Politics Means Always Having to Say You’re Sorry

I hear voters in New Hampshire aren’t 100% satisfied with Hillary Clinton’s defense of her voting record on the Iraq war. Seems “If I knew then what I know now, I never would have authorized the president” is not quite good enough for those New Englanders. They want to hear “I made a mistake.” I don’t quite get the difference or the importance, but apparently New Hampshire-ites (New Hampshirians?) are big on semantics.

What I’d like to know is, how many members of the American public are willing to fess up to the same misdeed?

Back in 2003, what percent of Americans were all for bombing Baghdad and kicking Saddam Hussein’s butt? What percent thought Pres. Bush was just the kind of “take no prisoners” cowboy we needed to lead our nation in a time of crisis? A big, fat whopping majority. I know this because I was in the minority, and clearly made to feel so.

We can’t have it both ways. We can’t, as in this past November’s elections, “send a message” to Congress that we’re tired of Iraq and want out. And then accept no blame for sending them the very opposite message four years ago.

A lot of voters thought invading Iraq was a darned good idea at the time and demanded their representatives in D.C. think likewise and act accordingly—or face the electoral consequences. Now we want them to turn around and say “I’m sorry” or “I made a mistake” without looking like a flip-flopper. Hey, fellow Americans, you want to see a flip-flopper, look in the mirror.

So here’s what I propose. Hillary: Say you’re sorry. Say you made a mistake. And in return, every person who asked for this war and voted for George W. in 2004 to continue this war has to apologize too.

Then we’ll call it even.

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On a completely different note, I see Beyonce continues to further her bid for world domination of all media—she snagged the highly coveted cover of Sports Illustrated’s annual swimsuit issue.

Normally I don’t have a whole lot of sympathy for supermodels. They get paid exorbitant amounts of money just because they’re pretty and they make the rest of us women feel like crap about ourselves. But the S.I. cover is one of the modeling world’s premier gigs. It’s a star-making opportunity. And Beyonce stole it.

Like she needs more exposure.

I believe I’ve mentioned that I’m not a fan of Beyonce’s. Mostly because I’m fairly certain there are other women out there with far greater talent—both as singers and actors—who aren’t quite as bootylicious, and hence, not nearly as famous. Posing in a bikini for Sports Illustrated does nothing to disprove my theory that she’s more about style than substance.