Wow, Watch This!

Here it is, what you have been waiting for via our favorite Crooks and Liars, the full video of Clinton v. Wallace, Fox News, et al. Big Dog takes them all on, Wallace, Fox, Republicans, etc. He just doesn’t take kerosene and throw it on them and then light the match. This is what the Democrats and any right thinking person should be doing this fall. Why some are so afraid of the truth is put in stark relief in this interview.

Now, Clinton did some things during his reign that I am so opposed to as in the welfare and criminal justice policy and legal areas. But the man has balls and a spine. These are things that the current crop of Dems lack and it is what is making the electorate so crazy. Clinton could triangulate with the best of them. But, when he comes out swinging, he actually comes out swinging.

No one, and I mean no one, is going to accuse him, in the face of Dubya’s vacation from Terra, of not going after OBL. He has made that clear.

So, the question remains, when will Fox ask the same question of say W, Darth Vader, or Ms. America?

I am not a betting person, just ask my horseracing partners, but I am willing to bet that Fox will never raise this issue with this current administration.

Besides, they would only get lies and spin anyway.

What would be the point? We already know the answers.

Watch the video and have the hairs on your head stand-up!

Thank you David, John and the whole C&L crew, we love you!

Update: Tristero at Hullabaloo agrees and I couldn’t have said it better, well it is Tristero:

Wow

by tristero

I read the transcript but nothing prepared me for the passion and intelligence shown by President Clinton as he makes mincemeat of Chris Wallace. It really must be seen.

More importantly, it must be carefully studied by the leadership of the Democratic Party. This is exactly how to respond to the right wing's attempt to load the questions and manipulate the debate to their advantage. Notice how Clinton responds immediately to the rhetorical framing* of the question by challenging its honesty. Notice how he reinforces that assertion of opinion - the question is loaded, biased and cheap - by literally overwhelming Wallace with clear, detailed, assertions of fact. Wallace expected evasion and bluster. But he clearly had no idea who he was dealing with.

Within the space of a few minutes, Wallace realized he was in way over his head - that Clinton, this figure he's held in contempt, knew far more about the subject of his responsibilities, his successes, and his failures than Wallace ever would - and that the trap Wallace had tried to spring on Clinton had totally backfired. He seemed to be all but begging Clinton to let him off the hook. But Clinton, both furious and capable of channeling that fury, toyed with him longer. By the end of the segment, Wallace looked drained, grinning inanely, and Clinton appeared as if he was just getting started.

Many honest folks, as opposed to rightwingers, had serious problems with the Clinton presidency - NAFTA, welfare "reform," don't ask don't tell - and I'm not sure they're wrong. But warts and all - damn, that was a helluva president and is a helluva human being. There are some great potential presidents out there - Gore, Clark, Kerry, add or subtract your own names - but it is very, very unlikely this country will see anyone as brilliant as Clinton - both intellectually and emotionally brilliant - in my lifetime.

Watch the video. The only thing I can compare it to is Coltrane live at the Half Note or the Ives Concord Sonata. A simply amazing treat for which we have the hapless Chris Wallace to thank almost as much as Clinton. Chris Wallace is surely no Elvin Jones. He's more like an insipid melody like "My Favorite Things" or "Inchworm" which a genius can turn inside out, develop and reveal a reality that the melody itself could hardly imagine it held.

*Simply because fans of Lakoff have made the words "frame" and "framing" trendy, slathering them on arguments where they don't belong, is no reason to avoid using it in the proper context.