Quote:
Originally posted by sycamore
I have to wonder...why is there still so much animosity towards Clinton, 3 years after he left office? And why do so many people still like him a great deal?
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I can only speak for myself of course. What some people saw as charm, I saw as snake-oil salesmanship. If you've ever spent time in the (U.S.) South, you know that most of those towns have at least one person - sometimes a group of people - whose only skill is that they can make other people do what they want. Some achieve this through muscle (if you ain't a Mason, boy, you ain't workin' in this town), some through Dale Carnegie (well, mizz Smith, I sure do hope I can count on you in this month's election. I declare, your apple pie is just like my mama's.)
For whatever reason, these people literally OWN whole cities/counties. Clinton's one of the slick ones, hence his apt nickname. Another is Bernie Evers, the Worldcom CEO. We have good friends from Mississippi who remember when Evers' main claim to fame was that he owned a small chain of motels throughout the deep South. He would come into their little restaurant and people would almost lay palm leaves in his path. Kathryn to this day still can't believe that the church-attending, friendly, loves-his-mama Evers would ever be capable of dishonesty in business. I would imagine that most of those people still support him - they're not kooks, they just figure that if someone meets the criteria for pleasant conversation on the porch, they must be good leaders.
Amway is really popular around there, too.
Clinton is just a well-coached, well-practiced, uppity version of what he used to be, which is why he makes such excellent speeches. Remember, diplomacy is just telling someone to go to hell in such a way that they will enjoy the trip. *(quote's paraphrased)