The Moment

Dear Burning

We saw Mrs. Clinton on TV, in what became to be called “The Moment,” all across media land, and here is what we saw. A middle-aged women who hasn’t had a good night’s sleep for 18 months finally finding the ragged edge and giving into a moment of real, vulnerable humanity.

Of course, many folks will never accept that. They all think the Clintons are spawn of Beelzebub.

Those who hate the Clintons (and, really, folks, don’t you need to find a life?) will never surrender to the idea that she was merely being real.

You can go here http://www.cjr.org/campaign_desk/play_misty_for_me_1.php or http://www.cjr.org/campaign_desk/hillary_humanoid_no_more.php to see interesting assessments of the media response to “The Moment.”

But here’s another way to look at it.

There may come a time at which no sane person would even consider running for public office, or serving in a public charitable role, because of the royal pain in the backside that most people have become. And by “most people,” Swami means Americans.

By almost any accounting, the field of candidates seeking the presidency this time are passable human beings who show some gumption and spirit for that task. Even so, the country managed to run off two men who would make fine presidents, Joe Biden and that other guy with white hair from Connecticut whose name we can’t remember.

But don’t you know that when the candidates savor their private moments that they wonder if it’s all worth the spite, and just plain meanness than Americans heap upon their candidates.

America The Beautiful has a lot of Ugly citizens.

Maybe they tally up the "good things" against "bad thing" in deciding if theyt'll stay in the race.

Sure, you get free weekends at Camp David, and letting your friends stay in the Lincoln Bedroom is always fun.

You don’t even have to steal the “HI, I’m the President” coffee mugs from Air Force One. They let you have all you want.

And if you really wanted to, you could hit the “fire” button and nuke some Third World country that no one would miss.

But, other than a few seriously cool perks, being president can’t be that much fun. You have to talk to Sam Donaldson regularly and pretend you can't tell that deceased muskrat on his head is not real hair.

Though Swami supposed that being a former president can be even less fun. See Prez Clinton recently? He’s so milky white that you can see right through the man. Maybe getting intern hummers was all that was keeping him young and now he's going all Dorian Gray on us.

So here’s our message. Be nicer to our candidates.

Have a heart. It’s not like they’re the French.