Frequently Bill Maher irks me with his clichéd, cruelty-based jokes, on the other hand, he can be an astute political commentator, parsing situations in an amusing manner. We do watch his show (eventually, via the time-shifting machine), and are happy he's back on the air. Plus, he suggested we get a volcano.
Anyway, in an interview with Joan Walsh of Salon, Maher says of HRC, and Bill:
Salon.com Arts & Entertainment | Real talk with Bill Maher
...
I think [Hillary Clinton would] make a fine president. I've never been convinced that she could win a general election. I think, in many ways, she would be the worst of both worlds for the Democrats, because she is basically a centrist. So she's going to constantly be tacking to the right. She's going to constantly be trying to fish in that pond of votes that I don't think ever bears fruit for the Democrats ... You remember John Kerry in the duck-hunting outfit, Harold Ford with the Ten Commandments?Joan Walsh: And on Election Day he was standing there with an Elmer Fudd camouflage hunting cap, and I was like, “It's over, Harold. It's not just the [GOP commercial about] white women; it's the pandering.”
Right, the pandering. So I think she's going to wind up pissing off her base, and of course she will never, ever win over that red state crowd that I guess she's going after. I can't see those people ever voting for Mrs. Blow Job.
Do you think she's evolved at all? When you look at her, do you think she's developed or matured as a candidate?
I think she's who she always was; I think people are getting to know her more. I think the more people get to know her, if she would stick to some principles, they'd really like her. Because I think she's a very effective administrator. The Clintons have a reputation for a number of things that baffles me. Yes, he's got a wandering eye, and yes, he's oversexed or whatever. But really, Bill Clinton is a policy wonk. He's the kind of guy who gets into the details of it, and so is she.
Absolutely.
Government -- they used to teach it in college. It's actually something you should study and learn and know how to do. The Republicans always run on the idea that government isn't very effective. Well, not the way you do it. But it can be effective.
Does anyone doubt that if Bill Clinton was president during the Katrina storm that he would have been on top of that? He would have been all over that situation ... He would have had the right people. He would not have slept for a week. That's the kind of guy he was.
He would have been out in a boat, getting people off the roofs.
I'm not saying there wouldn't have been problems -- it was a storm -- but as well as it could have been handled, he'd handle it. These people know how to do government; that is their passion. And it is something that can actually be done effectively.
What we're seeing with the Bush administration is that when you outsource government jobs to private contractors, both here and in Iraq, that's where the trouble is -- those are the people who are greedy and unchecked and corrupt and inefficient.
Tags: 2008_election, /Clinton, /New_Orleans, /pandering
