When Did the Ability to Kill Animals Become Prerequisite for the Presidency?

Posted by Richard Blair, The All Spin Zone at 4:09 PM on February 18, 2008.

Over the weekend, Hillary Clinton was doing some campaigning in Kenosha, Wisconsin. At a Q&A session, a question was raised on what she would do to prevent tragedies such as occurred last week at Northern Illinois University, in which 5 students were killed and 22 more wounded by a former NIU student who had gone off his meds.

Her answer was troubling to me - not her stock political answer (background checks, no gun permits for terrorists or the mentally ill) - but that she felt the need to impress Wisconsin voters with her own killing credentials:

"You know, you may not believe it but I've actually gone hunting," Clinton, 60, said at a question-and-answer session with voters at a crammed bratwurst restaurant in Kenosha.

"My father taught me to shoot 100 years ago," she said jokingly...

Wait a second. Didn't Mitt Romney say basically the same thing earlier in his own campaign, in an attempt to boost his own machoness / killing cred with New Hampshire voters? Why, yes, yes he did.

And Huck? Boom, boom, and a pheasant sacrifices itself for the greater good of a Huckabee photo op.

What is it about politicians in 2008 that they feel they have to pander to a crowd by proudly proclaiming their ability (past or present) to kill something...a defenseless animal - and by extension, a terrorist; an inner city bad guy robbing a liquor story; a Mexican crossing the border under the cover of darkness? It almost feels sociopathic.

The only answer that I can come up with is that, at a very visceral level, presidential candidates feel they have to prove that they have the ability to pull the trigger. Really, that's at the core of why politicians who have never served in the military feel the need to use hunting imagery.

I have nothing inherently against those who hunt for sport, and I support the right (within reason) for anyone to legally own a firearm. What I don't understand is how a Democratic Party presidential candidate can so blithely fold a demonstration of support for gun ownership, by personal example of killing ability, into a response about a type of tragedy that is becoming all too common.

I'd be more impressed if Hillary said she had once rassled a bear, so she'd support putting bear rasslers in every college classroom to prevent VT / NIU-style tragedies...

Tagged as: hunting, clinton, romney, huckabee, animal cruelty

Richard Blair is the blogmaster of All Spin Zone.