Peter Lemiska
Hillary who?
By Peter Lemiska
If our American soldiers in Baghdad were shocked and awed by the President's surprise Thanksgiving Day visit, Senator Clinton must have been absolutely dumbstruck.
The carefully orchestrated news coverage of her visits to Afghanistan and Iraq — the speeches, the sound bites, the photo ops — all of it was buried beneath a mountain of media reports on the President's surprise trip to Baghdad.
Can anyone imagine her frustration? Spending a few days away from her Chappaqua digs to chow down with the grunts in the field is one thing. But to do it without any measurable media coverage — that's something else entirely.
She announced her trip well enough in advance to generate some media attention, but that all evaporated when the real story broke.
It was on Thanksgiving Day, after the President was out of harm's way, that the world learned about his visit. And the world could not turn away from the story.
The news reports saturated the airwaves and internet news sites. Friday's newspapers were filled with accounts of his trip.
Of particular interest was Friday's edition of the European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, which ran a front-page story on the President's visit.
Senator Clinton's visit to Afghanistan was not even mentioned — anywhere in the publication.
And it was not just the extraordinary security measures that made the President's trip so compelling. Anyone who saw the troops' reaction to his appearance understands why so many of us were glued to the TV.
Their spontaneous, frenzied reception and the President's emotional response could never have been orchestrated. The emotion-charged atmosphere of that event rendered irrelevant any questions about his motives. The enthusiasm was real, and it left no doubt in anyone's mind that our fighting men and women not only accept President Bush as Commander-in-Chief, but wholeheartedly embrace him as a genuine leader.
And he accomplished exactly what a leader has to do. He inspired and rallied the troops. In fact, except for the most callous cynic, most Americans who saw the taped speech were filled with inspiration and pride.
The event also showed us one reason he is so revered by our armed forces. For no one who watched it or read the subsequent accounts can doubt the President's affection for those troops or his sincerity. The emotions that welled up inside of him were genuine — they were not scripted.
On the other hand, we have what's-her-name.
Why was her trip such an underwhelming PR failure? How is it that, compared to the President's reception in Baghdad, her welcome at Bagram Air Base was lukewarm, at best? As several observers reportedly noted, the troops seemed more excited about the turkey on their plates.
There are a couple of possible explanations for their indifference towards this particular U.S. Senator and former first lady. Some might say that those feelings were forged during the last administration, when Bill Clinton did everything in his power to transform our military from a formidable fighting force to a socially engineered, and ill-equipped humanitarian organization.
Or it may just be that they have never gotten over his administration's utter disdain for anyone in uniform.
Or maybe those service men and women were just more perceptive than Senator Clinton anticipated. Maybe they just didn't want to be used in a campaign advertisement or otherwise exploited by a shrewd, calculating politician.
For it seems that wherever there is misery or hardship, there's Senator Clinton and a camera crew. And while she frantically makes the rounds, most of us know that there is but one cause near and dear to her heart — her own political success.
Whatever the reason for the snub, she should take comfort in the fact that things could have been worse — much worse. Imagine the catastrophic results if those troops were free to voice their true feelings — the way those other American heroes did after she elbowed her way into that 9/11 benefit in New York. What she should have learned when those NYC police and fireman booed her off stage, is that most of us have no trouble recognizing the difference between honest compassion and political maneuvering.
In retrospect, she was lucky in Afghanistan. After all, no press is infinitely better than bad press.
© Peter Lemiska
If our American soldiers in Baghdad were shocked and awed by the President's surprise Thanksgiving Day visit, Senator Clinton must have been absolutely dumbstruck.
The carefully orchestrated news coverage of her visits to Afghanistan and Iraq — the speeches, the sound bites, the photo ops — all of it was buried beneath a mountain of media reports on the President's surprise trip to Baghdad.
Can anyone imagine her frustration? Spending a few days away from her Chappaqua digs to chow down with the grunts in the field is one thing. But to do it without any measurable media coverage — that's something else entirely.
She announced her trip well enough in advance to generate some media attention, but that all evaporated when the real story broke.
It was on Thanksgiving Day, after the President was out of harm's way, that the world learned about his visit. And the world could not turn away from the story.
The news reports saturated the airwaves and internet news sites. Friday's newspapers were filled with accounts of his trip.
Of particular interest was Friday's edition of the European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, which ran a front-page story on the President's visit.
Senator Clinton's visit to Afghanistan was not even mentioned — anywhere in the publication.
And it was not just the extraordinary security measures that made the President's trip so compelling. Anyone who saw the troops' reaction to his appearance understands why so many of us were glued to the TV.
Their spontaneous, frenzied reception and the President's emotional response could never have been orchestrated. The emotion-charged atmosphere of that event rendered irrelevant any questions about his motives. The enthusiasm was real, and it left no doubt in anyone's mind that our fighting men and women not only accept President Bush as Commander-in-Chief, but wholeheartedly embrace him as a genuine leader.
And he accomplished exactly what a leader has to do. He inspired and rallied the troops. In fact, except for the most callous cynic, most Americans who saw the taped speech were filled with inspiration and pride.
The event also showed us one reason he is so revered by our armed forces. For no one who watched it or read the subsequent accounts can doubt the President's affection for those troops or his sincerity. The emotions that welled up inside of him were genuine — they were not scripted.
On the other hand, we have what's-her-name.
Why was her trip such an underwhelming PR failure? How is it that, compared to the President's reception in Baghdad, her welcome at Bagram Air Base was lukewarm, at best? As several observers reportedly noted, the troops seemed more excited about the turkey on their plates.
There are a couple of possible explanations for their indifference towards this particular U.S. Senator and former first lady. Some might say that those feelings were forged during the last administration, when Bill Clinton did everything in his power to transform our military from a formidable fighting force to a socially engineered, and ill-equipped humanitarian organization.
Or it may just be that they have never gotten over his administration's utter disdain for anyone in uniform.
Or maybe those service men and women were just more perceptive than Senator Clinton anticipated. Maybe they just didn't want to be used in a campaign advertisement or otherwise exploited by a shrewd, calculating politician.
For it seems that wherever there is misery or hardship, there's Senator Clinton and a camera crew. And while she frantically makes the rounds, most of us know that there is but one cause near and dear to her heart — her own political success.
Whatever the reason for the snub, she should take comfort in the fact that things could have been worse — much worse. Imagine the catastrophic results if those troops were free to voice their true feelings — the way those other American heroes did after she elbowed her way into that 9/11 benefit in New York. What she should have learned when those NYC police and fireman booed her off stage, is that most of us have no trouble recognizing the difference between honest compassion and political maneuvering.
In retrospect, she was lucky in Afghanistan. After all, no press is infinitely better than bad press.
© Peter Lemiska
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