The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

‘Early in Their Political Lives, the Clintons Needed to Maintain a Level of Artifice’

Posted on | March 13, 2015 | 15 Comments

by Smitty

I guess Matt Bai has some connection with Pravda on the Hudson (the NYT), which explains why his work as a Clinton apologist at Yahoo looks like it fell out of the Screwtape Letters. He mentions the word ‘lie’ about as often as Her Majesty touches the truth. The opening gag juxtaposing Senator Cotton’s epistle to the Iranian mullahs with a Nigerian email scam is clever. Always start with a laugh. And then:

If Clinton thinks, however, that her explanation is going to end speculation about whatever sinister secrets she is said to be keeping, she’s mistaken. And that’s not because she’s an especially nefarious person, or because she’s a woman, or because the media is bent on destroying her.

This is beautiful in the way the reader is lured by the plausibility of “whatever sinister secrets she is said to be keeping” into buying “not because she’s an especially nefarious person”. The full court press of David Brock, Lanny Davis, James Carville, and Matt Bai himself indicates just how much “sin” that Her Majesty puts in “sinister”. Bai then dismisses the gender card, and the victim card. Is the media bent on destroying Her Majesty? Let’s stipulate that mutual contempt is certain, but the media is a pit bull that knows from whence its scraps come.

No, to understand why truth and transparency are Clinton’s main vulnerability in 2016, you need to understand the moment in which the Clintons entered American politics, and how they came to dominate it.

Having thrown out a joke and a few reasonable conjectures, he moves to a professorial sentence: “Come, let me share the skinny”.

First, let me say that I have a hard time getting too worked up about Clinton’s vanishing emails, although maybe I should. It’s possible, I guess, that in the many thousands of unreleased emails is evidence of her having endangered national security by talking policy on unsecured servers. It’s possible that some emails refer to meetings that Clinton or her aides would rather not make public.

And now that you’re semi-hypnotized, but still reading, let’s have Bai reach in and modulate your stance concerning one of the all time great middle fingers ever given the American people by a public figure.

Read the whole thing. Bai’s article should be studied as a masterpiece of concise Mephistophelian persuasion. His task is not to change your mind, but to alter the course of your thinking, so that you get where he wants you over time. Absolutely brilliant soft sell for a woman with a concrete heart.

We can only hope Hillary’s security flunkies were as proficient as her propaganda people.

via HotAir

Category: Hillary Clinton

Comments

15 Responses to “‘Early in Their Political Lives, the Clintons Needed to Maintain a Level of Artifice’”

  1. Squid Hunt
    March 13th, 2015 @ 6:16 am

    “…althought maybe it should…” Lolz. Those zany Clintons. What will they come up with next?

  2. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    March 13th, 2015 @ 7:34 am

    That “Level of Artifice” may be about to bite her on the ass.

  3. DeadMessenger
    March 13th, 2015 @ 8:03 am

    They need a reality show. Maybe Hanging With the Kardashians?

  4. Katielee4211
    March 13th, 2015 @ 9:01 am

    No one assumes the Obama’s are keeping secrets…… That’s funny, Bai.

  5. Quartermaster
    March 13th, 2015 @ 9:02 am

    If we are expected to believe that “..not because she’s an especially nefarious person….” then they really think us to be idiots.

  6. Squid Hunt
    March 13th, 2015 @ 9:31 am

    Too bad Marty Stouffer’s retired. It’d be fascinating to see them in their natural environment.

  7. Art Deco
    March 13th, 2015 @ 10:36 am

    Henry Mitchell is dead. Carl Rowan is dead. Richard Strout is dead. Nat Hentoff is about 90 years old. Michael Kinsley’s bouts of integrity have been sadly intermittent throughout his career. I know there must be liberal opinion journalists who are not a waste of space, and if you gave me a week, I might think of one.

  8. M. Thompson
    March 13th, 2015 @ 11:54 am

    “All the sleaze, none of the charm.”

    Hillary Clinton in seven words.

  9. Adobe_Walls
    March 13th, 2015 @ 1:06 pm

    ”NO ONE READ HILLARY EMAILS BEFORE DESTRUCTION”

    http://acecomments.mu.nu/?post=355486

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/03/12/no-one-read-hillary-emails-before-destruction/

    This picture from ACE’s sidebar may be more wishcast than forecast.

  10. Adobe_Walls
    March 13th, 2015 @ 1:11 pm

    Absent the sexcapades weren’t all of the scandals Hillary’s?

  11. MSNBC is Worried for the GOP | Regular Right Guy
    March 13th, 2015 @ 1:13 pm

    […] ‘Early in Their Political Lives, the Clintons Needed to Maintain a Level of Artifice’ […]

  12. M. Thompson
    March 13th, 2015 @ 2:01 pm

    I don’t know, but Vince Foster, Whitewater, and Chinese money were bad enough.

    Oh, and wasn’t a Dailey a member of cabinet?

    And yeah, many were hers.

  13. Art Deco
    March 13th, 2015 @ 3:44 pm

    There was no Vince Foster scandal. Whitewater was primarily Hillary’s doing, the Travel Office scandal was her doing, the Chinese money implicated a mess of people but especially Al Gore, and the Webster Hubbell affair implicated a mess of people with non-specific .connections willing to give him huge wads of cash. Then there was the public corruption around Gov. Tucker. I’m not sure what the connection between that and the Clinton’s was.
    The retired Foreign Service officer who blogs as Diplomad 2.0 has said those in the Foreign Service who had served in 3d World locales understood Whitewater immediately: the function of the 1st lady is to launder the bribes.

  14. trangbang68
    March 13th, 2015 @ 5:39 pm

    Hey Matt, Bye!

  15. Daniel Freeman
    March 15th, 2015 @ 2:47 pm

    I don’t even recognize those names. Frank Rich?