During a 2000 Saturday Nite Live bit, Will Ferrell's George Bush, dumb as a tree, debated Darell Hamond's Al Gore. After a long, barely intelligible Ferrell's answer to a question, Hamond turned to the audience and said, "I can't believe I'm losing to this guy."
Did you also wonder how Gore (sort of) lost? Well, wonder no longer. Just check out so much of the Democratic response to Bill Clinton's tear into Chris Wallace and Fox News.
Think if President Bush defended his record with indignation and terms more specific than "Stay The Course," that The Wall Street Journal and Sean Hannity would attack him for what else he could have said?
Yet when a Democrat finally says "I'm mad as hell and can't take it any more," those of the Left who should be saying "Finally," instead nitpick Clinton's shredding of Fox's Republican Misinformation noise machine for its lack of perfection.
Arianna Huffington, normally the goddess of putting Republicans in their place, used her time on Howard Kurtz's Reliable Sources at CNN, to bash Clinton for friends he keeps...
"What this may lead to which could be good news is that Bill Clinton may wake up to the fact that there is a real (INAUDIBLE) going on to define who is going keep America safer. And for him to try to have it both ways, to have Laura Bush do the keynote during his conference, as though we're all in this together, to have Rupert Murdoch, Chris Wallace' ultimate boss, do the fund-raiser for his wife, all that stuff is simply not making it as clear and as distinct as it to needs to be for the American people."
AH then followed up with her own blog at the top of the apply named Huffington Post, during which she muffled her applause for Bill in a column entitled "Bill Clinton's Bipartisan Love-In Blows Up in His Face." where she bashed Clinton for his prior attempts to make nice with the other side. The column headline should make nice copy for the top of the Wall Street Journal editorial.
I love you to death, Arianna, really. Enough that my wife no longer lets me alone with your 8X10, but come on. September before a crucial November 7th is no time break ranks. Divide and conquer is Karl Rove's job. Let's not help him. One can never accuse you with "making nice with the other side," but providing anti-Clinton sound bites for Hannity, Limbaugh and the rest of the RNC results in mush the same.
In addition to AH's blog, on the opposite top of the HP site sat Nora Ephron's "Socks" telling Bill that he "...should have moved on to his real subject, which is not rescuing his legacy from his self-inflicted wounds, but helping elect a Democratic Congress in 2006."
C'mon guys, I know you are both brilliant and gaw-gee-ous, but instead of splitting hairs over how a Democrat, who finally says what we've all been thinking for years, could have been better, let's not forget we have an important election coming up.
I'm not saying that we shouldn't be thinking, unlemming purveyors of total analization...just wait until November 8th.
P.S. In today's Extreme Far-Left Secular Progressive Mainstream Media ™, L.A. Times, without one column giving Clinton credit, they printed a total rip into his Fox News appearance with far-righter's Andrew Klavans' "Clinton Doth Protest Too Much." I'm guessing O'Reilly will be pulling his condemnations for the Times's communist tendencies.
UPDATE: Due to unrelenting pressure from commenters that I use actual facts to make my point, the actual SNL sketch involved Jon Lovitz's Mike Dukakis who reponded to a remark by Dana Carvey's Geo I.
Steve Young is author of "Great Failures of the Extremely Successful" (Tall Fellow Press) and the wacky new children's novel, "15 Minutes" (HarperCollins)