Time: Sun Jul 27 11:54:11 1997 by primenet.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id LAA15806; Sun, 27 Jul 1997 11:53:45 -0700 (MST) by usr07.primenet.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id LAA06300; Sun, 27 Jul 1997 11:53:17 -0700 (MST) Date: Sun, 27 Jul 1997 11:52:43 -0700 To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar] Subject: SLS: "CLINTON'S DREAMS DIE A DIRTY DEATH" (fwd) <snip> > >>Please read this farewell op-ed by James Adams, reporter for the (London) >>Sunday Times, as he leaves his post covering Washington. And then share it >>with a friend who has not yet joined the Reform Party. Perhaps this will make >>it happen. >> >>Donna D. > <snip> > >>The Sunday Times >>July 27 1997 >> >>James Adams, who is leaving The Sunday Times, reflects on five years as our >>correspondent in Washington and a president who betrayed his people >> >>CLINTON'S DREAMS DIE A DIRTY DEATH >> >>BILL CLINTON came towards me, arm outstretched, a welcoming smile on his >>face. Like almost everyone who has met the president, I was immediately >>embraced by his charisma and his obvious intelligence as well as being >>flattered by his apparent interest in my few meaningless social remarks. >> >>This was in January 1992 when he was the newly elected president, a >>46-year-old chubby former governor of Arkansas, and I was the newly arrived >>Washington correspondent. The occasion was the Renaissance Weekend, a >>gathering in South Carolina of 1,500 friends, acquaintances and "wannabes" >>brought together by Phil Lader, America's next ambassador to Britain. >> >>An invitation had come my way through a close friend of Clinton's who clearly >>thought the occasion needed a little light relief from a foreign quarter. The >>ostensible purpose of the weekend was to talk about "personal and national >>renewal" in a group that seemed committed to feel my pain. >> >>My contribution to the affair was a learned talk on the similarities between >>fly fishing and Machiavelli, an event attended by the few who knew the >>difference between a Blue Winged Olive and an Adams Irresistible. Most of >>Clinton's future cabinet was there and my involvement in the weekend was to >>gain me entry to many interesting places in the years ahead as other >>participants assumed my invitation must have come from the president himself. >> >> >>I left the weekend convinced that Clinton and his wife Hillary were an >>outstanding choice to lead the world's last remaining superpower. They were >>smart, funny, self-effacing and charismatic and they were from my generation >>with an apparent understanding of the needs and ambitions of the children who >>had grown up in the heady days of flower power and protest. >> >>This view had been reinforced in the preceding months of the election >>campaign. Following George Bush, the Republican candidate, around the country >>it was clear that he and his party were tired and out of touch with the >>people. Clinton, by contrast, connected wherever he went and there was an >>infectious enthusiasm to his campaign. That enthusiasm among the press and >>public swept Clinton into the White House and temporarily masked the obvious >>signs of an immoral and amoral man with a deeply flawed character which were >>to become evident once he took office. >> >>It was with a profound sense of disillusionment and eventually anger, >>therefore, that I watched as the man I had thought represented my generation >>emerged as one of the worst examples of the old ways. First there was the >>Whitewater debacle, then the repeated bimbo eruptions, the Paula Jones sexual >>harassment case and the stories from insiders of a man who clearly cannot see >>a principle without wanting to compromise it. >> >>Of course, there have been corrupt American presidents before. But what was >>so dispiriting to watch was the effect one man could have on a city and >>ultimately on the whole nation. As corruption and compromise became the order >>of business, the standard to which people and policies were held fell >>precipitately. >> >>Officials remained in office who had taken bribes, kept mistresses, and lied >>about it. Others, taking their lead from the president, refined dissembling >>and dishonesty to an art form. Far from being the open and honest >>administration Clinton had promised, it became one of the most corrupt in >>history. >> >>What made this especially galling was that I had identified so closely with >>Clinton and his people. Now I found he was just another sleazy politician >>and I was becoming just another cynical journalist. >> >>The Republicans seemed little different. Newt Gingrich, the standard-bearer >>of a new and dynamic Republican party, got away with paying a $300,000 fine >>for lying to Congress and allowed to remain in office. >> >>However, the problems America has been grappling with as it marches towards >>the new century are not simply rooted in its lack of moral leadership. The >>Clinton presidency has coincided with the end of the cold war and a growing >>sense of isolation across America, fuelled by a media obsessed with sex, >>violence and trivia. >> >>The percentage of foreign news on network television declined from 41% in >>1990 to 23% just five years later. The average length of those stories >>dropped from 1.7 minutes to 1.2 minutes. While Americans became more ignorant >>about foreign affairs, the world looked for leadership and found none. >>Instead, there was a dispiriting mix of opportunism, as illustrated by Gerry >>Adams dancing in the White House as Clinton cynically tried to woo the >>Irish-American vote, and a lack of strategic vision, illustrated by America's >>policy of appeasement towards China for short-term economic goals. >> >>Such strategies have added to the sense of disillusionment and a feeling that >>I might be watching a great nation in terminal decline. Certainly, as I drove >>to work through the potholes of Washington's streets or heard yet another >>story about corruption in the nation's capital and saw another broken-down >>police car, it sometimes seemed as if I was in a Third World city. >> >>Yet there is another side to Washington. The church my wife and I attend is >>filled to capacity every Sunday. It has an excellent children's choir called >>the God Squad and a congregation of young and old who take pride in their >>faith. Such dedication is reflected all across this Gomorrah on the Potomac >>where all faiths have a devoted following. It is the same story across >>America, where strong beliefs exist beside extraordinary violence and >>apparently few moral virtues. >> >>A survey conducted earlier this month revealed that 96% of Americans believed >>in God, 90% pray regularly, 71% believe in an afterlife and 41% attend church >>once a week. Another poll found that 3% of the population believe they are >>God. >>Such revelations reflect the America I have come to love: on the one hand >>there are people who have a high sense of moral purpose. On the other hand, >>there are enough kooks, wackos and slightly mad folk to keep journalists busy >>for many years to come. >> >>The past five years have provided the opportunity for all the extremists to >>have their say. The arrival of the Internet has provided the first forum in >>history for all the disaffected to gather in one place to exchange views and >>reinforce prejudices. It is hardly surprising, for example, that the >>right-wing militias' favorite method of communication is e-mail and that >>forums on the Internet are the source of many of the wild conspiracy theories >>that drive the media. >> >>Among the vast majority of the American people and the small minority of >>extremists, recent years have seen a disconnection from government in general >>and Washington in particular. Such is the level of distrust and disgust, that >>people outside Washington see their nation's capital as a home to a group of >>self-serving politicians whose work is largely irrelevant to the lives of >>ordinary working folk. >> >>The trouble with the perception is that it is largely accurate. This may be >>the greatest country in the world but politically it is driven by a process >>so corrupt that it resembles the kind of hopeless nation Americans feel >>impelled to reform. In a democracy, such a disconnection between a people and >>its government is disturbing. >> >>The information age, however, is truly giving power back to the people and >>Americans have shown themselves supreme masters of their own fate. Left >>alone, the best of the Americans are clever, hard-working, principled and >>creative and these qualities have made the United States the most powerful >>economy in the world. >> >>The leadership vacuum needs to be fixed, however. A nation that has always >>needed a sense of moral purpose needs the leadership to find its way through >>the uncertainties of a post-cold war world. As families disintegrate, inner >>cities divide along racial lines and the nation state is threatened by the >>growth of the Infosphere, America needs a man in the Oval Office who wants >>more than to win friends and a place in history. >> >>After five years in Washington, I may be leaving The Sunday Times but I am >>not leaving America. I have fallen in love with the country and its people >>and remain convinced that the nation will triumph over the crises that lie >>ahead. These will show the people the true nature of the leaders they have >>elected and real political change will inevitably follow. Americans will do >>what they do best: adapt to a new world and make it their own. ### >>========================================= >>Matthew Campbell, Foreign Editor of The Sunday Times and the newspaper's >>former Moscow correspondent, is to succeed James Adams as Washington >>Correspondent. >>Copyright 1997 The Times Newspapers Limited. > <snip> ======================================================================== Paul Andrew Mitchell : Counselor at Law, federal witness B.A., Political Science, UCLA; M.S., Public Administration, U.C. Irvine tel: (520) 320-1514: machine; fax: (520) 320-1256: 24-hour/day-night email: [address in tool bar] : using Eudora Pro 3.0.3 on 586 CPU website: http://www.supremelaw.com : visit the Supreme Law Library now ship to: c/o 2509 N. Campbell, #1776 : this is free speech, at its best Tucson, Arizona state : state zone, not the federal zone Postal Zone 85719/tdc : USPS delays first class w/o this As agents of the Most High, we came here to establish justice. We shall not leave, until our mission is accomplished and justice reigns eternal. ======================================================================== [This text formatted on-screen in Courier 11, non-proportional spacing.]
Return to Table of Contents for
Supreme Law School: E-mail