Posted on 01/18/2005 2:27:14 AM PST by NRA1995
It turned out to be the highlight of the whole 1500 mile trip! Whatever you've heard about how bad/ugly/poorly designed it is-- well, it's even worse than that in person!
We were convinced we were approaching it from the rear!--it is ugly, unfinished looking, and somehow much, much smaller than I'd envisioned. The signs refer to it as the Clinton "Presidential Center and Park" (just a Presidential Library would be too pedestrian, apparently). It looks like a houseboat on stilts. There are almost NO unobstructed sightlines to the building, the signage is both cheap looking and hard to read.
The feature that most fascinated me was that the entire building is surrounded by concrete posts just like you see at the 7-11 or pawn shops to keep some yahoo from ramming their pickup through the glass, LOL. It's not that I was surprised to see crash barriers, just that you'd think they'd be disguised/prettied up--decorative stone blocks or something. But these were just your basic concrete pillars/posts with rounded tops, exactly like the ones that keep you from backing into the gas pumps at the PicNPac, LOL! For some reason this tickled the heck out of me, it was just so cheesy.
After all the talk about how much money they were raking in for donations to build this thing, it is just pathetic how underwhelming it was. We were literally driving around it with our jaws dropped in disbelief (no way were we going inside!). I've been to the LBJ, Reagan, and GHWBush41 Libraries, and each manages to evoke a sense of importance and grandeur (yes, even LBJ's--regardless of what I think of him and his presidency, it's a grand library, fitting for a President of the USA.). Clinton's "Center" evokes a sense of hiding from the world (all the obstructed sightlines, it was amazing) and over-reaching and self-important facades with no substance beneath. Just sad--once again Bill himself has no respect for the office of the Presidency, and it's manifested in his LieBury.
I took a bunch of pictures, but don't have time to post them right now. Perhaps in the next couple of days, but probably not til after I return home from DC.
Not just the pols, but all of the local media I've checked out seems to have fallen for it, too. Hook, line, and sucker.
And pay for the privelege?
Thanks for the colorful report. It is so interesting to me. Did the architect know what he was doing? Did he unconciously design a building that revealed the subject sort of like a painter can do a portrait that reveals the worst things about a person? Did Bill approve the design?
And finally, it cost a fortune to build this little building. Did someone just get gravy from that money and all that came out of it was a tacky building.
Now I have to go see it, I just have to.
Thanks for the visit.....would'nt waste a drop of gas on that trip...your description was what I somehow expected.....
It's only $7.00 admission for adults. And its only closed three days per year (Christmas, New Years, and Thanksgiving) so you don't have to worry about getting there on the 4th of July and finding it closed.
42,054 paid to enter.
Idiots. What a waste of money.
Howsabout the oval office sink?
We can thank all of those stupid Republicans who voted for Ross Perot for giving us William the Zipper.
Not nearly as disappointing as the Clinton presidency was! What they need to do is lure the Clinton worshipers in with free government cheese or something. The redistribution of someone else's wealth always works for Dems.
LOL, yes! Visitors are being disenfranchised!
"William the Zipper" I love it!
Yep I forgot the silverware stolen, etc. Sorry : (
Ha bunch of guys and I fell for that one. We were tired from overtime and the was a very good story teller. Thought it was true to the very end.
Folks, forget about Monica Lewinsky, the pardons, Hillary Clinton, Whitewater, Vince Foster, missing billing records, etc. The real legacy of the Bill Clinton years was his failure to protect the citizens of the United States. This guy was the enabler of 911, and the majority of the American people know it. He is toast, and always will be!!!
I'm sure XXXlinton will ask W to send Jimmy Carter to Little Rock to demand a recount of the attendance.
Just think how many poor children could have been fed with $162 million.
And don't forget the astroturf in the truck bed.
I thought that was fitting for the 8 years of dark clouds of immorality he brought to this country.
I'm sure it didn't take much to sucker the AP.
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