From: dbrooks@penge.osf.org (David Brooks)
Subject: Re: Vice Shrub won
Organization: Open Software Foundation
	<1992Oct14.125655.13726@cbnews.cb.att.com>
	<1992Oct14.153713.10151@osf.org> <14OCT199214233787@mars.lerc.nasa.gov>
Date: 14 Oct 92 18:12:28

fssue@mars.lerc.nasa.gov (Sue Simonyi) writes:
> Could you explain why you think Clinton has depth and substance? I am trying 
> hard to see something genuine about Clinton... 

Well, I guess I'm seeing something different from you.

First, to answer your main question: I'm not reacting directly to the
policies here.  Each candidate has a basket of policies, and we can and do
argue over them.

But Clinton, more than the other five, comes across to me as a man who is
(to use an Eighties word and concept) "grounded".  I find he has a strong
and real spiritual presence.  Furthermore, he has a clue; I think he
understands the needs, dreams, problems and fears of plain folks.  Sure,
the stories about being born to a widow who wept when the train left for
Oxford (whatever) are melodramatic, but that does not make them any the
less true.

I really won't pretend to be authoritative about causes for this, but that
won't stop me trying.  Compare the privileged upbringings of Gore, Bush and
Quayle.  George Bush, for God's sake, was driven to his prep school by the
family chauffeur (but *he* managed to brand the son of a Greek immigrant as
an elitist, incidentally).  He has spent most of his adult life employed by
the Federal government, and a good part of that on the Foreign side.  He
just seems to be living in another world.  Gore and Quayle aren't quite so
out of touch, but they too are the victims of their circumstances.

Besides, Bill Clinton's goals mesh with mine.  I moved to this country 10
years ago because I adore the inclusive nature of American society, the
energy, and the sense that nothing is impossible.  At about that time, the
American dream was snatched away from many Americans as the prizes was
given to the already-rich, as the debt binge (in which I participated)
began, and as money people began to congratulate themselves for maximizing
short-term profits while mortgaging the future.

But I'm hanging in, because I think all the energy and goodwill are waiting
to be unlocked (and you can guess by whom).

> ... The man is a puppet, being
> manipulated by many strings.  He could not stand on an issue on his own, he'd
> fall just like that puppet does once the strings are let go.

I'm not sure this addresses your point, but to suggest that a candidate
should himself, personally, develop all his own policies in detail is
asking too much of any human being.  Of course a Presidential candidate,
like a President, must choose advisers whose broad aims are the same as
his.  It's this obvious wealth of backroom research and support that is
making both Clinton and Gore come across as Robo-candidates.  If having
detailed plans and a committed team are bad things, then I'm even more
puzzled about the American process than I was.

> It is awfully nice to
> want everyone to have a home, and everyone have access to a doctor, and that
> everyone be taken care of (I think that was the appeal to communism and
> socialism in eastern Europe and other former communist countries).  You see
> reallistically you cannot do that.. it does not work...

This defeatism is certainly not what I associate with this country.  If the
U.S., with all its resources of energy and imagination, cannot
"realistically" give everyone access to a doctor, then perhaps I don't want
to live here.  But it can.  What is lacking is vision and goodwill, not
resources.

> I like the phrase Dan Q. used last night "You are pulling a Clinton".

Like, he thought it up on the spur of the moment.  I can see the 5x3's
now... "page 304"... "inhale"...

*Taxation without representation is tyranny!*  Although, given the option,
I'll take the tax refund :-)
--
David Brooks					dbrooks@osf.org
Open Software Foundation			uunet!osf.org!dbrooks
Three more months!  Three more months!
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