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