I admire Clinton for many reasons, and his lawyerly language maneuvers is one of them. He found a loop hole in the simple yes or no question, "did you smoke pot?" And it was too clever for his own good. It doesn't matter if he inhaled or not, it was his attempt at a slippery save that is being ridiculed. No one asked him what THC level reached his bloodstream. It was Bill being Bill, and true or not, it spoke volumes about how he operated as well as the limits of his brilliance, which is considerable. I think that is why it is still a popular reference today, because of his slippery use of language, not because he may have been lying. Like his parsing of the use of the word "is". It reveals the limits of cleverness.
When Arsinio Hall asked him about how he would answer the question if he could do it again he said, I would just say "Yes I smoked pot". The original quote: "When I was in England, I experimented with marijuana a time or two, and I didn't like it. I didn't inhale and never tried it again." –Bill Clinton Out of the country so not breaking any US laws, (brilliant), "experimented a time or two" this language makes the not inhaling a bit suspect, "I didn't inhale", overplays his hand, slick Willy being too slick, "never tried it again", again emphasizing that no US laws were broken. That is excellent. He was breaking new ground being more honest in a hypocritical culture where someone can get penalized for smoking weed in their youth. Bush tried to paint his drug use as "youthful indiscretions". He dodged a bullet by not getting specific. Obama is going to push this envelop further, and it may cost him the race. He had better back off the details cuz people are going to ask him stuff like, did you ever buy coke with others or for others or share it... After two terms of the misunderestimated man, I miss old Bill. A bit too smart for his own good sometimes, but a hellava lot smarter than me! --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "shempmcgurk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > More than 10 years later and I am still seeing references in our > popular culture to Bill Clinton's infamous response to the question > whether he ever smoked marjuana. > > And every time I see a reference or comment or joke about it on TV, > radio, internet, or newspapers, it is virtually always with the > assumption that Clinton was lying, i.e. that he actually did inhale > or that he was trying to be disingenuous or trying to have it both > ways or something by coming up with the "I didn't inhale" answer. > > Well, I totally disagree with this popular assessemnt and in fact > Ibelieve that Clinton was being totally and completely honest with > his answer. > > Despite enjoying the occasional cigar (which he may not even do > anymore and which doesn't require inhaling), it is my understanding > that Clinton has been a life-long non-smoker. > > Some people never start smoking -- indeed, never even try it once -- > and find inhaling cigarette or other types of smoke a totally foreign > and abhorrent to do. > > I don't know about all of you, but I know several people like that > that I've met throughout my life. My aunt, for example, never even > once tried smoking. My mother, who smoked for about a decade out of > some misplaced sense of sympathy or peer-group pressure for my > father, never inhaled when she smoked. > > So when Clinton says he didn't inhale when he tried marijuana, not > only is it totally plausible, I think that that is EXACTLY what > happened! In other words, he was in a social situation where all of > his peers at that moment were indulging and he was passed a joint and > either not wanting to be a party-pooper or, simply, didn't want to go > to the hassle of resisting peer-group pressure, put the joint to his > lips and sucked on it but didn't inhale. > > In his innocence -- and considering that not inhaling smoke, > cigarettes or otherwise, was his reality, his worldview -- when asked > during his presidential campaign whether he ever tried marijuana, > his "yes, but I didn't inhale" was totally honest. > > And I would say admirable. >
