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From: Jasper
Date: 9/22/03
Time: 1:41:05 PM
Remote Name: 68.73.204.245
Nancy,
You wrote: “AS LONG AS O.J. WAS THE DEFENDANT THERE WAS A POT OF GOLD AT THE END OF THE RAINBOW....win or lose.”
This astute observation of yours should be read and memorized by everyone interested in the O.J. trials. There is historical precedent for what you are suggesting here.
After the American Civil War a reporter asked Confederate General Robert E. Lee who his toughest Union opponent had been from 1861 to 1865. If you are a serious Civil War buff you might have said Ulysses S. Grant or George Thomas. Lee said that the North’s best general was McClellan. Yeah, McClellan, the guy Lincoln fired for not following up on his “victory” at Antietam in 1862
This sounds goofy when you consider how Thomas defeated everyone he faced in no matter what the odds against him where, the men he had to fight with (“old, weak and wounded”) and the fierce, battle-tested armies he had to oppose. It sounds goofy when you consider the fact that Grant whipped Lee’s butt for all the marbles and Lee whipped McClellan’s butt or escaped from McClellan with his army intact when McClellan was in the best possible position to destroy Lee’s army. But when you look at McClellan’s record of success and defeat you see a strange patter of winning when it mattered to prevent a Confederate victory and losing when necessary TO KEEP THE WAR GOING.
As long as the war was front-page news, so was McClellan. His troops cheered him The press mobbed him. He was treated like royalty everywhere he went. He took credit for his victories and blamed Lincoln for his defeats. He parlayed his celebrity status into a run for the Presidency. Along the way, got big bucks on book deals, product endorsements and speaking engagements.
Other famous and infamous people involved in the Civil War also cashed in on it, whether they were on the willing side or the losing side of the war. As long as the debate lasted over the things the Confederacy fought for, there was money to be made in advocating either side.
I started this commentary on the “pot of gold” analogy between “O.J.-the-defendant” and the American Civil War. Now I’m not so sure that it is ONLY an analogy. –Jasper