Nora Ephron, a Hollywood director and bestselling author, wrote an Op-Ed in the New York Times in which she blamed Bill and Monica for the Iraq War. She was of the opinion that if not for Bill's tryst Al Gore would have been elected and would not have done Iraq. This criticism raises much larger questions of who is to blame for just the Iraq War. If you are going to blame Bill and Monica then you must also blame Hillary, Bill Daley (one of Gore's campaign managers), Richard J. Daley, Joseph Kennedy, JFK, Jackie Kennedy, Gloria Swanson, Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, the Vatican, and the entire American electorate from 1916-1960.
There is no Bill Clinton if there is no JFK presidency. Clinton idolized JFK. There is no JFK is there is no Joe Kennedy. Joe made Jack. There is no JFK presidency if there is no Richard J. Daley. Daley fixed the election in Cook County for Joe, a fellow Irishman. You could speculate that there is no Hillary Clinton if there is no Jackie Kennedy. Bill met Hillary while pursing his Ivy League education in JFK's footsteps. If Jackie knew of Jack's womanizing would she have married him? If the public knew of Ambassador Joseph Kennedy and Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy's womanizing would they have been elected? Bill Clinton's personality was shaped by protecting his mother from his alcoholic step-father. JFK's personality was shaped by an ultra-competitive, inside-trading, bootlegging, Nazi-sympathizing father.
If you look at the cult of personality surrounding JFK you cannot help but notice similarities between the Kennedys and Bushs and Daleys. All three families are defined by war, dirty Wall Street money, and racketeering. The Kennedys were out and out gangsters before and after their rise to power. Who did JFK appoint as the Attorney General, the top lawyer in the land, but his own brother Bobby. Never mind that Bobby had zero experience as a trial lawyer! Who did Bobby go after? Organized crime. If Americans only knew how dirty the Kennedys really were.
Richard J. Daley was a streetfighter like many of the Irish in Bridgeport (his Chicago neighborhood). He knew how to ensure that JFK would win Cook County. He had the muscle and the brains to pull it off. The whole world watched as his army of policemen cracked the skulls of hippies and war protestors in Lincoln Park in 1968.
Prescott Bush, George W. Bush's grandfather was a board member of Union Banking Corporation which had its assets seized by the Federal government in 1941? Why? They were the Wall Street bank for Fritz Thyssen, the Nazi industrialist. An American bank provided the money that produced a significant amount of the steel used in Hitler's war machine. No wonder their is a perception that the French hate Americans.
"Perception is reality" Joe Kennedy was fond of saying. In response to his womanizing JFK replied, "They can't touch me when I'm alive -- when I'm dead who cares?" Surely the Roman Catholic elite was aware of JFK's habits. Certainly the Vatican was aware. Yet all turned a blind eye. Who is responsible for the perceptions Americans have of their elected officials? In large part the media. The media has failed in regards to being intimidated by the deafening sound of the war drums in Washington from September 11th 2002 through March of 2003. What was our perception of Bill Clinton? That he was a bright, but self-destructive human being. What was our perception of Hillary Clinton? That she paradoxically stood by her man without being Tammy Wynette singing "stand by your man".
Why do women stand by their men when they know they are being made fools of? Why do entire nations respect their foolish, cowardly, elite journalists? Why did it take a Hollywood director to write an Op-Ed piece in a widely disregarded New York Times to raise this question? I am not pointing the finger at Hillary. I am pointing the finger at all of the idiots that got us into WWI, did nothing in WWII from 1933-1941, got us into Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq. The idiots are basically the entire American electorate from 1916-1960.
Nora Ephron appeared on This Week with George Stephanopolous and mused how she was offended JFK never made a pass at her. She was an intern of his. Was this an admission that she would have played the part of Monica Lewinsky? It is very hypocritical of Ms. Ephron to write a column in the New York Times in which she identified with Hillary when she saw the damage Bill did getting us into Iraq vis à vis Monica. Typical of Gloria Swanson, Marilyn Monroe, Joe Kennedy, Richard J. Daley, Bill Clinton, Nora Ephron, George W. Bush, and all who acknowledge that "perception is reality."
What could be a more absurd memory for the JFK legacy as the Camelot metaphor Jackie gave us? We should be thinking of the embargo on Cuba and the War in Iraq. Or Richard J. Daley and the Cook County Democratic Machine. Things certainly snowball when you are not honest with your electorate. LBJ escalated Vietnam. Nixon created a fateful relationship with China. Nixon was haunted by the Kennedys even in their death. His insecurity never ended. Would we have had Watergate, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and the Bushs if not for Richard J. Daley, Joe Kennedy, and the perception is reality crowd?
If Hillary Clinton is elected in 2008 and Bill Clinton is the First Lady how can we be certain he wouldn't be his usual self-destructive selfish self? How do we know that Hillary was not to blame for all of Bill's trysts? How do we know Hillary Clinton is not some type of evil genius like Joe Kennedy or Richard J. Daley? We should be mindful of electing Hillary since she is from Cook County. Bill Daley was from Cook County and even he couldn't save Al Gore from Bill Clinton (or from Al Gore). The Clintons may be best left behind. Either them or our cowardly media. Can you imagine what is in store for us after Iraq? What could be worse? If history is a guide, it is certainly going to be worse. We might be saying "Thanks for nothing Joe Kennedy, Richard J. Daley, Bill Clinton, and Monica Lewinsky."
The flipside to blaming Zippergate for the War in Iraq is to blame humanism a.k.a. absolution of responsibility or moral relativism. That is much easier then reflecting on basic morality as it pertains to marriage. If Hillary divorced Bill when Chelsea was small, perhaps that would have been a terrible thing. Morality is a complex voting issue when the media does not ask tough questions. Perhaps the media is responsible for the career politician because people have gotten used to being disappointed. They are inevitably apathetic and partisan. Perception becomes reality. The reality is that 2008 may be a rehashing of 2000. A reactionary mistake in response to human morals. The next Iraq War is too important for the media to be careless by not asking tough questions or making reasonable judgments like Nora Ephron.
