."
But Hillary hasn't caught this break yet because we expect more from her than we do Bill. She's supposed to be smarter than Bill, but she keeps making silly mistakes that hamstring her politically. Throughout the scandals that plagued their marriage, Hillary was the one out front being the responsible adult. But now that it appears that she's shifting positions, even slightly, we're disappointed in her. Is it sexist? Maybe. Is it political? More assuredly. Is it butter? No, it's Parkay.
We'll have to sit back and see whether both Bill and Hillary can change their respective images. I don't know if either of them will succeed, but I do know one thing. Whenever you have chimps in business suits, I will laugh hysterically.
And that's the Bottom Line.
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