Way too tired to post tonight. but welcome to Lawrence and thanks for your contribution. One news item to consider--a group of OJ's friends and associates is in Vegas tonight to raise bail money to spring him from the county lock-up. While in town himself, Bill Clinton is reportedly not among them. Both emblematic faces of the 90's, Clinton and OJ each leveraged good will in the black community to help extricate themselves from the consequences of their misdeeds. OJ, it was said at the time, only discovered he was black when he was booked for Nicole Brown Simpson's murder. Not fair, of course, given the era in which OJ played college ball and broke into the pros, but probably some wag's observation about his dating patterns, more than his sense of identity. And Clinton, whom Toni Morrison in 1998 inexplicably called our first black president, went right to his base for support immediately after the Lewinsky scandal. Does Morrison still call him that after last week? Will she if BHO is elected president in November?
Ok, I can see what Morrison was getting at--a man hounded and pursued by powerful forces arrayed against him after achieving a measure of professional success and trying to help those on the margins. But really, no GOP operative planted that white woman under his desk. His appetites are his own and I found it cynical when he fled into the embrace of his most faithful supporters after this most public act of unfaithfulness. I understand the impulse. Everyone wants to be loved and cuddled after they have sinned. You run to mommy after you break the living room window with your wrist-rocket. But it's American kabuki and all Clinton does is cheapen that historic relationship between the party and community whenever he parachutes in for a group hug with African-Americans, a cache of base impulses and ambitions concealed in his pack. Everybody's in on it, everybody plays their role, but I find it fundamentally distasteful, whether it's OJ or WJC and so very late 20th century. Good night.
