Friday, September 14, 2007

Hillary wins - but ultimately looses - by abusing a beautiful quote!

If you read the Daily Kos or other Liberal websites following the completion of General Petraeus' and Ambassador Crocker's two days in the barrel, you'll find much gnashing of teeth; applause for MoveOn.org slander; and a clamor of disbelieving outrage that the General & the Ambassador survived their Liberal inquisitors! Then you'd come to Hillary's reserved comments..........

In front of the camera and wearing a very conservative suit, Hillary appeared unruffled and calm. In not so many words, and in-an-oh-so-courteous-and-politely-inflected manner, Senator Clinton questioned how she or anybody else could be expected to believe the facts the General presented... and by the words she used when she said it - Hillary Clinton called General Petraeus, a liar. For those of you who may have thought Hillary coined it herself, here is her now oft-repeated line, "I think that the reports that you provide to us really require a willing suspension of disbelief."

While many of us would question whether Mrs. Clinton really is, "the smartest woman in the world," she may certainly have some of the best researchers & speech writers working for her, that I must admit. But the fact remains that the "line" for which so many Liberals are now "cheering" her, she appropriated from someone else. (Why? Because...they can). To me, her calmness, and her cool off-handed "cut" at a uniformed member of our armed services indicates her much more pernicious and camouflaged hatred of all things military!

That phrase as it was originally written - that wonderfully vivid and descriptive phrase - was coined by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in his book entitled "Biographia Literaria" published in 1817. It describes how a person who loves fiction, willingly gives away (suspends) their disbelief for the moments they are enjoying the fiction. Coleridge was referring to his poetic writing efforts in a collaboration with William Wordsworth. He spoke about it specifically, applying the rules of the collaboration, to Wordsworth's Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Here is Coleridge's entire "recollection" (with my italics);

"... it was agreed, that my endeavors should be directed to persons and characters supernatural, or at least romantic, yet so as to transfer from our inward nature a human interest and a semblance of truth sufficient to procure for these shadows of imagination that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith. Mr. Wordsworth on the other hand was to propose to himself as his object, to give the charm of novelty to things of every day, and to excite a feeling analogous to the supernatural, by awakening the mind's attention from the lethargy of custom, and directing it to the loveliness and the wonders of the world before us ..."


So while many of her constituents and democrats at-large, lauded her for her wonderful "turn of a phrase," they should know that once again "a Clinton" has literally "stolen" the show. (At the very least she could have attributed it to Coleridge! Now, along with everything else I need consider her a plagiarist!) More importantly, since it seems unlikely that General Petraeus studied English Romanticism (no laughing!), he might easily have missed the "gibe" - and sat there thinking about what the phrase meant - rather than recognize the insult it proffered.

Unless I have greatly misread Mrs. Clinton for many years now, to me there is one thing that is glaringly, chillingly obvious. As has been recorded many times in books about her and her husband - here are two people - who have been together for a very long time - who share a total and unbridled abhorrence for anyone and anything associated with the military. It was remarkable enough to me that her husband could serve as President and C-I-C for two terms harboring such an attitude. That he survived is testament to the oath of duty our soldiers take!

From everything that I've seen, heard and read, no matter how hard I try, I can not fathom Hillary Clinton as a "Commander In Chief." What's more, I can't envision military personnel granting her the respect a C-I-C should enjoy, but must have, after already having dealt with her husband, and knowing her contempt for the military.

Now that would require a willing suspension of disbelief! (Thank you Mr. Coleridge).

Dum Spiro Spero!


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