Does anyone here feel like * used his family connections to get to where he is now?

[Hugabear]

Would * have ever become governor of Texas if it weren't for Pappy Bush?

Would * have ever been the GOP front-runner in '00 if it weren't for Pappy Bush?

We all know the answer to these questions, of course * would never have gotten as far as he did without his father's last name.

So why is it when anyone points out that Hillary is taking advantage of her last name, and the fact that she is married to the most popular president since JFK, that somehow that's not true?

George and Jeb moved to states where they were not native, and both rode their family name to the governorship. Likewise, Hillary moved to state where she was not native, and won a Senate seat.

I already know what some of the responses are going to be.

I am NOT comparing Hillary to * and Jeb. I am NOT saying they are anything alike.

I am also NOT saying that Hillary could not have accomplished anything politically on her own. She has indeed shown a lot of intelligence and ambition, which usually make for a good politician. And she certainly has her own list of accomplishments since becoming Senator.

I am also NOT saying that there is anything wrong with using whatever advantages you have.

Would people be checking themselves into the Betty Ford clinic if she had never been married to a president?


I know that I'm going to get flamed for this. I know I'm probably going to make a lot of ignore lists with this post, if I haven't already made many of them. I sincerely doubt that anyone who flames this post will even bother reading the entire thing, they'll just look at the subject line and respond "HOW DARE YOU". I don't care. I live in a world of reality, not some idealized, romanticized alternate reality. In my world, people can and do take advantage of their family connections. There's nothing wrong with that. But please, don't pretend that Hillary's marriage to Bill Clinton has not had any positive impact on her political career at all.

[Zynx]

1. Hillary is a very accomplished person in her own right.

She had a truly impressive academic career, unlike Bush. She and Bill worked up from virtually nothing together and were always a team in all of their campaigns, except maybe 1996. Bush just milked daddy's connections and was constantly bailed out by pappy when things went wrong.

[Hugabear]

6. I have no doubt that she could have had a successful political career

But she was elected Senator of a state where she has absolutely no roots. She was born in Illinois, attended college in Massachusetts, and spent her early political life in Massachusetts and DC. She married Bill and moved to Arkansas. No New York roots at all, she only took up residence there in '99 and was elected Senator the next year. My argument is that this would not have happened solely on her own.

I do believe that she could have had her own political career, and might have advanced pretty far based solely on her own merit. But honestly, to pretend that she never benefited from her last name is disingenuous.

[SeaLyons]

11. what do you think benefited Obama??

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. * would be selling used farm equipment in Texarkana otherwise.

[Wickerman]

4. That is really unfair to the used implement dealers of Texarkana

most of them surely have much more going on than *.

[librechik]

3. Everyone believes that

it's totally obvious, and since that family (and the Republican Party) is dedicated to building an aristocracy that excludes the poor, they don't care.

[tridim]

5. Where he is now: The most hated man on Earth.

What a family!

[cbc5g]

7. Of course name recognition won her New York but she worked hard too

But enough of Hillary, her and Bill are the past and Obama and Michelle are the future.

[Hugabear]

10. Thanks. That is exactly the point I've been trying to make.

Like I've said, using your family's name recognition is NOT necessarily a bad thing.

In the BushCo case, it clearly was a bad thing.

With the Kennedy and Clinton families, not so bad.

[Andy823]

8. Of course Bush

Used his family connections to get where he is. The man can not do anything right, and would never have been able to get anywhere if not for his daddy!

Yes, Hillary got where she is also because of Bill, but could have had a political career on her own, but never would she have been running for the presidential nomination without Bill. My opinion of course.

[BlooInBloo]

9. (shrug) Who cares - it's over.

[DinahMoeHum]

12. Anybody can be a Bill Clinton or a Hillary Rodham Clinton. . .

. . .or a Barack Obama. . .

but you have to be born a George W. Bush. Or a John Sidney McCain.

:kick:

[Buzz Clik]

13. GW Bush is a glowing ball of pure intellectual power.

Nothing was going to keep him from being president. And the fact that daddy gave him every opportunity he ever had is irrelevant.






















:rofl:

[melody]

14. Could Jerry Mahoney have gotten anywhere without Paul Winchell?

Let's face it. Bush can't sit still because of Cheney's hand up his ass. And Cheney is BushCo's man on the scene.

[baldguy]

15. Conservatives are drawn to the idea of monarchy.

America is not a monarchy.

[Orangepeel]

16. Successful politicians use the assets that they have

Would Ted Kennedy have been a Senator if his last name wasn't Kennedy? Who knows? Maybe, maybe not. He might have been, but gone about it in a different way. Same with Hillary Clinton.

She picked a path to power that included partnering with Bill, just like Bill picked a path to power that included partnering with her. If she hadn't fallen for him, she would have chosen a different path.