Americans Away From Home

To be a fighter isn't to pick a fight. To be a fighter is to be strong, to show courage. A self-styled fighter picking fights is just a bully.

Pick-A-Fight Hillary tells crowds she'll fight the best, then she shows them. Wowing people with braggadocio in 2008 just isn't cool.

If turn the other cheek's not in style, does a zero sum game mean you come out fighting?

Bill Clinton's going around not showing off wisdom, saying, "Let's just saddle up and have an argument."

"What's the matter with that? That's what America's about, right?"

How do I correct thee? Let me count the ways.

1. Cowboys are on the way out, Bill, not in. We've all had enough saddle polishing.

2. Arguing's not cool. Transcending arguing is.

3. What's the matter with that, with just saddling up and having an argument? It's so 90's, Bill. Get with the program, conciliation's the buzz.

4. What America's about isn't arguing. America's about hoping for better than that, resolving and moving on.

Poor Bill. If he's the one advising Hillary to be so mean, does he think cutting the baby in half won't haunt her political life in the post-November mop-up?

"Set Bill on them" You can almost hear the tension in the team-Clinton strategy sessions. "Let's get Bill out there saying it's ok to fight. Hey, let's let him make fighting a virtue."

Can you hear it? The trackback of election loss to that moment Bill encouraged Americans to go out fighting.

What's a gracious candidate to do when the spouse of the would-be candidate says, "Now Darlin', come out fighting."

"Discussion is an exchange of knowledge; argument is an exchange of ignorance.”
--Robert Quillen.

Obama's right when he says sniping is distracting from the real conversation. Is that the game plan?

"Argument is the worst sort of conversation." Ah, Bill, meet Jonathan Swift.

If you win the prize when no one's left standing, where's the joy? To win at any price, raw ambition erodes what America's about.

Accord, not discord, that's the ticket.

Carole