Clinton moonlights with stars
Campus Times
November 21, 1997
With the recent threat by Saddam Hussein in the Persian Gulf of the
use of chemical weapons in his possession, Americans would think that the
threat would have been No. 1 on President Bill Clinton's "to do"
list for this past weekend, but it was not.
Instead, Clinton was, in fact, in California all weekend for what many
deemed as a "power weekend" in which Clinton attended parties
and fund-raisers in order to raise both support for himself and money for
his future political ventures.
Although the threat by Hussein stayed real and the tension seemed to
grow within the Persian Gulf, Clinton still had time to dance and party
the night away at Hollywood functions with such stars as Barbra Streisand
and Bruce Willis. Even though the intentions of the trip to the Southland
were routine and ordinary at this time of year, the truth is President Clinton
should have been stronger when the weekend came around and dealt with the
problem more immediately.
Although it is hard for the President of the United States to break
important engagements, the urgency of the problem in Iraq was too great
for him to be galavanting with our stars of Tinseltown and action should
have been taken sooner.
On Monday, Clinton did respond to the problem, sending more U-2 bombers
to Iraq to strengthen the forces already employed, but the fact that he
was not calling the shots this weekend let the American people know that
if Clinton truly was worthy of re-election he would have stayed in Washington
D.C. instead of rubbing elbows with movie stars.
Clinton must realize that people are scared and upset from the news
of a new conflict in Iraq already and he should address the problem on a
steadier basis with news conferences and perhaps an Oval Office address.
Until Clinton takes more action to let the American public know how
we stand in Iraq, his stature and form as a leader and as a respectable
President will slowly fade away and all the scandal which has rocked Clinton's
presidency might gain some validity.
