In a Tuesday Nov. 20th ABC news interview with Charles Gibson, President Bush revealed the pathetic reality of our current elections system. It is totally rigged. Now the GOP is exploiting this judging by the latest comments of President Bush. Neo-cons are now capitalizing on the fact that Hillary Clinton is herself essentially a neo-conservative (as was her husband's administration, see: NAFTA, WTO, 1996 Telecom Act, Iraq Liberation Act, etc. the list is huge.)
Several times during the scripted interview you can see the Bush team went out of their way to highlight this point, it was surely a talking point given to Gibson as well as Bush. So they want President Bush complimenting Hillary Clinton on her so called "experience". ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH: -- she understands the klieg lights and the pressure --
FIRST LADY LAURA BUSH: That's right.
PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH: Having said that I do believe our candidate will beat her, if she happens to be the nominee. But --
CHARLES GIBSON: Whoever that candidate may be --
PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH: Whoever -- whoever he may be in this case. [LAUGHTER] No question. There is no question, that, Senator Clinton, understands pressure better than any of the candidates, you know, in the race because she & she under -- she lived in the White House and sees it first -- could see it first-hand
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PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH: I did. [LAUGHS] I got caught. [LAUGHTER] I do, I think she's a very formidable candidate, and, one -- one of the interesting things, that she brings is that she has been under pressure. She understands the klieg lights. You know what I'm talking about.
CHARLES GIBSON: Sure.
PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH: You are the klieg lights. And, [LAUGHS] And it's, &you, it's & Heading out to -- heading into this stretch in the primaries and heading into the general election, is, is really the difference between minor leagues and big leagues. And –
CHARLES GIBSON: You wanna get caught on the Republican side too?
PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH: No, I don't, I really, I really, believe the race is wide open.
The "kleig lights" aren't actual media scrutiny. Bush knows too well that the corporate media, especially the television media, softballs the power structure. Thats how Charlie Gibson got this interview, its all closely coordinated highly edited power circling. Bush was complementing Clinton on knowing our corrupt system and exploiting it. They both know how to run a morally-bankrupted, corporate-cash laden, big name campaign that is totally rigged in their favor. Parties of different names that operate as one at the top.
There were many revealing phrases in the interview, including some laughter from him after a comment by Gibson about how "front loaded" the campaign is, as if that were remotely true! As if the media actually isn't biased to the big money corporate backed candidates whom they will be taking piles of money from to run political advertisements very soon. It is in their direct financial interest to create an image of inevitability for these types of candidates. These are the candidates corporate America selects with their millions in "donations", a money system average people can't possibly compete with even as much as Ron Paul supporters may try.
Bush is endorsing Clinton. This is all planned of course. Right on cue today the O'Reilly factor reported it would be good if the left started comparing Hillary to Bush. On cue this was reported by the hacks at MSNBC as one would expect, Olbermann deflected the real point and instead turned into around into some lame insult against the right. Media illusions at work. They have their audiences but the same corporations are pulling the strings. Day by day it becomes how clear these two media corporations are closely working together, they are fake enemies the same way as the neocons and the neolibs in government are fake enemies.
There is no doubt the GOP wants people talking about this issue. Taking votes from Hillary is probably their preferred method of action, but Hillary is fine too. They don't care much their interests still win if Hillary is the nominee. Ultimately the democratic party is at fault if they nominate her. This year, the democratic party can't make this campaign about who has the most corporate cash. If they do (which they almost surely will) they may in fact lose the next election. If they crown clinton we'll get a system that furthers concentration of wealth and power. The democrats could nominate almost anybody other than Clinton, but any democrat with self respect will not be spending their single vote on that horrid power hungry individual.
This is ultimately an issue of money in politics. This is why Hillary will be the nominee. This is why we will never have any real choice in our elections until money is taken out of the nomination process. This means full public campaign financing, it means "contributions" have to limited to small amounts that are truly symbolic speech, otherwise we will continue to have a legal bribe system dominated by corporate lobbyists. Lobbyists which are legally bundling millions to control both parties, especially at the top levels where the amounts of money are obscene. This will not change without massive grassroots support because the media won't be reporting on it, its up to us to organize into forcing politicians to change. I don't see Hillary Clinton signing a public campaign finance law into effect, as she has done nothing but defend this corrupt system.
You can see the full text transcript of the ABC interview here
