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To Bill and Hillary: Don't take this wrong, but a lot of water flowed under the bridge to the 21st Century in the last 16 years. You came from a little state with big problems and had answers for the rest of us as well as for Arkansas. I personally liked the fact that you grew up with the old refrain: Make peace, not war. My heart revved to the music as you made that trip up from Monticello. There's new music now. Bill, could you do something to turn Don't Stop into Do Think?And Hillary, no one needs to count you out because you sat on the board of two corporations with less than stellar glitz these days. It's all right that WalMart forged the rush to China and changed things, some of which Sam Walton probably never understood. As for Tyson, they're in a less than aromatic business. But that's no reason why both of those startups can't abide by labor standards which define Democrats' long-held standards for workers' rights.
Bill, you have to admit you were lucky. You were left with some headaches in Somalia and there was the ever present Balkanization question. It was heady business for us all that Germany could be Germany and Russia could resume being Russia. Your predecessor got to see the Fall of the Wall. You rode the crest of a new technological surge. Times were good. Looking back, I wonder if you would have pushed so hard for NAFTA. It was not your shining moment.
To you both. Your eight years were prosperous and laid back, while at the same time the Era of Backbiting had begun. Nothing like what your successor suffers through. It is most evident that refutation is a poor way to set policy. At least you never started a quagmire which makes the one of your youth seem like a mere skirmish. I always was glad when you expected people to be optimistic, even as you put out a few conspiracy fires yourselves. You're Democrats, and that means you must recognize that one thing we Democrats do is reinvent yourselves. Across the country there are a lot of younger people who had cold water thrown on their plans by an aggressive wartime attitude. Personally, I hoped Hillary would not run on the good old days. We've got new bubbles more hazardous than the dot.com type.
Please don't think I'm trying to put you out to pasture. Just recognize that new ideas and new needs are coming to the fore in this election.
