The Naked President

The Naked President by Matt Giwer © 1994 <12/9>
Senator Jesse Helms started taking heat for stating the obvious, President William Jefferson Blythe Clinton is not qualified to be the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States. If anyone wants to pretend he is qualified they first have to explain away twenty two dead Marines in Somalia because they were refused the equipment to perform their mission. Those Marines attempted to perform their mission regardless of equipment and died for following the orders of the incompetent Commander in Chief Clinton. The sanctimonious indignation was bipartisan. Democrats and Republicans, starting the Bob Dole, said President Clinton had the job and therefore something. The something was never stated. It reminds of the crowd applauding the Emperor's New Clothes. No one was willing to say what they were applauding nor could they possibly know what they were applauding. But they were applauding our naked president. From his own lips his only qualification to be Commander in Chief of the United States Armed Forces is that he once called out the Arkansas National Guard. He was asked the question. That was his answer. Do not complain to me that is his only qualification. Complain to him. Why is this treated like a family secret? After his first trip as president to a NATO meeting, delegates of other countries were interviewed. They stated, in no uncertain terms, that the US was no longer the leader of NATO and they would be searching for another country to become the leader. It is not as though other countries do not know it. It is not as though Saddam Hussein does not listen to CNN. So what is the point of maintaining this pretense that President Clinton is smartly and fashionably dressed as a military leader? There is no need to dredge out his childhood, Rhodes Scholar history to try to show he loathes the military. Perhaps he loves the military. So did the leader of the Third Reich; he was simply incompetent in leading it. The last political leader in the west truly qualified to also be a military leader was Bonaparte. We should not expect to always have political leaders who are competent in the job. That President Clinton is our first and such an egregious example of incompetence is simply the luck of the draw in our election process. It had to happen some time. The man has other sterling qualities which we admire in a president. Let us meditate upon them for a moment... That was long enough and I am certain we were all able to think of all of his qualities in the allotted ellipsis. Certainly he taught and understands constitutional law. Was it surprising to anyone that his two of his first three announced plans regarding gays in the military were violations of his one day old oath of office and impeachable offenses if implemented? So he is no more qualified to understand the constitution than he is to be Commander in Chief. Is that all bad? I mean this is a man who is so qualified to revise health care in America that turns it over to his unqualified but attorney wife who will soon have to appear in court for her violations of the law in the matter. This is a man whose closest business partner, Webster Hubbell, is a confessed felon. This man has a lot to recommend him. At the meeting of the Democratic Leadership Conference he tells a joke implying either he or his wife is bad luck for the Democrat Party. In moments of stress, and losing Congress is a great stress, politicians, like engineers, are likely to blurt out the truth. So perhaps for the first time we have a truthful statement from this man; he is a jynx. It was his jynx that resulted in the deaths of 22 United States Marines for following his orders with inadequate equipment to fulfill those orders. It was his jynx that has turned NATO into a paper tiger. It was his jynx that put his wife onto health care reform and now we have jack shit. His defenders love to say he is a complex man, that he is hard to understand in any one speech. Let me put this man in perspective. While trying to recover from the election day loss he has endorsed five of the ten items in the House Republican Contract with America. That is a complex man. Half of him is an arch-conservative Republican. Rather that is the way the wind is blowing today. President Clinton is a man who will say anything at any time for the transitory gains of the moment. President Clinton is more like the clothes than the emperor, only his true believers can see him as a qualified president. What is the real Bill Clinton? It is not the president. It is not the commander in chief. The real Bill Clinton is the emperor who struts down the street, not for the vanity of the new clothes, rather for the momentary approval of the crowds. Long live Bill Clinton! Long may he suck up to us all.

The Naked President
by
Matt Giwer © 1994 <12/9>

     Senator Jesse Helms started taking heat for stating the obvious, President William Jefferson Blythe Clinton is not qualified to be the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States. If anyone wants to pretend he is qualified they first have to explain away twenty two dead Marines in Somalia because they were refused the equipment to perform their mission. Those Marines attempted to perform their mission regardless of equipment and died for following the orders of the incompetent Commander in Chief Clinton.
     The sanctimonious indignation was bipartisan. Democrats and Republicans, starting the Bob Dole, said President Clinton had the job and therefore something. The something was never stated. It reminds of the crowd applauding the Emperor's New Clothes. No one was willing to say what they were applauding nor could they possibly know what they were applauding. But they were applauding our naked president.
     From his own lips his only qualification to be Commander in Chief of the United States Armed Forces is that he once called out the Arkansas National Guard. He was asked the question. That was his answer. Do not complain to me that is his only qualification. Complain to him.
     Why is this treated like a family secret? After his first trip as president to a NATO meeting, delegates of other countries were interviewed. They stated, in no uncertain terms, that the US was no longer the leader of NATO and they would be searching for another country to become the leader. It is not as though other countries do not know it. It is not as though Saddam Hussein does not listen to CNN.
     So what is the point of maintaining this pretense that President Clinton is smartly and fashionably dressed as a military leader? There is no need to dredge out his childhood, Rhodes Scholar history to try to show he loathes the military. Perhaps he loves the military. So did the leader of the Third Reich; he was simply incompetent in leading it.
     The last political leader in the west truly qualified to also be a military leader was Bonaparte. We should not expect to always have political leaders who are competent in the job. That President Clinton is our first and such an egregious example of incompetence is simply the luck of the draw in our election process. It had to happen some time.
     The man has other sterling qualities which we admire in a president. Let us meditate upon them for a moment...
     That was long enough and I am certain we were all able to think of all of his qualities in the allotted ellipsis. Certainly he taught and understands constitutional law. Was it surprising to anyone that his two of his first three announced plans regarding gays in the military were violations of his one day old oath of office and impeachable offenses if implemented?
     So he is no more qualified to understand the constitution than he is to be Commander in Chief. Is that all bad? I mean this is a man who is so qualified to revise health care in America that turns it over to his unqualified but attorney wife who will soon have to appear in court for her violations of the law in the matter. This is a man whose closest business partner, Webster Hubbell, is a confessed felon.
     This man has a lot to recommend him. At the meeting of the Democratic Leadership Conference he tells a joke implying either he or his wife is bad luck for the Democrat Party. In moments of stress, and losing Congress is a great stress, politicians, like engineers, are likely to blurt out the truth.
     So perhaps for the first time we have a truthful statement from this man; he is a jynx. It was his jynx that resulted in the deaths of 22 United States Marines for following his orders with inadequate equipment to fulfill those orders. It was his jynx that has turned NATO into a paper tiger. It was his jynx that put his wife onto health care reform and now we have jack shit.
     His defenders love to say he is a complex man, that he is hard to understand in any one speech. Let me put this man in perspective. While trying to recover from the election day loss he has endorsed five of the ten items in the House Republican Contract with America. That is a complex man. Half of him is an arch-conservative Republican.
     Rather that is the way the wind is blowing today. President Clinton is a man who will say anything at any time for the transitory gains of the moment. President Clinton is more like the clothes than the emperor, only his true believers can see him as a qualified president.
     What is the real Bill Clinton? It is not the president. It is not the commander in chief. The real Bill Clinton is the emperor who struts down the street, not for the vanity of the new clothes, rather for the momentary approval of the crowds. Long live Bill Clinton! Long may he suck up to us all.