Alan Cumming: "Hillary Clinton is Mean"I have just been lying by the pool in a hotel near Stratford-upon-Avon, jetlagged and trying to sleep. But I can't! And the reason? An image of Hillary Clinton is haunting me. There she is, captured mid-tirade, her eyes steely and cold, her mouth distorted like a Francis Bacon painting, and I am scared. I can't sleep. Hillary is haunting me! I don't like Hillary! Hillary is mean!
I used to like her a lot. But she lost me when she voted for the war. She knew what she was doing and, unluckily for her, she got it wrong.
Nowadays, thankfully, we admire the people who stood up against Bush and the WMD lies instead of those, like her, who voted with him to prove that they had the balls to run a country. Baby, you should know more than most women that it takes more balls to stand up for what you believe in and not cave to what the word thinks or what you think the world wants you to do.
But hang on - did I maybe stop liking her in 2005 when she started cuddling up to Newt Gingrich in a transparent attempt to begin the wooing of wavering Republicans in this presidential race? (He, like me, has changed his tune, recently calling her a 'nasty woman' who runs an 'endlessly ruthless' campaign. Wow, I never thought I would have anything in common with Newt Gingrich.)
But I have decided my tossing and turning on my sun lounger downstairs in the spa will not be for naught.
Here are my reasons why I think Hillary is mean:
1. She tries to tell us that we are stupid to believe in the power of words. That hope doesn't get things done, that inspiration is futile. That is so mean. That is actually the meanest and most stupid thing she has ever said. Because in addition to it being wrong, she has totally underestimated the need and desire of the American people for precisely what Obama can give them - hope, inspiration, words that make them believe that the world can change, and that the old style politicking and fear-mongering that she has aligned herself with can be turned around and America can have a new beginning. Call it a fairy tale if you like, but this is what people want to hear. Because this is what people want.
2. She has failed to make us believe in her for her own merits so she now has to make us believe that we should vote for her because of her opponent's alleged demerits. On so many levels that is mean. And stupid. And, duh, not true. Which brings me to...
3. The fear factor. Who would we rather have pick up the phone at 3am? Well, actually Hillary... it's Barack Obama! Not a hysterical person who tries to make us vote for her by scaring us, and even stooping so low as to use footage of Osama Bin Laden and 9/11 in her own political broadcasts, something which she has spoken out against in the past when the same semiotics were used by the Republicans, her true rivals. (Remember those days when we thought they were the enemy?)
4. The race card. Oh, this is a doozy, as you Americans would say. In her pursuit of stopping a black man become president, she has conveniently forgotten that she is actually married to the first ever black man to have held that office. Yeah, right, how utterly patronizing that whole Bill being black thing now seems. But then Bill has conveniently forgotten his popularity among the black population, but that's because, err, he doesn't have it any more after a series of racial blunders that made him look condescending, out of touch, and yes, mean. So now that she does not have to court the black vote so avidly, it seems Hillary has no qualms about using the race issue to churn up ancient and disgusting bigoted ill will that only her opponent seems willing to discuss and analyze. How ironic that Obama, shortly after one of the most amazing speeches about race ever, should have to defend the notion that race is still an issue in the campaign, and indeed American life. Don't you know, Hillary? Why don't you ask your formerly "black" husband and see how he feels about it?
5. And talking of race, and Obama's speech about Jeremiah Wright's comments - why should he leave his church? Did every Catholic ex-communicate himself or herself when it became apparent that there was widespread abuse of children by priests? Like Barack said, we all have people around us who say and do things we don't agree with, but we don't kick them out of our lives. We all know there are many things that Bill did that were an abuse of his power, a violation of his office, to say nothing of a mockery of his marriage, and yet we respect Hillary's decision not to leave him. Yeah, that's right, you know what I'm talking about. So why is it inappropriate for students to bring up that whole deal, yet fine for Hillary and her team to endlessly whip the dead horse issue that is Rev. Wright? It's just mean.
5. The flag thing. Oh shut up! This reminds me of being in the schoolyard and being taunted for not having the cool sneakers. Patriotism is not about wearing a pin. Patriotism is about saying you love your country and what it stands for, and you are willing to do whatever you can to get it back on track and to make it what it once was, and to make people believe that they really do live in the land of the free once more. Flag waving is a scary business, Hillary, as of course you have so cleverly realized. But there is a very fine line between patriotism and nationalism. And duh, you weren't even wearing a flag on that debate, so shut up again, you're just mean.
6. Elitism. Ok, this is the last one and then I am going to stop and try to sleep again. But this just takes the cake. Obama is elitist? Uh, hello? Please don't confuse serving the public with being one of them. When is the last time you had to worry about a mortgage payment? I'll tell you what is elitist: being a member of one of the two families who could potentially rule America for seven terms! America is only a couple of hundred years old, it's supposed to be the land of opportunity, where anything is possible for anyone, yet we could have nearly thirty years of the presidency sliced up between two wealthy, powerful political dynasties. Uh, that's elitist.
And finally, she lies!! Big ones! She says she got shot at by enemies when she just didn't. And then she tries to say that she 'misspoke.' Uh, no, Hillary, you lied. That makes you a liar. And not only that but a stupid liar because there was a film crew a few feet away from you when this supposedly happened. Stupid and mean.
The reason I am here in Stratford-upon-Avon is for the celebrations for Shakespeare's birthday. Here is one of my favorite passages of his, from Hamlet, and it seems really appropriate right now..
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man
But you can be mean! I'm going to sleep now.
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Hilary Clinton has enough decaying objects and stumbling undead things crawling out from her closet to keep the entire US barfing from the smell and dashing away in horror from August to November, no doubt.
I'm tired of people alluding to her "baggage" so euphemistically. By way of specifics I would like to compare the:
2007 - Alberto Gonzales and the Prosecutor's Office firings to the
1993 - Travelgate Scandal.
Hilary Clinton's actions in the Travelgate office scandal are almost point by point directly comparable to the actions that forced Alberto Gonzales out of office only a year ago. Anyone too young to remember the Travelgate events can find a well-referenced article in Wikipedia. Apparently, Ms. Clinton escaped prosecution for perjury by a very close shave.
Obama's camp so far hasn't gone here. Maybe they don't want the legacy of putting the talking points on the table that will seriously undermine her Presidential campaign if we as a country are so unfortunate that a Hilary Clinton Presidential Campaign comes to pass. But McCain's people will go there. By now they have their blood hounds on every slime trail she ever left. If she's the candidate, they will be ready.
Unfortunately for Clinton, her willingness to do what she (in her twisted mind) thinks she has to do for power, has left a pretty well-documented record that she is a liar. And if there is anything the US electorate is tired of, and I mean sick unto death, it's being lied to by the President's office.
Hillary Clinton is not a mean-spirited war monger.
She was our nation's First Lady and that alone commands respect. What's mean is knowing that your rant has the potential of persuading undecided voters to consider a candidate who still points to his law school accomplishments as his only tangible qualifications to lead this country - because he has NO EXPERIENCE. The last time I referred to my law school experience on a job interview was in my graduating year from law school. Anyone with even a shred of experience refers to their experience when seeking a new job because experience is what counts most and experience is what an employer looks for. By my recollection, casting calls require experience too. I've never heard of the technique of saying, "I have absolutely no experience for this job, but just allow me a moment to pick apart all of your qualified candidates and after my insults and scathing remarks, you'll find me most desirable." Would that work to land a role on Broadway or anywhere? From the man who abhors trash-talk, he actually does an excellent job of it himself.
If the war decision is the only reason why you think HRC is mean, then that's a sweet piece of cake to address. At the time Senator Clinton entertained the decision to go to war: (1) it was with the clear understanding that there was a specific goal in mind and it was not to continue for as long as it has (you only have current leadership to blame for that); and (2) Sen. Clinton represented the people of New York State. Ever hear of the twin towers? Well, guess what, they're both gone and so are most of the people who worked in them. It is difficult to imagine anyone in her position, as Senator from New York, at that time, making a different choice. That's what is so amazing about this woman is that she can set her personal beliefs aside and make decisions that adequately represent the interests of her constituency. She is not a Monday morning quarterback like her opponent who can put these ridiculous notions of war and hate into the minds of those who select a president based upon clever television commercials. How many people were burned alive by engine fuel in the great state of Illinois and how many people were forced to leap from a roof top to plunge to death as the lesser of two evils? How many people in Chicago were buried alive on September 11th? Did Chicago have hundreds of people simultaneously burned to death that the city had a black cloud over it and the odor of burnt human flesh for weeks afterwards? I guess that didn't get the amount of press coverage that New York City received at the time. Hmm, I didn't realize that Illinois was a direct victim of the September 11th attacks. I must have been changing television channels while that was being reported on the news. There are no words to adequately describe the profound and devastating loss we endured in New York. It was a war zone here. Whether we liked it or not, we were already at war. I volunteered at the mental health unit of a prominent American first aid and crisis care organization and saw survivors come in off the street hysterically crying and screaming and suffering enormous anguish for loss of their loved ones, co-workers and those who felt the shock of cheating death by only a split second. I also provided free legal services to a non-profit organization formed by a surviving family to continue the good deeds and acts of courage of a loved one who lost his life holding the stairwell door open for his colleagues to safely escape on that tragic day.
Members of government do not make decisions to later say, "See, I told you so." If Sen. Clinton would have abstained from that vote, she would have gone down in history as the worst U.S. Senator for New York who allowed her own personal convictions to interfere with her decision-making ability. That is weakness and not good government. In your diatribe you have proven how difficult it must be to make a decision that directly conflicts with one's own personal beliefs. You clearly couldn’t do it yourself and you are not alone. Many of us do not possess that level of strength or discipline to place our own interests aside as Sen. Clinton did when she made a decision for New York. When national leadership is influenced wholly by one’s own personal beliefs, that’s when you have fascist dictatorship. Sen. Clinton has already demonstrated by her experience in public service that she is an effective leader. I admire Senator Clinton, our former First Lady, for her commitment to public service, her strength and perseverance.