Wow, the MAGA base finally got a shot at Bill Clinton today, when the Wall Street Journal expanded upon its Epstein coverage, this time sharing the former president’s note to Jeffrey Epstein on his 50th birthday. The note was categorized as “fawning” and I think that’s a bit of an overstatement. The note sounds like Clinton, insofar as he finds a way to compliment the man by saying something vague and uplifting — rather than drawing a lewd picture as Donald Trump did (and denies doing.) Wall Street Journal:
Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell was keen for Bill Clinton and other boldface names to submit letters for the special gift, according to people involved in putting it together.
In the end, she was successful. The leather-bound album—assembled before Epstein was first arrested in 2006—included a page with a single paragraph in Clinton’s distinctive scrawl:
“It’s reassuring isn’t it, to have lasted as long, across all the years of learning and knowing, adventures and [illegible word], and also to have your childlike curiosity, the drive to make a difference and the solace of friends.”
A spokesman for Clinton declined to comment on the birthday message, which was reviewed by the Journal. He referred the Journal to a previous statement that the former president had cut off ties more than a decade before Epstein was arrested in 2019 and didn’t know about Epstein’s alleged crimes.
The illegible word is probably something like “challenges.” If you’ve read any of Bill Clinton’s non fiction, like his laboriously written tome of a biography, which was dense and boring beyond belief, this is how he expresses himself. It sounds flowery and doesn’t say much of anything, but it sounds nice. He doesn’t sketch out a woman’s breast and then put his signature where the pubic hair would be. Trump did that. Clinton’s comment is more of a non sequitor, than anything.
Not that I am defending Clinton. That I want to make clear. Clinton screwed up his own presidency through his lack of judgement vis a vis Monica Lewinsky and I think he may have sunk Al Gore’s chances as well. Not that that is an original observation. No, Bill spent way too much time thinking with the head that wasn’t atop his shoulders.
That said, he was not as bad as JFK. I often wonder if I’ll live to be 91. The reason for my curiosity in that regard is because in the year 2044, it will be 50 years since the death of Jackie Kennedy, who passed in 1994 at the age of 64. That seems very young to me. But Jackie packed a lot of living into 64 years, probably more than most people pack into 90 years or more.
On the 50th anniversary of Jackie’s death, the time capsule she left will be opened. I am betting it will be jammed with scandalous material. Her husband, Jack, was no saint. There is now a documentary about former Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee, which recounts, amongst other things, how much of a womanizer Jack Kennedy was. JFK liked to have sex with the wives of his friends — not unlike Trump. Although JFK would never have recommended grabbing women by the genitalia. He was too much of a Bostonian Brahman for that level of crudity.
JFK and his brothers were taught by their father, Joseph Kennedy, (and this is according to the Bradlee documentary) “Fuck as many different women as you can, as often as you can.” That was his credo that he passed onto his sons. And evidently it stuck.
Point being, JFK took risks that were nothing short of insane. But the risks seemed to juice him. He got something out of it, in any event, as does Trump. Although in Trump’s case, I don’t think risk is the operative factor, I think degradation and control are.
Bill Clinton will come through whatever is exposed about Epstein relatively unscathed, I predict. But Trump will not. There’s an entirely different connection there and Trump has an entirely different character. Plus, he’s got MAGA nipping at his heels. Trump is in office and Clinton is long retired.
MAGA may have hoped for red meat, “the entire dinner” as Marge Greene put it the other day. And they may get the entire dinner. But Bill Clinton will not be the main course. Leg of Trump may be, however.
Ursula, about that supposition concerning Clinton’s having “sunk Gore’s chances,” that’s pure poppycock. Clinton was STILL popular with “the base,” especially those who saw the impeachment proceedings and whole Whitewater “investigation” for the pure blatant political theater it was. It was GORE AND HIS TEAM that didn’t want Bill on the campaign trail for Gore. Don’t forget Gore picked that POS Lieberman (the only major Democrat–using that term loosely–to publicly criticize and chastise Bill) for his VP. That was to “show” the country what Gore “thought” of Bill.
Then too, Gore had the charisma of a sea cucumber–that’s no shade on his abilities much less his intelligence, it’s just an inconvenient truth–and he simply could not talk to the people without coming off as, well, Ben Stein’s teacher character in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” For every criticism about Hillary’s “likeability,” Gore had a dozen.