The Big Dog in Winter (link)

[scheming daemons]

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/06/a_big_dog_in_winter.html

Few things are sadder than former greats past their prime. A bloated Elvis Presley in a sequined suit; a diminished Michael Jordan making one last comeback with the Washington Wizards; and, we can add, a gaunt Bill Clinton desperately plugging his wife's doomed presidential campaign -- the Big Dog in winter.

With his media enablers gone, with his most faithful constituency (African-Americans) lured away by another, with the prospect of again attaining the commanding heights of American politics lost, with his magic touch in abeyance, Bill Clinton has been whittled down to a long, self-pitying plaint.

For a man blessed with so much talent, fame, and riches, Clinton has always had an unparalleled ability to see himself as beset by cosmic unfairness. In his telling, the 2008 Democratic primaries are the fruit of another vast conspiracy against the Clintons, who have struggled against a biased media, cheating unions, unfair rules, and malevolent left-wing pressure groups.

There's some truth in this. But, given all the advantages the Clinton machine brought into the primary season against the tyro senator from Illinois, Bill Clinton is in a poor position to whine, except he doesn't have the willpower or grace to resist it.

.
.
.





I used to love the guy. But now he's like the old Willie Mays on the Mets in the '70s.

[tularetom]

1. Or Johnny Unitas in a Chargers uniform

[babylonsister]

2. What is a 'tyro' senator? Yes, the 'woe-is-me Clintons', so misunderstood. nt

[Boo Boo]

4. Means somebody new to something. Google it. /nt

[Spider Jerusalem]

6. ...

tyro - {ancient Latin tiro, pl. tirones (in mediaeval Latin often spelt tyro, tyrones: so in Du Cange), a young soldier, a recruit, a beginner; It. tirone, Sp. tiron. Commonly spelt tyro, after mediaeval Latin, down to the date of Cowper's Tirocinium, 1784, and still so spelt by the majority of writers; in the 17th c. tyrone was even written for It. tirone, and tyrones as plural after L. is found down to 1824. But a plural of English form tyroes (cf. heroes, negroes) is found in 1672, and tyros in 1690; Cowper has tiroes.}

A beginner or learner in anything; one who is learning or who has mastered the rudiments only of any branch of knowledge; a novice.

[babylonsister]

7. Thank you. I should have googled but was rushed (why, I can no

longer remember:crazy:).

[Tommy_Carcetti]

3. He's a two-term US President.

This is a rather short chapter in a rather distinguished life.

Call me skeptical, but I think this episode will likely be forgotten in a few months, and the man will have a healthy respect amoungst most Democrats and Americans.

[Saturday]

5. flamebait. nt