George Graham

Hillary and John: Two Peas in a Political Pod

John McCain wants a gas-tax holiday. Hillary Clinton wants a gas-tax holiday.

John wants to bomb Iran. Hillary is ready to “obliterate” Iran.

John voted for the Iraq invasion. Hillary voted for the Iraq invasion.

John says Barack Obama is an elitist. Hillary says Barack Obama is an elitist.

John is all smiles over the Pastor Wright affair. Hillary is all smiles over the Pastor Wright affair.

John survived the Keating Five scandal. Hillary survived the Whitewater scandal.

Hillary says she and John have a lifetime of foreign relations experience. John says Hillary is a close friend.

And on, and on.

No one should be surprised at the cozy relationship between John McCain and Hillary Clinton.

Philosophically, they both walk the line between the Democratic and Republican parties, drifting from one side to the other on the issues in response to the winds of political opportunism. They differ from time to time as their political circumstances dictate, with McCain pandering to the right-to-lifers and Hillary courting the women’s vote by defending their right to have an abortion.

They advocate different health plans — but both plans are essentially hand-outs to the insurance companies. John McCain makes no secret of his determination to keep our troops in Iraq. Hillary Clinton’s eyesight is still good enough to read the polls, so she says she will bring the troops home.

Don’t be misled by their apparent differences. They are really two peas in a pod.

Both were rich kids. No, Hillary did not grow up in a cabin in Pennsylvania. No, she can’t bowl. No, she doesn’t hunt rabbits in the back yard of her mansion. John’s father (like his grandfather) was an admiral. An admiral!

Hillary was president of the Young Republican Club and even campaigned for Barry Goldwater. You remember Goldwater? He was the guy who wanted to drop an atom bomb on Vietnam — yup he wanted to “obliterate” those Vietnamese just like Hillary wants to “obliterate” those Iranians.

Both John and Hillary are multimillionaires. His social security income is $45,000 a year. The rest of us codgers feel rich if we get more than a thousand bucks a month from Uncle Sam. And he makes hundreds of thousands of dollars in addition to that. Besides, his wife is a beer baron’s daughter worth at least a hundred million dollars in her own right. Hillary and Bill made more than a hundred million dollars in the past few years.One other similarity:

John McCain is a “war hero” who was captured by the Viet Cong and spent years in a tiny cell, etc.

Hillary Clinton had to dodge sniper fire in Bosnia…

No, wait. That turned out to be a figment of her imagination.

About the author

gwgraeme

I am a Jamaican-born writer who has lived and worked in Canada and the United States. I live in Lakeland, Florida with my wife, Sandra, our three cats and two dogs. I like to play golf and enjoy our garden, even though it's a lot of work. Since retiring from newspaper reporting I've written a few books. I also write a monthly column for Jamaicans.com