Clinton and W: A Comparison

Want to know why I tend to identify with the Democrats these days? This from Dan Froomkin in the WaPo sums up one of the main kinds of reasons pretty well. The most salient Democratic president of my lifetime has been Bill Clinton. He may have lied about where he put his wee-wee (and who wouldn't?), but he was an honest inquirer about policy. This, needless to say, contrasts fairly dramatically with the two most salient Republican presidents of my adult lifetime, Reagan and W.

As far as I'm concerned, the right has taken itself out of the game by refusing to take democracy and public and foreign policy seriously. If I know that one side in a debate is being fairly open and honest with me about the facts and arguments, and I know that the other side isn't, I'm going to side with the former side on all close calls.

In fact, since I think that honesty about these matters is of paramount importance, I'll tend to side with the honest side even in some cases in which I suspect them of being wrong--simply because I think that one of the very most important characteristics a government can have is honesty. I'd rather have an honest, open, and slightly incompetent government than a highly competent, secretive and dishonest one.

Of course this administration has not forced us to make such a choice...

[Thanks to the mighty Statisticasaurus Rex for this link.]