Originally posted by J_A_B
Well, he was a President and all. Most people consider that a pretty impressive accomplishment. Most of the recent carriers have been named after presidents, so Clinton seems like as good a choice as anyone else.
I think it was better when we named our carriers after battles--Yorktown, Lexington, Saratoga, Midway and such. Somehow cruisers stole that tradition.
A few years ago I would have seriously doubted that the Navy would consider naming a Carrier after Clinton, he was universally dispised by the services. But then....they went and named a sub after the dipstick Carter, arguably the absolutely worst President of modern times. Carter also has the distinction of not only being the worst President, he's the country's worst ex-president. Who knows, maybe a USS Clinton....ship's emblem could be crossed cigars, Uniform of the Day would include berets (oh wait, the Army beat us to that), and the ship's radio callsign would be "Haywood" after Bubas good buddy Haywood Jablowme. This would also bring a whole new meaning to "Navy Blue". We could plot the ship's course based on the latest Zogby poll of the crew's opinion and use the Officer's Mess Fund to invest in real estate.
In reality, I also wish they had stuck to traditional CV names. Far more meaningful to be aboard the USS Ticonderoga or Oriskany than the USS Carl Vinson. The Navy naming game has varied a lot, but things used to be fairly clear in WWII. There were a few exceptions (Shangi-La for instance) but CV's were Revolutionary War battles or ships, BB's were states, Cruisers were cities, and Subs were fish. Personal names (usually chosen to recognize heroism and valor) were restricted to smaller ships, namely the DD/DEs. Unfortunently, CV/CVN are major investiments of national capital and money is what makes them float and to get the money you needed politicians. Essentially, the Navy is brown-nosing but this isn't totally new, that's why the BB's were named after states. Now this has expanded to put politican's names on CVs and Subs which freed up the good names for CGs, LHD's, etc.
