Posted on 10/28/2007 2:19:16 AM PDT by Kaslin
Given the circumstances, no other three-word combination would have sufficed: “How Dare You?”
That was part of the response from former President Bill Clinton, when confronted by hecklers at a Hillary 2008 fundraising event in Minneapolis.
The story went like this: after making a late start with what turned out to be his approximately fifty-minute speech, Clinton was rudely interrupted by several hecklers in the audience who began shouting at him, and over him, and claiming that the terrorist attacks of 2001 were a “fraud.“
Even if you haven’t seen the video, it’s not difficult to imagine how this could have played-out. Our former President could have easily ignored the hecklers, or could have easily remained silent for a second or two, and allowed them to be cleared away by security officials - - and then could have continued right along with his remarks.
But instead, President Clinton chose to confront the hecklers head-on.
In the face of the “fraud” claim, Clinton confronted them directly. “A fraud?” No it wasn’t a fraud!” he shot back, as the crowd began to cheer him on. “I’ll be glad to talk to you” Clinton stated, trying to bring closure to the interruption, “if you shut up and let me talk.”
As he then attempted to continue with his address, another heckler shouted at President Clinton, claiming that the terrorist attacks had been an “inside job.”
“An inside job?” Clinton retorted, with indignation in his voice. “How dare you. How dare you! It was NOT an inside job!”
After these brief few moments, the hecklers were indeed escorted from the facility, and President Clinton continued with his speech. But by choosing to confront the malcontents, rather than ignoring them, Clinton accomplished something noteworthy.
In a matter of a few seconds, former President Clinton used a spontaneous moment with rude people in his midst to communicate to a fearful, skeptical American people. What was the message he conveyed? That the worst suspicions about our country and government are not to be tolerated, and certainly not to be believed.
To the skeptic who suggested that the terrorist attacks of 2001 were somehow phony, Clinton made it clear that there was nothing phony at all about “Nine-Eleven.”
To the selfish individual who thought nothing of interrupting an American President for his own personal agenda, Clinton said “shut up and let me talk.”
And to the person so cynical about America as to assert that our nation’s government perpetrated the terrorist attacks on its own people, Clinton’s message was quite clear indeed: don’t you dare say such things about our country. Implicitly, he was conveying to America that as a nation, we are better than the insinuations were suggesting, and we are worthy of greater respect.
Some observers are too cynical about Bill Clinton the man, to be able to appreciate the power of his apparently spontaneous words. But imagine how different things might be, if others of our political leaders were more willing to utilize the “how dare you” rhetoric.
Things would be quite different, for example, if our current President were willing to be so confrontational with those who willingly violate our nation’s border laws.
And imagine how different things might be if Hillary Rodham Clinton were willing to confront her fellow Democrats in Congress, when they insinuate that our military service men and women are torturers, terrorists, and failures.
Bill Clinton’s presidency was far from flawless, and no doubt he still suffers with his own credibility gap today. But he also understands the power of words, and how to use them, far better than most politicians.
Let’s hope that our next President knows how and when to communicate more effectively - - and is willing to say “how dare you” from time to time.
Additionally Reagan once told a heckler to "shut up" as I recall.
“credibilty gap” of his former
Meant to type former president idol. (must get coffee)
NONE of them happened. They are PURE MADE UP BS by liars and political frauds. NONE of what you claim is true. Popular Science looked into what you claim happened on 09-11. NONE of it actually did. They are ALL lies.
So quit spewing Hate America garbage propaganda put out by our enemies.
Wow, for the first time in what, almost 16 years, I actually agree with Bill Clinton.
It’s definitely the end times. What’s next, stars falling from the sky?
I never trusted the Clinton motives on anything.
I could add my own conspiracy theory and say the whole "How Dare You" thing was staged as a prop showing the Clintons' attempt to look like they're moving to the center...again!
Why were there reports of explosions from the buildings?
Because huge buildings beginning to come apart make loud noises.
One of the unfortunates marooned in an upper floor of WTC1 sent a Blackberry e-mail message a few minutes before it collapsed, telling his horrified correspondent that they could feel the floors' creeping distortion and flexing under them (they were flat on a conference-room floor, trying not to inhale smoke), and they could hear the steel structural braces on the floors below them pulling free from the outer box-beams and crashing down.
Why did the Towers fall so fast in freefall and explode outwards rather than like the "pancake" theory?
If you look at the video of WTC2 beginning to fall that was taken from about the SE corner of the property near the Marriott Hotel, near the pedestrian overpass that survived the collapsing buildings, you can see the pancaking going on inside the tower even as the skin peels away and falls outward (mostly, some collapsed inward) from the upper floors after the collapsing mass has passed by and stripped away the lateral support provided by the floors and their support braces.
As the collapse mass reaches each floor and it collapses, a puff of dust blows out the windows on all sides as the floor collapses violently onto the floor below, taking it out. Survivors of the collapse who were in the stairwell said they could hear the collapse-mass coming (God, that must have been an experience utterly beyond everything that we call reality) and that it was a tremendous pounding noise that they noticed most, before the mass reached them and passed by on its way to bedrock. So the building really did pancake.
The upper floors collapsed differently, beginning to fall as a cohesive mass and then disintegrating in flight as stresses far in excess of design simply disarticulated the structure, grinding up its contents into a cloud of falling dust, beam segments, and paper. Someone who claimed to know wrote afterward that the largest piece of office furniture recognized in the wreckage was half of a telephone keypad. So he said.
The engineering study of the collapses also noted other significant differences in the demise of the towers, the chiefest being that WTC 2 fell because the outer box-beam skin failed where it had been damaged by the airliner, whereas WTC 1 failed first in the central structural mass.
If being informed about ABLE DANGER makes me a conspiracy nut, include me in.
Bush should have rammed that crap down the Dems throats, long hard and continuously. Instead, we had politicians running interference for fellow politicians.
The beltway culture should have burned to the ground over that.
But the rest of that guys post is a load.
How long you gonna beat on that stupid thing?
WOW I NEVER HEARD ANY OF THAT! YOU BETTER GO TO SOMEONE RIGHT NOW WITH YOUR FINDINGS! I MEAN, MAYBE CONGRESS WILL EVEN BE PROMPTED TO INVESTIGATE WHAT HAPPENED!
Looks like all you have are questions. Questions aren't facts.
Bush didn’t ram anything down anyone’s throat because he was trying to keep politics out of it and keep the country together instead of pointing fingers. It would have accomplished nothing helpful. Blame the terrorists.
Who was the heckler, Nazi Pelosi?
I agree about Able Danger.
Why do idiots ask stupid questions?
Retired pundit William Safire predicted eight years ago that Hillary would run, under Bill's direction, for the White House. Everyone accused him of paranoia and smoking dope. My learned cousin dissed me openly for not merely repeating what Safire had said -- these right-wing rumor-mongers! Merchants of malcontent! -- but worse, actually believing him. Yeah, well.
A couple of years later, with Hillary ensconced in the Senate and sucking up left and right, I hazarded Bill Safire's "story" during a smoke-break in a poker game at my house, out on the back patio, and I added a couple of speculations of my own, to-wit that I thought that Hillary, if elected, would return the favor by trying to get Bill elected General Secretary of the U.N., to help expunge the "stain" of impeachment. (The Clintons are vindictive as hell, and conservatives may rejoice daily in the knowledge that impeachment really nailed them hard where it hurts the most, in their pride, of which they have tons.)
I went on to elaborate a bit, that I thought Hillary and Bill might then try, having established themselves as accomplished politicians, try to pull the ladder up, as it were, by debasing the office so that successors would always be "in a hole" to the Clintons in the "greatness" sweepstakes, which is basically all they care about.
The best way to accomplish that debasement would be to "bring America into camp" as it were, with the international crowd, and turn in our independence and sovereignty by treaty (such as, e.g., LOST and ICC). That would effectively, with Bill in the General Secretaryship and Hillary in the Oval Office, make the U.N. the Government of the United States and the U.S. military the enforcement arm of the U.N. Thus Bill Clinton would become, in effect, the Founder of the World Empire, the New World Order -- and a world-historical figure forever, thus squashing all the House impeachment managers and all past and future Presidents of the United States at one blow.
To which not one but two of my poker-playing friends replied instantly, almost in unison, "You've just described the coming of the Antichrist!" Which surprised me, since I hadn't read or heard much about the Left Behind series. But they had, evidently.
As much as we all despise Billy Jeff, but for this I do have to give him credit for. He could have just told the truther no lets just discuss this, but he did not. He said the right thing
Your post is incredibly offensive.
I have to disagree. Bush should have taken the opportunity, and removed the cancer from DC when people were still pissed.
911 could have been prevented, but not for the reasons the Dem truther nuts say. But the opportunity to correct the flaws was misspent. We instituted flaccid, expensive non-solutions like the TSA instead.
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