-=> On 02-21-98  09:16, Mike Angwin did testify and affirm <=-
-=> to Robert Craft concerning Re: Resignation? <=-
 RC> I think some of it surfaced yesterday in the Columbus town
 RC> hall meeting yesterday. It was not just the surfacing of a
 RC> small group of antiwar protesters - the questions asked by
 RC> the participants were hardball questions demonstrating
 RC> little or no confidence in the MisAdministration. 
 MA> The depiction of a combat veteran who, in his own words,
 MA> "stood in the gap for the United States", a former United
 MA> States Marine,
Who not only served 20 years, but also lost a son and a
cousin in Vietnam. 
 MA> as part of a "loud and disprutive minority", only
 MA> demonstrates the arrogance of this administration.
An arrogance which, if anything, has stiffened the public's
resistance to the proposed policy.
 MA> They had spent this entire effort to drum up support for
 MA> air raids on Iraq huddled in the confines of the White
 MA> House and were totally caught off guard by the reception
 MA> they received. 
"The Beltway is NOT the heartland." needs to be tattooed on
every bureaucrat's forehead.
 MA> Questions like "What's the objective?", "Will we have to do
 MA> this again every three months?", "How many civilian
 MA> casualties do you consider acceptable?", and "What moral
 MA> right do we have to attach the nation of Iraq?" caught
 MA> CLinton's people completely offguard. Their answers, and
 MA> the feeble attempts of the administration since to provide
 MA> answers, have fallen short. 
They shouldn't have. After the emphasis on Weinberger's
criteria 7 years ago, it's arrogance and incompetence on
their part not to have those answers.
 MA> BUT...Clinton is slick.  The administration has already
 MA> begun to react and is making wholesale polciy changes. 
 MA> You'll notice, now that lack of support for an air raid has
 MA> been demonstrated and support for such a raid has waned in
 MA> the polls, we are suddenly seeing far less sabre rattling
 MA> on the part of the administration, reduced coverage on
 MA> deployments that were a daily event before the Ohio State
 MA> fiasco, and now, all of a sudden, the Secretary General's
 MA> visit to Iraq seems to offer "great promise of a peaceful
 MA> resolution of the crisis" when three days ago it was "a
 MA> last ditch effort with little prospect for progress". 
Yeah - but it's backfired on him. Sec-Gen Kofi Annan is
getting all the credit for an expert, sophisticated
diplomatic effort while the Dufus is being portrayed as an
incompetent who couldn't prevail with either diplomacy or
military threats. 
 MA> If anyone hasn't noticed yet, the aor raids have been
 MA> called off. Clinton hasn't announced it yet, the agreement
 MA> hasn't been made yet, but you can bet your booties, at this
 MA> point, it's all over but the spectacular breakthrough and
 MA> the surprising turn of events. 
One that leaves everyone snickering at the Dufus' failure
to do with threats what Annan accomplished in a single
visit.
 RC> Given that this was a hand-picked audience, the results
 RC> were truly astonishing, putting the lie to all recent
 RC> polls. Madelyn Albright was in shock and ol' Bernie Shaw,
 RC> the CNN moderator, was nearly in tears from outrage.
 
 MA> Welcome to the hinterland. When politicians wander outside
 MA> the beltway and emerge into the real world they take BIG
 MA> risks. You know, I think they really convince themselves
 MA> that the country is like the capitol grounds and that
 MA> everyone in America is as fooled by this administration as
 MA> the interns on their knees in the Oval Office.  Wrong. 
"The Emporer Has No Clothes" should be required reading
prior to every trip outside of the Beltway.
 RC> The Dufus' support may indeed be a mile wide... and only
 RC> skin deep. 
 
 MA> I think that mile wide is going to shrink a little in the
 MA> next polls. Momentum and thinking people are thinking what
 MA> other people are thinking are BIG motivating factors among
 MA> the electorate. Looking at 79% approval ratings most people
 MA> will not dare to be different and no matter what they
 MA> really think, want to pile on and be like everyone else. 
 MA> Guess what? After seeing people really objecting to these
 MA> clowns and challanging them face to face, and then being
 MA> ignored and treated with arrogance, people are going to
 MA> say, "hey, I'm not the only one out there who thinks these
 MA> people are idiots".  Watch the next "approval" poll...can
 MA> you spell P L U M M E T. 
One can only hope.
... Don't you hate it when life doesn't follow the manuals?
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