I have SO many other things to do today but I had to quickly reference the great article by James Hohmann at POLITICO.com: Bill Clinton wants more credit. (Damn you Drudge!)
With no thanks to the Bushes, instead of being disgraced for so many of the ethical, moral and foreign policy disasters he engineered, Clinton is now accepted as a political voice. He has a book on the economy coming out in November and with his increasing public appearances he is clamoring for attention either to aid his wife's upcoming run against Obama, to try and spin his "legacy," or to compromise the sexual mores of unsuspecting women across the land. Or all three. So the former Serial Sexual Deviant-in Briefs believes he isn't getting enough credit. Waaaahhh! Waaaah! Somebody call the Waaambulance! (Overt Sarcasm Begins here) Welfare wasn't forced upon him mid-way through his Presidential reign, God no! He was doing just fine! HillaryCare was so widely praised and accepted that most Americans wanted to do away with the silly "two term" restraint on the Presidency....
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| Jan 1996 Poll USA Today |
oh wait. Teeny tiny teensy wittle problem here Mr. Rapist - I mean Mr. (gag) President. The numbers don't show that. At the low point of your approval in January of 1996 you consistently did NOTHING about welfare reform other than to turn down everything the Republicans sent you. It wasn't until then did you get serious about enacting welfare reform.
You tried this line in 2006 with your New York Times Op Ed piece. At least back then you agreed you did it together "with Republicans." Seems you've gotten greedier in your old age. Although even then the seeds of selfishness showed. We could create another new drinking game based on the word "I":
Yet when I ran for president in 1992, our system still was not working for the taxpayers or for those it was intended to help. In my first State of the Union address, I promised to “end welfare as we know it,” to make welfare a second chance, not a way of life, exactly the change most welfare recipients wanted it to be....Because I had already given 45 states waivers to institute their own reform plans, ..Sorry to do this Bill-with-his-zipper-problem, not only did you veto two welfare reform bills when your polls were much higher, the idea of welfare reform as a campaign idea was created by a staffer as an after thought.
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| Renewing presidential politics: Bruce Buchanan |
The bill emerging from Congress modified some of the harshest provisions of the House bill but would leave others intact......Ever since Mr. Clinton's 1992 pledge to "end welfare as we know it" became a top priority for the new Republican Congress, the White House has wavered between its desire to cooperate in passing a welfare bill and its fear that the Republicans would go too far..... (emphasis mine)Add to this the first hand testimony of your pollster and political consultant Dick Morris who said you not only brought back up the issue of reform after the terrible mid-term election losses, you kicked Hillary out to boot!
And this whole, "I was the moral force behind welfare reform," presumptuousness doesn't even take into account your complicity to allow lobbyists to shape what you would and wouldn't accept in "reform." Again I quote the New York Times because if this is what a biased rag would allow to circulate in public, God only knows how much worse it really was.
The Administration considered dozens of possible tax increases or program cuts, but rejected them, sometimes after lobbying onslaughts from well-heeled interest groups.There is a term for this insane need to justify your legacy. It is called NARCISSISM. Specifically a "inflated self-importance, egotism, vanity, conceit, or simple selfishness." And in the classic definition from psychology, we even get a hint at WHY you do this:
the term is used to describe both normal self-love and unhealthy self-absorption due to a disturbance in the sense of self.
But I am a compassionate conservative (kinda) so let's give poor insecure Billy some credit due him:
- National security was compromised by the overt selling of US Defense technology in exchange for campaign funds to Clinton via the Lippo Group.
- He implemented policy and political correctness that PROHIBITED cooperation between the FBI and other departments, contributing to the events of September 11th and weakening our national security.
- He refused to kill Bin Laden after the USS Cole bombing including one incident where he couldn't be reached while with Ms. Lewinsky
- His administration was responsible for the slaughter of 83 Americans in Waco, TX (including 26 children). (Anyone really believe a hyper PR controlling President and First Lady wouldn't have been brought in the loop within minutes (not days) of this becoming a national headline?)
- He ordered the CIA to give nuclear blueprints to Iran
- He refused to intervene in the slaughter of 700,000 in Rwadan. (We formally apologized them later. God have mercy on our country.)
- He stained the reputation of the white house with his sexually deviant behavior and was the first President ever impeached on grounds of personal malfeasance
- He systematically abused women for his own gratification, personally attacking their reputations when they didn't cooperate with his indiscretions, including hiring a full time "Bimbo Control" staffer
- Promiscuity soared among teens and experimentation with oral sex tripled because the "leader" of the country said it wasn't sex
Sorry - I'm getting too depressed to continue. When I got to "stole White House furniture" it is just too painful to remember we let them in to begin with, and the GOP let them get away with it. Here is a good list of many of the "accomplishments" to add which Bill & Hillary should also be given credit for:
- Most number of convictions and guilty pleas by friends and associates*
- Most number of cabinet officials to come under criminal investigation - Most number of witnesses to flee country or refuse to testify
- Most number of witnesses to die suddenly
- First president sued for sexual harassment.
- Second president accused of rape**
- First first lady to come under criminal investigation
- Largest criminal plea agreement in an illegal campaign contribution case
- First president to establish a legal defense fund.
- First president to be held in contempt of court
- Greatest amount of illegal campaign contributions
- Greatest amount of illegal campaign contributions from abroad
- First president disbarred from the US Supreme Court and a state court
so yeah. He didn't ruin the economy he inherited from Ronald Reagan. Well, we learned after he left office that he actually DID create a stagnation, if not a recession, but George W. Bush was left to fix that.
But I try to be nothing if accurate. He should be given credit for:
- Creating more jobs (as % of population growth) than Bush did.
- Cut Capital Gains Tax in his second term
- SIGN the Welfare Reform Bill on the third try
He ended his office with record approvals upon exit and people acknowledging he did a good job with policy but was "ethically challenged". But stopping economic growth by the end of his term, severely weakening our security and planting the seeds that empowered the nuclear capability of Iran and the unfettered growth of Bin Laden that killed over thousands of Americans - can we all agree, "it's NOT the economy stupid?"
Clinton proved you can get a B on economics, but the failing the rest of the report card should eliminate any discussion of your qualifications to graduate, much less earn 'honors.'
I'm struck by how much Clinton is the Barry Bonds of politics. Bonds couldn't run, couldn't catch, was a bad teammate and a distraction to his team - but he could hit a home run. Cheating on the way to get there will ruin his legacy. In my opinion, Clinton should be thought of in the same way.
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Added from comment on Michelle Malkin's page:
On October 1st, 2011 at 3:41 pm, J.J. Sefton said:
1) Enforced the hideous Community Reinvestment Act which led directly to the economic collapse of 2008
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