My Evening With Bill and Hillary

First off, please put down your coffee, adult beverage, or anything else you may be drinking before reading this. Brother Bob assumes no liability for any “Made me spit out what I was drinking on my monitor/laptop” moments here. Drinks down? OK, good.

Last Saturday I took Sister Babe out to see Bill and Hillary speak here in DC as an anniversary gift. (There, aren’t you glad I told you to put down your drink?) Our anniversary was actually earlier this month but several events made a night out impossible until now. Sister Babe was looking online for events going on around town so we could do something more interesting than the obvious dinner/movie options. She rattled off a few and when she got to the Bill & Hill Show I told her that would sound like fun. She thought I was kidding and said she wouldn’t make me go to that. I told her I actually would like to go, as even though I’m not a fan of the speakers, how often does one get to see a former president and the modern equivalent of William Jennings Bryan on one stage? Faithful readers might remember that Sister Babe voted for Hillary – wasn’t crazy about her but hated the alternative more. Sort of how I voted for President Trump. And if you’re wondering, she’s obviously left of center but not so far left that it’s her religion. In other words, our personal politics just aren’t important enough to either of us that we can’t have a happy marriage independent of our political views. And to Sister Babe’s credit, it took five or six more times of being nice and telling me she wouldn’t make me go to this before she believed me when I said I was genuinely interested in the show. So we looked online for tickets, and found a pair of $20 seats in the cheap seats on a reseller. Hey, I might not mind paying to hear the Clintons, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to put any more money in their pocket than I have to.

The venue was the Daughters of the Revolution (DAR) Hall downtown 7:30, but since they came on at 8:00 I’m assuming that was planned to give everyone time to get settled in. And for whatever we’ve heard about them having trouble filling rooms, from eyeballing the room I’d say they got the hall around 90% full. Not bad, but considering the city you’d expect the place to be jammed to the rafters in what’s essentially their home town. At 8:00 the moderator came on, basically serving as an opening act. It was Jordan Klepper, who is apparently a comedian – he works on Comedy Central. Sister Babe texted her sister (Sister Babe –in-Law?) to tell her where we were. Sister-in-Law is a hard Lefty & texted back that I was going to hate Klepper, but I have to admit he was actually pretty funny. He cracked a few jokes & then played a short video of him & the Clintons looking online and giving money to a few Gofundme projects. Klepper also managed to restrict himself to one truly d-baggish moment during his entire opening act. He works with a project called Underground University, which helps to provide college education to people here illegally. He groused about having to deal with Hate Groups who wanted to throw these kids out of the country just for wanting to get an education. No you nimrod, people want to report them because they’re breaking the law. And I’d love to see how many illegal aliens Comedy Central keeps among its writers. But aside from that moment, he was funny & in the video made the Clintons look good, so props to him for that. And Sister Babe didn’t think it was funny when I whispered to her that I should send Underground University’s info to the local ICE office.

Then Bill & Hillary came out. Both were moving a little bit slower than in the past, but Hillary wasn’t falling down either. Frankly, they looked their age – no better, no worse. I wasn’t planning on blogging on this, but when Sister Babe asked if I was going to write about it I figured I might as well take notes on my phone & if hopefully get the time to write about it later. So please cut me some slack, as my notes are just what I could type into my phone on the fly. Hillary talked a bit about bringing back civility, the irony sailing clear over her head. She talked about wondering what the next bad thing is and how we unite the country. I would have loved to helpfully suggest that not constantly talking about how much you hate half of this country would be a good start, but given the venue I’m pretty sure that heckling would not have gone over well. When I told him about our night afterward, Father Bob asked if I started a “Lock Her Up” chant, but I doubt I would have made it out of DAR alive if I had. One of them (I think it was Bill) talked about the counties won by Hillary, and even though most of the wealth is concentrated in those cities, he added that the average Trump voter had a higher per capita income than your average Hil voter. I haven’t verified it, but it would make sense given the vast income inequality you see among Democrats.

Biden had just thrown his hat in the ring and they walked the line of not endorsing anyone yet. They pointed out that what they need is a nominee who can win both the Democrats and the undecided voters. They praised the diversity of the candidates so far, which I assume was based on superficial traits like skin tone, genitalia, sexual orientation, etc. I’m kind of old school and prefer to judge people on their character, and based on that the Dems still have an incredibly diverse field. You have the decrepit Socialist who praises bread lines, the young mayor who has imaginary feuds with Mike Pence, and even that loon in California who wants to use nukes on anyone who won’t surrender their guns. True diversity!

Klepper asked if the Clintons had any advice for the eventual nominee, and it was to not get on the wrong side of Putin. I thought this was good advice – who wouldn’t prefer a president whose top diplomat takes bribes from Russians in exchange for uranium and shows greater flexibility after the election, as opposed to the kind of buffoon who has US troops destroy a unit of Russian mercenaries in Syria, scolds the Europeans to pay their fair share of their national defense while being wary of dependence on Russian energy? Stay off of Putin’s bad side indeed!

This of course led to some good tinfoil hat blue meat regarding elections – Russians, voter suppression, how Stacy Abrams followed the new Democrat model of how any close loss is now automatically deemed “stolen.” Bill tried to raise a point of asking how Republicans would feel if say, China were to conduct operations similar to what Russians did on behalf of Democrats. I guess we’ll never know, since we don’t know what the spies on Diane Feinstein’s staff had been doing in the decades before they got caught.

Since the NFL draft was that weekend, Bill likened the many potential Democrat candidates to the NFL draft. AT that point I had to suppress the urge to get on my feet and do an “E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES!!!” chant. Given Sister Babe’s reaction when I whispered it to her it probably wouldn’t have gone over well with the crowd. Then again, given what a sad sports town DC is most of the crowd probably wouldn’t have had any idea what I was talking about. Bill mentioned that thanks to the Governorships which the Dems picked up in the midterms they’ll be less susceptible to homegrown manipulation. Which I guess entails things like preventing from voting people like noncitizens, the dead, etc.

He went on to trash a book that trashed their trash foundation and emphasized the importance of having a fair press. Yep, a Clinton calling for fairness in the media – I warned you not to drink anything while reading this! They also brought up the dangers of conspiracy theories, and spent a few minutes going back and forth about the one about how Hillary had a double going around for her across the country. Personally I had no idea what they were talking about – I read a lot more Conservative press than they do and had never heard of anything like this. Just curious, but have any of you heard of this? This struck me more like Birtherism, and how Obama tried to just lump any of his critics in with the Birthers to delegitimize any disagreement. Bill also lamented how people would see in their Facebook feeds “conspiracy theories” about Hillary’s health. Or as we Normals like to refer to them, “facts.”

One of the stranger things that Hillary complained about was lack of civility (she had mentioned this earlier too). Specifically, she pointed out that our brains are wired to dislike someone when you hear bad things about them even after you hear those things about them proven false. I’ll bet that all of those racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic Deplorables would be relieved to hear this! This was also a very Clinton thing to say immediately after one of Hillary’s campaign flunkies failed in his attempts to continue to smear Justice Kavanaugh by trying to keep him from a teaching position at Georgetown.

Bubba also took some shots at Hungarian PM Viktor Orban for making George Soros out to be some kind of bogeyman. You know, the billionaire who’s trying to fund a foreign invasion intent on destroying his country the way migrants have been destroying Western Europe. How dare he! I think Clinton’s exact words were, “Hit them first, deny everything, accuse your opponent of what you do.” Hey, Hillary’s sealed Senior Thesis is supposedly about Saul Alinsky, so it would make sense that they are well versed in Alinsky tactics. He also went on to criticize Bibi Netanyahu for introducing negative campaigning into Israeli elections. Is it me or do Democrats have this bizarre hatred for leaders who commit the crime of defending their nation’s borders?

Bill went on to say something along the lines of “We lost fair. We won fair. But at the end we have to trust the American people”, which made for a bizarre transition for Hillary to return to the topic of Putin. She lauded Madeilne Albright’s book on Fascism and warned about people picking strongman leaders like Hitler and Mussolini. “People will cede their own authority to strong leaders” – again, it sounds strange that Hillary tried to make that phrase sound like a warning when it is her life dream and probably the fantasy of 99% of the people in the room. Even though she avoided mentioning President Trump here, it was unnecessary given how this has been thoroughly drilled into every Leftist’s mind for the last few years.

Bill then shifted back to empathetic mode, saying that when he returned to Arkansas not too long ago instead of a homecoming it was more like Bill had become the lost son. Apparently some of his old fellow Democrats who had worked with him as Governor had turned and voted for Trump. He lamented how in 2012, 2014, and 2016 Fox news and various web sites had stoked people’s anger. Of course, having a president who had literally promised to tear the country apart just before being elected in 2008 would have nothing to do with it. He pointed out that McCarthy had 40% of the people’s support, as did George Wallace. Again, staying with the sympathetic tone Bubba used the interesting choice of words, “They treated you like a cheap date for 35 years” to explain the MAGA phenomena. I say interesting because that timeframe would include his presidency, since by my math 35 years before today would take us back to the middle of the Reagan administration. He also used the curious phrase of “they hate the same things you do”. Yes, this is coming from the party of devouring their own under intersectionality.

Bill offered the constructive advice of “Go to them”, and pointed out how Hillary went to West Virginia and won her primary there – why she even helped explain how they all benefitted from Obamacare! Naturally, he stopped short of pointing out that maybe the reason that she didn’t win the state in the general election might have something to do with having Obamacare to cover your health insurance when the government has done everything in its power to destroy your livelihood isn’t much for consolation.

His tone turned sour when he got to the election and James Comey, the corruptocrat who managed to achieve the feat of being hated by folks from both sides of the aisle – now that’s bipartisanship! He also suggested we move from the Electoral to the popular vote, “What have you got to lose?” Aside from our country, of course. He also groused as to how Trump appealed to his voters with promises of tax cuts and pro-life views. Because for some strange reason those are more appealing than higher taxes and the Democrats new love for infanticide! He also suggested treating people respectfully and that we shouldn’t respond in kind to hostility. This would be great advice for the Trump rally attendees who had to deal with the hired thugs who Hillary directed Robert Creamer to send after them!

The conversation then went to guns, which I mostly tuned out – it’s pretty much exactly what you would expect. Bubba praised the high school kids becoming active out of fear of school shootings, although he neglected to point out you were more likely to get shot at school during his presidency, but why get hung up on details? He also showed the bipartisan hand of saying how if you live in Montana and the nearest police are an hour away you’re going to want to own a gun. Unspoken of course was where this point would logically take you of the saying “When seconds count help is minutes away”, but that probably would not have gone over well. He also lamented how New Zealand’s parliamentary system allowed their PM to put a gun ban in place, and how the NRA feared that Hillary would use every Executive Order she could and legislation if possible to curb gun rights. This was immediately after Bill suggested that the NRA spends money to keep people terrified. I couldn’t make this up if I tried!

The topic went onto charities, where they suggested using NGOs to build solar panels and wind farms in Central America, and how the Clinton Foundation takes an entrepreneurial approach to forcing expensive, inefficient energy sources onto them to combat Climate Change. Bubba also gave props to Dubya on his AIDS funding, calling it the greatest legislation of his presidency. This got a chuckle from the crowd, not expecting praise from this corner. I guess the combination of Dubya’s presidency being in the rear view mirror and the Bush family’s anti-Trumpism make it safe to praise him in front of this crowd.

Then they got to when our Seals killed Bin Laden. Hillary called it the most intense hour of her life. And of course, she used this opportunity to scold the Trump administration’s “degrading our intelligence services.” That seemed odd to me, as our intelligence services seemed to have done a great job of degrading themselves without our president’s help. She added that Intel is supposed to gather info, not put their thumb on the scale. Ah, nobody gaslights like the Clintons! Bubba closed out by saying that he got a call from Obama afterward saying “We got him!” Bill was like, “Who?” To which Obama replied, “She didn’t tell you?” And Bill said with a smile, “No. Even though I still have my clearance this was need to know. And I didn’t need to know!” Unspoken was the implication that Hillary can be totally trusted with sensitive information! I wanted to suggest that he wipe that smirk from his face with the same blue dress Hillary used to wipe her server, but I doubt that would have gone over well.

They closed up by first talking about how Bill took an ancestry test and learned he was part Neanderthal. Insert obnoxious joke here. After that Hillary gave the speech she should have given at the Javits Center the night she lost the election. That was the night I lost what little respect I had for her. She had that house packed with her most devout disciples, and these emotionally needy people were in a horrible place and needed some words of encouragement. Instead they got an ambiguous message from one of her flunkies. For all that we hear Lefties grouse at what a horrible human being President Trump is, what kind of leader flees as selfishly as she did?

Anyway, her closing comments were that if anyone is feeling depressed or stressed by the horrible things we’re encountering like more jobs, the government taking less of our money, and economic growth, to not grow weary! 2020 will be the most important election in our nation’s history. Until our next one, of course.

Despite the obvious problems with their subject matter that I mentioned, overall is was well worth it. Bill probably spoke @ 60-70% of the time, but it makes sense given that he’s the better public speaker. And he is still good with a crowd, although there were about three times that he started rambling and you wondered what he was talking about. But how often do you get to see a former president alongside a wanna be who will never be president? And to close out on a positive note, compared to CPAC where we had VP Mike Pence speak, while the crowd was happy, their last #1 player alongside their iconic figure couldn’t generate the same enthusiasm as our bland #2. And walking down to the World War II Memorial up the block afterward with Sister Babe wasn’t bad either. It’s still my favorite memorial to see at night, and a good reminder of how much bigger this country is than whoever is residing in The White House.

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Cross posted from Brother Bob’s Blog

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