Credit Where Credit Is Due

In an effort to maintain my status as an equal-opportunity offender in the political arena, I'm going to give props to someone I normally wouldn't: Bill Clinton.

I expected Clinton's DNC speech to go off-topic, and for him to try to steal the limelight away from Barack Obama. So serve up the crow. But Clinton did steal the limelight.

His speech was masterful. He said all the right things. He was professional. He rose above the partisan divisiveness that has become the standard in American politics. He did not once invoke the name of George W. Bush, try to imply that John McCain is just like Bush, or use the worn-out phrase, "the failed policies of the last eight years."

Would that the Democratic candidates for prez and veep were so professional. Or Clinton's own wife, for that matter. But they're cast in the attack dog roles that have also become the standard in American politics.

No, Clinton drew contrasts between the fundamental differences between the Republican and Democratic platforms over the last 25 years. And that's fine. Even if I don't agree with him, I recognize that he was addressing the Democratic convention. So it's only natural for him to point to the differences between the tenets of that party and its opposition.

I didn't agree with everything he said. That's okay, too - I wouldn't expect to. And for that matter, I don't agree with everything John McCain says.

I also can't say that I respect the man himself, overall. He's done many things in his public life to lose my respect. And I'm not just talking about his getting caught in flagrante delicto with Ms. Lewinsky (and yes, given that the aforementioned took place on the job, with another public employee, in the Oval Office - which is paid for by the US taxpayer - it was part of his public life). But, I do respect the speech he gave, immensely.

There now. I've had about all the crow I can eat. But there's still some left. So I'd be happy to share it with those who erroneously opined, after I exposed the man behind the Biden myth, that I wouldn't say anything negative about a Republican, or anything positive about a Democrat.

Those people are the problem. Would that they - and that we all - could follow the example Clinton presented in his speech, and rise above the labeling and stereotyping that have reduced the political process to the current bitter, divisive lunacy. But that's why the candidates themselves go negative, play attack dog, and demonize one another.

They merely give us what we want. And if society has become that way, it's only natural that the leaders we elect out of our society will be that way.