Perhaps number forty-two feels as if he should receive the Jackie Robinson treatment.  "Retire my number and only use me in a ceremonial fashion," is the attitude of our former President.  The actual quote was, " My question to them is: Do any of them seriously believe if I had been president, and my economic team had been in place the last eight years, that this would be happening today? I think they know the answer to that: No!" http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090216/us_time/08599187977400

This is what we despise more than anything at IJWMFTT.  This is fanboyism at its finest.  Clinton has bought into his own mythos.  His record is infallible.  After all, while he was in office, everything was great.  Well, everything he wants you to remember was great.  No mention of the fact that the Congress of 1994 was a wake-up call that businesss as usual would no longer be accepted.  A large chunk of the economic success came from budget groundwork laid in 1990, and the Telecommunications Act of 1996.  He was shot down on his primary initiatives, and rode the Congressional wave to success.  It shouldn't be shameful to say, "I executed the duties of the President per the Constitution, and it worked out well." 

So the successes are all Bill, and the failures are someone else.  Heck, just the very sight and presence of Bill and his cronies can make all problems disappear.  That's how he feels at least.

This is a problem in Major League Baseball.  The game is being led by Emperor Bud.  Can I get suspended from ESPN for badmouthing the guy?  Don't get me wrong, the guy has had some successes in his tenure.  But if he were being honest, he would admit that those successes were born from an earlier failure. 

*We have revenue sharing in MLB.  That's great, but it arose from all the other league's implementing a parity plan, whilst payroll discrepancies soared.

*We have interleague play, which has helped attendance.  That's great, but the concept has been around since the NFL merger.

*We have a drug testing policy.  Well that's great, but your most hallowed records are falling.  Furthermore, a pariah has been made into an anti-hero of sorts (Canseco).

Now Bud Selig says he isn't to blame for the steroid era.  To be fair, he claims to have pushed for testing since the mid-nineties.  And as stated many times before on this bandwidth, Faye Vincent oulawed them in 1991.  With one work stoppage in under Bud's belt, he was powerless to invoke any type of enforcement.

My problem with all of this is the marketing of the game.  Remember the home run derbies from 1998-2002?  How were they promoted?  The participants were shown in cartoon form as cyborgenic comic book heroes.  If there were no problem, why would Bud have wanted testing?  He knew there was a problem.  How did he cope with it?  He perpetutated this myth of the superhuman ballplayer.

This episode is why I call him "Emperor Bud."  He has an "aw shucks" attitude.  He's the perpetual victim - a guy in an off-the-rack brown blazer who gets the short end of the stick.  He's Jerry Lundergaard.  He goes on Dan Patrick's show eating his daily dose of hot dogs, saying things like "I, I have done what I wanted to do.  When my contract expires, I'm stepping away."  Of course, when the Mitchell Report comes out, and it gives the Commissioner carte blanche to act in the best interest of the game, who suddenly extends his term for a seven figure salary?  It's so Machiavellian.  It's right out of Palpatine's book Taking Over The Galaxy For Dummies.

That tie was all Joe Torre's fault.  Yes.  Yeeeeessssss.  Everything is going according to plan. HEH HEH HEH!