One of my favorite comic strips growing up was Andy Capp. It was about a no good layabout who justified his misbehavior in all manner of ways.
In one of the classic strips the first panel shows Andy in a pub holding the hand of a young bar maid. In the next, his wife Flo comes through the door and declares that he is cheating on her. In the third panel Andy, in righteous indignation avers “Me cheating on you! You’re supposed to be playing bingo!”
I think of this comic strip now when I realize that we have a true life Andy Capp running for president. That is Hillary Clinton. It is impossible to list all the scandals that she has been associated with. From the time she and her husband have entered into public life their names have been tied to one scandal after another.
Their method of dealing with the scandals is to lie and then to accuse their accusers of some minor infraction.
Let’s take the email scandal.
First Mrs Clinton states that she did not really have a private server. Then she admits it but that it was for personnel emails only. The we discover that she used it for State Department emails, in violation of the law.
Then she said it was done with the approval of the State Department. When this is shown to be false, she accused previous Secretaries of State of the same actions. When this excuse falls apart she claims that she is being singled out because she is woman. (I wonder what Candeleza Rice made of that one?)
So at the end we realize that she has lied about this matter. But her defense is that they (the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy) is out to get her and, besides, everybody does it.
And besides, Trump has not released his tax returns. Wow!
The sad truth is that everybody doesn’t do it.
That the reason that she is not considered trustworthy is that she has a sordid history. And that history is of her own making.
I want to say that I am not that enamored with Donald Trump. He was my 17th choice of the 17 people who ran for president in the Republican primaries. I did not vote for him. But I will vote for him due to the fact that he will not steal from me and demand that I love him for it.
He did not knowingly lie about his background or his misdeeds. As sad as this is, I will be holding my nose when I vote.