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Barack And Hillary Rose Fast, Yes, But Readers Think I'm The Fascist!

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Daniel Ruth

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 31, 2008

Why, there hasn't been this much weeping and wailing since Debra Winger checked out in "Terms of Endearment."

A column last week, taking note of all groveling before the feet of failed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, took some of the New York senator's Scientologyesque supporters to task for their misplaced antagonism toward the party's nominee, Barack Obama.

All Obama had done was simply win the nomination, prevailing over Clinton, who ran a campaign based more on Manifest Destiny, giving short shrift to the nuts and bolts grunt work of what it takes to prevail on the national political stage.

"The missed opportunity by our country because of media fascists such as yourself makes it a sad day for me," wrote efempsa. "It shows a Democratic Party that ... is lacking in depth and vision.

"It is an interesting commentary that the establishment the DNC, media, leadership in Democratic Party encouraged and eventually demanded only one candidate withdraw, the woman."

Depth? Vision? A political party? Oh please, if you want depth and vision, efempsa, go read the dialogues of Plato. This was a political campaign. This is about acquiring power. This is first and foremost about winning.

Clinton was encouraged to withdraw from the race because she - lost. Get out a calculator. If she had won more votes, accumulated more delegates than Obama she would be the Democrat's presidential nominee.

Am I Merely Evil, Or Eeeee-ville?

But efempsa had company. "You have demonstrated very well the bias that Hillary's people recognized. This column today was an unnecessary and evil slash at a woman who can stand up and walk with her head proud," penned Patricia Tullman. "Shame on you. ... I hope your wife is mad at you, too."

Fascist! Evil! Obviously I was on some kind of columnizing roll here, although I hardly regard pointing out that Clinton ran a lousy, stinking, incompetent campaign necessarily qualifies me for the Snidely Whiplash Journalism Award.

As for the Bombshell of the Balkans' opinion of the column, I'll ask her, right after she finishes washing my car. Just kidding! Just kidding!

Not all the response to the Clinton column was so withering.

"Congratulations on today's column," wrote Elaine Fantle Shimberg, one of our community's leading feminist voices and an Obama supporter. "While reading it I couldn't help thinking how great those Citrus Park Little League players had been even (or especially) in defeat.

"I'm sure they wanted to win as well, but they behaved, accepted the rules, and displayed true sportsmanship," Shimberg wrote. "Sometimes our children have to show the way."

Lastly, pacfandave sent up his weekly historical inaccuracy.

"Joe Biden? He is such an intellect that he had to rip off British writers for his speeches?" he wrote.

Okey-dokey. Pacfandave is referring to accusations Biden plagiarized the speeches of British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock during his brief 1988 run for the presidency.

Biden indeed had been citing a Kinnock stump speech in his own remarks on the campaign trail, duly attributing some phrases to the British member of Parliament, until one evening he simply forgot - leading, unfairly, to the charge he had plagiarized the material.

By the way, pacfandave, this information is readily available in places called books, libraries, Internet searches and newspapers.

A Toast To The Drinking Age (Clink!)

Another column, supporting a proposal on the part of numerous college and university presidents to lower the drinking age from 21 to 18, sparked a number of responses.

Oblist1 offered this story: "I remember when I was in the Air Force and was a fully rated radar air traffic controller and was not old enough to buy a drink. I remember when I was in Vietnam, I had Staff Sgts who were in charge of control tower shifts that had more air traffic than Atlanta and could not buy a drink."

I think that pretty well captures the absurdity of this situation, as well as young Kristen Little, who noted: "I am turning 21 in three months and I think the law is ridiculous, if you try to tell me not to drink and really think I will ever listen, you're insane.

"I'm not some hoodlum. I have a 3.6 GPA and am a good student and responsible person."

I believe you, Kristen. Get in touch three months from now and I'll buy you a pop.

Keyword: Book of Ruth, to read and comment on Daniel Ruth's blog. Or tune into WWBA

NewsTalk, 1040 AM, on Sundays from 1 to 3 p.m. to listen to his radio show.

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