# Clinton: How Can We MISS HIM )ifhe won't go away)! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 11, 2001, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-how-can-we-miss-him-ifhe-wont-go-away/49515 "2001-01-11T14:34:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![JTR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee59a6/32.png) [@JTR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JTR)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2001, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-how-can-we-miss-him-ifhe-wont-go-away/49515/41 "2001-01-12T19:22:35Z")
[Hijacking the subject of this thread and bringing it back to the original topic of “Missing Bill Clinton”] Here are a couple lines that I’ve excerpted from a funny essay that Conan O’Brien wrote in the Jan. 8 edition of _Time Magazine_, comparing President Clinton to a character in the Saturday morning cartoons: **Clinton was our first cartoon President. He ran off cliffs, was crushed by anvils and flattened by turn-of-the-century trains. Yet moments later, we always saw him, just like Wile E. Coyote or Daffy Duck, completely reassembled and eagerly pursuing his next crazy scheme…** \ **…Whenever the smoke cleared, Clinton remained standing, covered in soot and looking at us slightly chagrined. But before we could pity him, the music was back on, and he was confidently strutting across the New Mexican landscape…** I think that kind of sums up a certain aspect of Clinton’s presidency – whether you think he was a good president or a bad president, at least he put on a helluva show for us. Conan O’Brien ends his essay with the following line: \*\* Yes, I’m going to miss Bill Clinton. And regardless of your politics, you will too.\*\* Here’s the full text of the essay: [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,93324,00.html](http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,93324,00.html) [/Hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Milossarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Milossarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Milossarian)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2001, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-how-can-we-miss-him-ifhe-wont-go-away/49515/42 "2001-01-12T22:25:17Z")
> [@](#): > > **Milo, the lack of facts, as opposed to vitriol, presented in rebuttal in your post speaks for itself, as usual. A little more time spent exploring other news sources than the Wall Street Journal or Murdoch’s organization might be useful.** Not ready to take on the Pentagon or the Cox Report then, Elvis? Didn’t read that New York Times link? (Don’t think that’s a WSJ or Murdoch’s publication. In fact, I think it’s kinda liberal. But then, by your standards, Barbra Streisand is G. Gordon Liddy.) ---
**Author:** ![Milossarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Milossarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Milossarian)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2001, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-how-can-we-miss-him-ifhe-wont-go-away/49515/43 "2001-01-12T22:45:12Z")
… read George Will’s [column](http://www.sacbee.com/voices/national/will/will_20010111.html) on Clinton from this week. An excerpt: > [@](#): > > It is reasonable to believe he was a rapist 15 years before becoming president, and that as president he launched cruise missiles against Afghanistan (a nearly empty terrorist camp), Sudan (a pharmaceutical factory) and Iraq to distract attention from problems arising from the glandular dimension of his general indiscipline. As president he was fined $90,000 for contempt of court, and there is no reasonable doubt that he committed and suborned perjury, tampered with witnesses and otherwise obstructed justice. In the words of Richard A. Posner, chief judge of the 7th Circuit, Clinton’s illegalities “were felonious, numerous and nontechnical” and “constituted a kind of guerrilla warfare against the third branch of the federal government, the federal court system.” > > Clinton is not the worst president the republic has had, but he is the worst person ever to have been president. Well, then. And I wouldn’t exactly lump George Will into the Rush Limbaugh category (although he is most certainly a conservative). ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2001, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-how-can-we-miss-him-ifhe-wont-go-away/49515/44 "2001-01-13T00:16:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Milossarian \* > **The fact that the IRA have refused to disarm (a key component of the Irish accords) needs to be taken into account, however.** I’ll be interested to see how much luck Dubya has getting them to disarm - or if he even cares enough to try, for that matter. Getting the GFA written and signed and for the most part adhered to was a monumental achievement, and disparaging it because it hasn’t wiped out several centuries of violence within three years is just ludicrous. The whole issue of decommissioning (which the IRA has said _from the start_ it wouldn’t agree to) is nothing but a red herring anyway, being blown way out of proportion by the “No” Unionists in order to scupper the peace process, but that’s probably a subject for another thread… As for George Will, he may not quite be Rush Limbaugh, but he isn’t much better - and I seem to recall he’s got a few skeletons in his own closet … ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2001, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-how-can-we-miss-him-ifhe-wont-go-away/49515/45 "2001-01-13T06:40:46Z")
Well, well, well. We must have been lucky to have the _worst_ person in the office to preside over the very _best_ period of time, economically, socially, environmentally, that the United States ever saw in the twentieth century, and indeed in its post-industrial history. Oh, yeah. No President has control over the economy. Except, of course, Ronald Reagan. Wonder what the _faux_-moralistic guy with the sucker in his mouth is gonna do? Make us immortal? Travel to other planets? Hey, maybe we’ll cure AIDS! Oh, wait a minute. Republicans hate fags, so I suppose that one’s off the list. Maybe he will introduce a grand new era of denial of abortions, denial of public school funding, denial of contraceptives and sex education to pre-adults, denial of both opportunity and relief in low-income areas, denial of the teaching of evolution, strengthening of drug penalties, the building of more prisions, and the prompt execution of the uneducated former welfare recipients turned murderous drug dealers who believe in Heaven. Won’t that be nice? ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2001, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-how-can-we-miss-him-ifhe-wont-go-away/49515/46 "2001-01-13T14:37:34Z")
From George Will’s column excerpt above. > [@](#): > > he launched cruise missiles against Afghanistan (a nearly empty terrorist camp) What is his complaint here? That a terrorist camp, being nearly empty, is as invalid a military target as a pharmaceutical factory? And I myself _would_ lump Will in with Limbaugh. Neither take a point of view from reality. It is easier to start with “If a non-Republican said it or did it, it is bad. Now I will try to find support for this view.” ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2001, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-how-can-we-miss-him-ifhe-wont-go-away/49515/47 "2001-01-14T13:25:30Z")
More on the foreign perspective of Clinton’s foreign policy, from the Irish _Sunday Tribune_: > [@](#): > > It was Clinton who cleaned up America’s reputation abroad, who transformed it from international thug, blinkered ally and bankroller-in-chief of South American dictators and fascists. No longer was the world’s solitary superpower prepared to ignore any human rights abuses, no matter how atrocious, if they were perpetrated by a right-wing regime. I really wish this newspaper was online. The article that contains this quote is a two-page retrospective of the Clinton presidency that’s both critical when necessary and laudatory when deserved. It’s quite typical of the European view of Clinton, I think. But I know most Americans don’t care what other countries think about them :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2001, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-how-can-we-miss-him-ifhe-wont-go-away/49515/48 "2001-01-14T14:21:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Milossarian \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > ## quote: > > > > _Originally posted by Milossarian_ > > A. Who’s worked up? > > B. Who thinks Democrats are their enemy? > > > > * * * > > > > **I’d have to say it’s you, Milo. Understand, I am an impartial observer who holds you in the highest respect…** > > … and you would be wrong, **spooje**. But thanks for playing. > > Be less than overflowing with praise for _a_ Democrat, and you think _Democrats in general are your enemy_? > > I won’t use the rolleyes smiley here, because the vigor with which I would need to roll my eyes at that ridiculous statement makes me worry that my eyes would stay that way. > > I was watching Senate confirmation hearings on CSPAN last night, and I couldn’t mention **one** Democrat that I saw for whom I have anything less than respect. > > You, on the other hand, fuck-face … \*\* Fuck face was not commenting on your facts or assertions. It’s just that from reading your posts, I picture your face red, a vein bulging from your forehead, and your monitor covered with spittle. Am I the only one who gets that impression??? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-how-can-we-miss-him-ifhe-wont-go-away/49515.md?page=2)