The Sanity Squad on Clinton and that "nice little conservative hit job."

Great discussion. Wow. several of you voted for BC ........twice! I never thought BC was as bad as Rush made him out to be, but I just could not have voted for him....no way, no how! He was/is the epitomy of the so many of the young men I encountered on the campuses in the 60s. No real core beliefs......just out for themselves and on the make/take. He never grew out of it and a lot of his contemporaries are just like him. It's the main reason why I despair of our ability to maintain the will for the fight against Islamism.

Sep 26, 2006 07:54 PM

Republican ex-presidents never publicly criticize Democrats who hold the nation’s highest office. Only Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter have behaved in this manner. I strongly recommend that everyone read Donkey Cons: Sex, Crime, and Corruption in the Democratic Party by Lynn Vincent and Robert Stacy McCain. Unfortunately, some people consider this book as something of a slime job. Nothing could be further from the true. I think it is fair to describe Democrats as overall less morally decent and honest. They are often utopians who believe that the end justify the means. What’s a few lies if the greater good can be achieved? After all, don’t you sometimes have to break a few eggs to make an omelet?

Have we already forgotten Clinton’s claim he didn't have sex with that woman and it all depends on the interpretation of what “is” is. Republicans are not perfect. They can occasionally be quite flawed. Nonetheless, more often than not members of the GOP adhere to the concept of objective truth. Democrats are far more inclined towards moral relativism.

Sep 26, 2006 08:39 PM

Great Show,

One comment... You mentioned that Bill Clinton has a wife that wants to be President. I dont think Bill Clinton wants her to be President on the outside chance that she will out shine his star.... His subconcience might surface many more times before the 2008 election in order to sink her potential presidential bid...

Sep 26, 2006 10:34 PM

In Clinton's defense, my impression is that he lost his temper in the Fox interview because he thought that Wallace did not give appropriate time to the subject of The Clinton Global Initiative before launching into "any other subject" questions. I think he could have handled it better, but it is all being blown out of proportion. That said, Clinton is clearly concerned for his legacy and probably has been ever since he realized that he shouldn't have placed it in Yasir Arafat's hands.

Sep 27, 2006 06:37 AM

There is really never any excuse for loosing your temper. It just distracts from the message. I could understand the president being frustrated by not getting his Global Intiative out, but he shows his pettiness, when he starts blaming everything on the CIA and FBI. Bush can stay n message, Clinton can't. Then his follow-up remarks to the British are classles. Why does he insist on attacking the President overseas? As for Clinton's remarks to Wallace, you have to be careful when you address allegations. Sometimes you risk incurring excessive notoriety for stories that would otherswise die.

Sep 27, 2006 11:09 AM

Armchair diagnoses bring both the practitioner and the profession of psychology into disrepute. Good job guys.

That's why the APA considers it unethical to give "professional opinions," without actually examining the person. Opinions like narcissistic.

Sep 27, 2006 09:02 PM

Uh, Greg- pay attention- this isn't rocket science.

Observations and opinions are not professional diagnosis. No one on the Sanity Squad would ever make such a claim.

That said, there are self important pipsqueaks that cannot make those distinctions. They insist that they understand the parameters and differences between personal observations and opinions, and professional diagnosis. They also insist that they, and not the professionals they criticize are best suited to interpret and highlight professional guidlines of conduct.

We have a word for those kind of people.

Idiots.

Sep 28, 2006 06:09 AM

"In 1964, a few months before the presidential election, Fact magazine, now defunct, surveyed the membership of the American Psychiatric Association about the personality traits of Barry Goldwater, the Republican nominee. The psychiatrists savaged Goldwater, calling him "warped," and a "paranoid schizophrenic" who harbored unconscious hatred of his Jewish father and endured rigid toilet training.

Such forays into applied psychoanalysis have not been immune to criticism. After the Fact survey, the psychiatric association issued the so-called Goldwater Rule, advising members that it is "unethical for psychiatrists to offer a professional opinion unless he/she has conducted an examination and has been granted proper authorization for such a statement.""

The Perils of Putting National Leaders on the Couch

I'm sure that they were just offering their "observations and opinions" too. That's why the APA promulgated that rule, right?

Sep 28, 2006 07:18 AM

Greg- I will answer you one last time.

If you feel the opinion of mental health experts ought not be considered, you can understand why we might regard your opinion as annoying, not unlike that of an annoying gnat.

If you take issue with any of the specific points of our analysis, please present your evidence. Simple bluster or the pompous airing of make believe and contrived outrage do not constitute one side of a meaningful exchange.

Sep 28, 2006 06:25 PM

I saw the interview and I thought that Clinton's deportment was within bounds. I also thought he made a very important point -- specifically challenging the Fox News crowd on their failure to question any of the current Administration on their failure to focus on Osama bin Laden during their first 8 months in office. In fact, Paul Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld's deputy secretary, dismissed OBL as a threat and said that the "real threat was Iraq". Unhappily, Clinton got it right, the Fox "News" crowd has never questioned the current Administration about this lapse. I will incorporate by reference Greg's comments about absentee psychiatry and its own set of ethical problems.

Sep 28, 2006 07:36 PM

Greg,
I just re-listened to the Podcast and I think you have make a good point. There is a fine line between discussing someone's manifest behavior and actually making a diagnosis from afar. In this particular, Clinton's public behavior is certainly narcissistic with a small "n" (ie, the usual usage of the word, meaning self-involved, self-centered) but that is a long way from being able to diagnose a person and we should be more careful in the future. At the same time, there is a vast difference between calling Clinton's behavior "Narcissistic" and the kinds of pseudo-psychoanalyzing of Goldwater that was the original impetus for the APA statement.

Sep 29, 2006 07:10 AM

Whatever the psychology, Clinton once again lied in the face of all Americans. Anyone who read "The 9/11 Commission Report" knew he was lying during the interview, and anyone who did a little research after knew that Fox had put these same questions to Bush Administration officials, proving another lie, among the many. To top it off, Hillary came out with her own set of lies, and just like Bill, she knew anyone could easily prove her a liar, even with just the 9/11 Report.

What is it called when people knowingly lie to your face? Is that a psychological condition, or just a liar?

Sep 29, 2006 10:46 AM

Whatever the psychology, Clinton once again lied in the face of all Americans. Anyone who read "The 9/11 Commission Report" knew he was lying during the interview, and anyone who did a little research after knew that Fox had put these same questions to Bush Administration officials, proving another lie, among the many. To top it off, Hillary came out with her own set of lies, and just like Bill, she knew anyone could easily prove her a liar, even with just the 9/11 Report.

What is it called when people knowingly lie to your face? Is that a psychological condition, or just a liar?

Sep 29, 2006 11:36 AM

Evidently Dr. Applebreath believes that redundancy is the highest form of advocacy.

Sep 29, 2006 12:29 PM

Your podcasts are quite possibly the best thing on the internet! Keep it coming.

Sep 29, 2006 08:01 PM

The Clintons, as do many politicians, perceive the general public as studpid--sadly, they are often right.

Sep 29, 2006 08:06 PM

As the son of a PhD (Pronounced "FUD") Clinical Psychologist, I find it refreshing that those from the community embrace the voracity of the truth. As one who was raised in a home influenced by one skilled at skirting the truth underlying sensitive issues, what I have termed “shrinkese,” I’m gratified by those who welcome truth for it’s own virtue. Churchill stated it well regarding the truth: Malice will attack it, ignorance will deride it, but in the end, there it stands. Honest people don’t require an interpretation of what “is” is.

Sep 30, 2006 04:40 AM

Clinton will be remembered for reducing the budget deficit each year, until the budgte went into balance in 1998 followed by three consecutive years of budget surpluses, and an actual reduction in the national debt for the first time in 50 years.... this achievement (for which he shares credit with George H W Bush for his courageous deficit reduction compromise of 1990, and also with the strength of the economy of the 1990s and federal spending restraint from 1991 through 1996) put us on the wise path of paying down the debt with our ever-larger social security tax surpluses so that we will be well-positioned to handle the entirely predictable budgetary and demographic challenge of the retirement of the baby boomers... oh wait... what happened in 2001? 2002? 2003? 2004? 2005? oh right....

Sep 30, 2006 06:02 PM

Utterly mindless hypocrisy. What a bunch of morons. If you people really are "mental health professionals" then the nation is in a bad way.

And you call Clinton a narcisist. Hahahahaha.

Oct 1, 2006 02:05 PM

justanotherguy-

Do you have anything substantive to say? Or are mindless drivel and grunting the way you always attempt to communicate?

If you want you to be regarded as anything other than a primitive primate, you ought to give serious considertation to actually making an argument.

Simply spouting off is like pulling down your pants down in public. It will get you attention- but not the credibility or kind of attention you so clearly seek.

As to the Sanity Squad being narcissistic (congratulations on the correct usage of a word you clearly just learned), we readily admit that we are as narcissistic as the next guy, but we will concede that we are not as narcissistic as you or the magnificently narcissistic Bill Clinton.

Oct 2, 2006 08:50 AM

Clinton kind of surprised me. He seems to be slipping with age. On his game he would have universalized the problem and then moved on to only he has the right answer for it. This was defensive and weak.

Oct 2, 2006 03:45 PM