One Good Thing
During Bill Clinton’s Presidency, Rush Limbaugh was a guest on David Letterman’s late-night show. Letterman asked Limbaugh if he could say just one nice thing, one good thing, about the President. Limbaugh couldn’t, or more accurately, wouldn’t — and that was pretty much the end of any interest I had in Limbaugh.
Last month, Letterman presented Clinton with a similar opportunity. Asked what he thought of Sen. McCain, Clinton not only did what any decent person would do, (and what Limbaugh and his ilk have refused to do), the former President went above-and-beyond …
“I like him very much. I admire him. Look he lived — first of all, he served our country with valor and consistency for a long time. He comes from a family of military service. His father had a distinguished career, his grandfather, and he survived five and a half years of hell in that North Vietnamese prison camp … He and Hillary are much closer than I am because they’ve traveled the world with recalcitrant Republican senators trying to convince them that global warming was real … I like him. I admire him. I think he’s a — I don’t agree with him about Iraq, but I think he’s independent and does what he thinks is right and that’s about all you can ask from anybody.”
Sunday evening, presented with an opportunity to attack Hillary, several of the debating GOP candidates jumped at the chance. McCain was far more circumspect.
Striking a gracious note, McCain event went so far as to say, “I know and respect Sen. Clinton,” using her professional title when Giuliani and Romney called her only by her widely-used first name.
While his refusal to tell the Republican activists in attendance what they wanted to hear kept some in the audience sitting on their hands, McCain’s next statement brought them to their feet.
Finding a way to marry a soft Clinton jab with his fiscal conservative credentials and Vietnam war record, McCain pointed out that the New Yorker had sought to include an earmark for a Woodstock museum …
Next, of course, McCain made a remark about Woodstock that earned him the belly-laugh of the night, but in doing so he did not question nor attack the character of Sen. Clinton. Much as the latter’s husband noted how he disagreed with McCain on Iraq, McCain made it clear he disagreed with the Senator from New York on a certain porkish-earmark. However, in both cases, both men couched their disagreement in terms of clear respect.
Regular readers already know I’m fond of both Bill and John. But I raise this two-part example not to gratuitously promote either man. Rather, I raise it to help kick-off an exercise, one that will attempt to learn from and build on their collective example. Specifically, starting today, I’m on the prowl for Progressives/Democrats who will say “one good thing” about their counterparts across the aisle, and Conservatives/Republicans who will do the same. These examples of “one good thing” need not come from Washington. To the contrary, they can come from anywhere — including (and in particular) from you.
Like me, other readers of and writers for this site frequently bemoan the nastiness of political discourse in these United States, not the least of which we see in the blogosphere’s mad-dash mudslinging. Here’s a chance to do something about it, to do something more than “bemoan,” to directly contribute to a more civilized refrain.
Net: If you lean progressive and catch a conservative in the act of doing “one good thing,” or if you lean conservative and spot a similar act by a progressive … drop me a line. I’ll then source the information, compile it with other found or submitted evidence, and share the results. And who knows? Maybe, just maybe, others (outside this space) will follow suit.
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16 Responses to “One Good Thing”
I am a center-left Democrat and I’ll start right here:
Mike Huckabee seems to be a nice guy who is sincere and well-intended, although I disagree with him on most hot-button social issues.
Rudy Giuliani is hawkish enough and has management experience.
John McCain is hawkish enough and has foreign policy as well as military experience.
Pete:
Terrific post. Comity in politics isn’t dead, but it is on life support.
Thanks, Shaun. Perhaps we can collectively take it to a state that’s better than simply “on life support.”
Holly, re: the phrase “hawkish enough,” can you elaborate?
[...] post by Pete Abel This was written by . Posted on Tuesday, October 23, 2007, at 1:44 pm. Filed under [...]
Holly,
I completely disagree with you on Giuliani. He’s an ADHD fair weather Republican who will go any way the wind blows, and wears his flip flops on his sleeve. Has no interest in the man on the street until it’s time to make a photo op- then everyone has to put what they’re doing on hold until he’s done. He’s what we affectionately call here in NY, a “douchebag”. He’s made poor choices in his police administration, and encouraged trigger happy thugishness and has taken far too much credit for putting cops on the streets as far as actual numbers go.Was he better than Dinkins, yes. Bloomberg? No. Bloomie got us back on our feet while Rudy lit off for Florida.
And he looks horrible in a dress. Just sayin’.
Hawkish = Not likely to sell out either the USA or the State of Israel.
I said Giuliani had the management experience, not that he managed well.
What a wonderful idea, Pete!
This should make us put recognition where lip srvice to civility used to be.
I’ve already commneted about what I admire about McCain (work on torture and immigration bills) in spite of the fact that I would not vote for him.
I’m going to be on the lookout now for the one good thing someone says or does when that someone is a person I would vote for or support in any way only when you know what freezes over.
I’ll start with Huckabee, the poster child of what I especially dislike in today’s politics, i.e., making being religious part of a political platform and claiming being religious as a special badge of honor.
I am happy to note, then, that he was the only Rep. candidate to mention the problems with our health care system. He did this by stating that he feels the pain of those unable to provide for familles in this area.
That was a good thing.
This is how Goldwater and Kennedy ran their campaigns against each other in the early 1960s.. They disagreed on almost everything but when they happened to meet in the same town were able to have a friendly conversation that left both of them willing to admire (for the record) the good points that they saw.
In those days there were significant philosophical differences, but each man was willing to compartmentalize politics and treat each other with respect. If you compare the present “conservatives” with Goldwater, the latter comes off as a saint in virtually every way while the GOP candidates (Huckabee and Paul the exceptions) are mean spirited, grasping, and opportunistic with no personal philosophy but willing to whore out in order to be elected.
Guiliani: hmmm…hmmm…hmmm…as someone else wrote about Obama, it’s even more true with Giuliani that he’s not doing well for a Messiah.
It’s sad to see that so many don’t seem to understand what a ‘good word” means, Instead, they use any thread on any topic to fill it up with as many derogatory bad words as they can think of.
It isn’t really hard. I agree completely with the admiration that McCain has earned for his stand against torture. I also think it says something good about him that he recognizes the problem with too much money in our political system. Huckabee certainly does seem to be an extremely personable man as does Thompson. I have no doubt that Huckabee believes that what he would do as president would be good for the nation. But given that I am not a fundamentalist Christian and a believer in a right to privacy I’m not going to be politically supporting them no matter how well intentioned.
I’ll say something good about Ron Paul. He’s a straight shooter, and is fearless about speaking out on Iraq and our interventionist foreign policy. Also, I admire his dedication to the Constitution, a trait that is sorely needed right now in the Oval Office. I like his spunk.
I like Huckabee because he’s funny and soft-spoken. He seems to be genuinely a compassionate conservative- which is a refreshing change from the status quo. Also, he actually believes what he preaches to others.
Also, must commend Governor Schwarzenegger for the way he is leading California – he is doing a great job with the fires, has been a champion of the environment, and withstood political pressures from his party to change the state’s electoral vote process.
I’m an Independent supporting Senator McCain, but respect a number of the candidates running. I think Huckabee and Obama are both genuinely good decent people. I admire Senator Clinton for her resiliency and the graceful way she handles a barrage of what I perceive as low ball attacks.
[...] at Clemons’ left-leaning blog, Scott Paul drops a “one good thing” on us, highlighting the wisdom of Senator John [...]
[...] at Clemons’ left-leaning blog, Scott Paul drops a “one good thing” on us, highlighting the wisdom of Senator John [...]