Sunday, June 20, 2004

All Bubba, all the time

I'm mostly skipping the Bubba fest including his bogus, self-serving stories (e.g. Book: Clinton Recalls Sleeping on Couch, Clinton: I told Bush of bin Laden and he changed the subject, and 'Hey, I Tried to Get Osama'), but here are a couple of tidbits that I couldn't pass up.

Bubba Bares Double Life:
BILL CLINTON says he's led a dual existence his entire life, with conflicting personalities that collided in ugly and spectacular fashion during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
Woohoo! It's "The Two Faces of Bubba" just like on TV and in the movies! Maybe there were some other personalities buried in his troubled psyche as well! But it's not really as cool as it sounds - Bubba mostly says his bad childhood made him do bad stuff. Zzzzz.

Monica flees NY, stung by Bill's cold words. Actually that's not too surprising, but down at the bottom of the article:
Mr Clinton reportedly also writes that he attributes problems during his upbringing as contributing to a self-destructive streak that tends to act up when he's tired, angry or feeling alone.
Dang, not that again! I meant this:
On Friday, the promotional juggernaut lost some of the sizzle it had built up during the week when AOL online released the first audio excerpt from the memories.

Those who tuned in expecting deep dish were treated to a folksy anecdote from Clinton about the "amazing moment" he shook President John F Kennedy's hand in 1963. "I'm sure he was aware that everyone would be looking for the racy bits, and he wants to come out of the gate first as a statesman-like figure," said Stan Baker, editor of Publisher's Weekly. Further AOL extracts, such as tomorrow's, entitled "Marriage remains", may draw higher ratings.
Golly! I hope he goes back to when he "had a life" and covers the part about the Astroturf in his El Camino! That could be hot!

Then there's the "oxygen" factor or as Mark Steyn phrases it - Clinton still has 'heat' - but it's the Democrats who are getting burnt. Mostly, I think its nostalgie de la boue by the usual suspects in the media, but Mark is eerily prescient:
This would be bad news for Kerry, except that he's such a terrible candidate people like him more the less they see of him. He took a week off as a mark of respect for the late President Reagan and his numbers inched up. If he had taken another week off as a mark of respect for the late Ray Charles, he could have opened up a clear lead. If he took the summer off as a mark of respect for the late Sir Peter Ustinov and the late Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, he would be heading for a landslide. So Clinton sucking up Kerry's oxygen is the best news there is for the Senator.
So where's Lurch during the "oxygen shortage"? He's on vacation - Kerry takes island break from VP search:
In a place where the masses travel by ferry and foot, and the elite by private jet, John F. Kerry yesterday came to Nantucket Island with the biggest plane of all, but a purposefully low-key presence after touchdown.

The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, taking a Father's Day-weekend break from the campaign trail, breathed in some salt air at his wife Teresa Heinz Kerry's seaside home on Hurlbert Avenue before heading into town for dinner with her.
...
The Massachusetts senator had been scheduled to arrive on the island late Friday, but bad weather prompted a postponement to yesterday morning. At 10:30 a.m., his chartered Boeing 757 touched down and slowly traversed the Nantucket Airport's narrow taxiways. Handlers parked the plane, only the second visit by an aircraft that large, in a row of private planes, including four Gulfstream jets. The red-white-and-blue behemoth drawfed them all.
..
Heinz Kerry did not travel with her husband, instead taking her own jet from Washington. Joining the couple was Kerry's younger daughter,
Don't think "yet another vacation in some watering hold for the idle rich". Think "bumping your poll numbers"!