Impeached former President Bill Clinton has told US reporters he understands why Republican VP candidate Sarah, Lipstick Warrior Princess appeals to voters. He said: “I get why she’s hot out there, why she’s doing well.”
Fox News has run the headline “I Get Why She’s Hot” over a photo of Palin, with a smaller inset picture of the ex fornicator-in-chief in a suitably leering facial expression (otherwise known as “looking like Bill Clinton”). Bless their little fair and balanced socks but the real top line of their story isn’t that Slick Willie has a preternatural ability to induce queasiness whenever he talks about a woman, any woman. It’s his remarks about her baby son Trig, who suffers from Down Syndrome.
He claimed the little kid’s disability was part of Governor Palin’s appeal, characterising voters’ reactions as follows: “I like that little Down syndrome kid. One of them lives down the street. They’re wonderful children.”
I like that little Down syndrome kid.
One of them lives down the street.
They’re wonderful children.
Perhaps there are more morally objectionable ways of conducting oneself in public life than going after the disabled baby of a political opponent, but I can’t think of any. It is not the condescending assumption that the average American will judge Governor Palin not on her achievements, abilities, and values but instead heap sympathy on her family. Nor is it the patronising assertion that Americans would need to have personal knowledge of a Down Syndrome child before they could empathise with the Palins. What is truly revolting, repugnant, and reprehensible about Clinton’s remarks is that he brought this child into the political arena at all. That was bad enough. But to suggest his disability will be a vote winner for his mother is beneath contempt.
Proof, if more be necessary, that this man has no shame.
