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How Bill Clinton Differs From Some Democrats Today
Bill Clinton is raising eyebrows among some Democrats these days. First, there’s his friendship with the father of “the enemy” (George Bush Sr.). And then there’s a general rejection on the part of one segment of the party of his approach of trying to rope in independent and GOP voters. Bull Moose writes:
The Moose has been struck by how many in the party have either implicitly or explicitly ignored or even rejected the Clinton legacy of the New Democratic Third Way. The Moose distinctly remembers attending countless meetings on the right in 1996 and 1997, where Republicans fretted that Clinton had gotten their number and their ascendancy was being threatened. Clinton had successfully co-opted Republican wedge issues and advanced a political agenda that was at once fiscally responsible and progressive.Unfortunately, Clinton’s impeachment halted the transformation of the Democratic Party. Perhaps that is why the right pursued impeachment so vigorously. The DeLay gang knew a threat when they saw it.
Now, it is fashionable among some precincts on the left to disparage the one legacy that worked for the Democratic Party. They have a bad case of amnesia when it comes to recalling how Clinton offered a successful model for governance – call it Clintonesia…
….Indeed, by advancing welfare reform, Clinton legitimized government action. By balancing the budget, Clinton stripped the issue away from the GOP. He essentially co-opted conservatism and thereby was able to advance a progressive agenda.
There are some who will unquestionably respond that it wasn’t unfortunate that Clinton didn’t have the clout long enough to transform the Democratic party. They decried his veering to the right even even when he was in power as a form of me-tooism.
But it was just THAT that set Clinton apart; he was like a salesman trying to overcome all objections from a prospective buyer. And it was also the WAY he approached issues — a perspective that some Democrats might be wise to study and emulate.
Can’t you see the difference in how he approaches issues even TODAY.. HERE?
19 Responses to “How Bill Clinton Differs From Some Democrats Today”
Thanks for the post. I find myself so nostalgic for a government who’s number one priority is not looting and pillaging, but governing, compromise and all. Hell, even Reagan’s administration was able to do that eventually. Contemporary Dems are so exasperating in that they have no voice, in the literary sense; no coherent and recognizable form of expression. These are the kind of posts that show how aptly named your blog is.
once slick willy always slick willy
Clinton had the uncanny ability to get along with everyone. He was never afraid to reach out someone regardless of race, political leaning or gender; this can’t be said of all or most US Presidents. He brought a lot of hope and optimism to this country that it’s citizens really hadn’t seen since JFK was in office.
Pisces: Don’t you at least miss a president whose cognitive ability you didn’t have to wonder about? I had no worries whether Bill was able to consider all the multiple factors and events taking place simultaneously when calculating a strategy. I can’t say nearly the same about Bush–hell, I wonder whether he can tie his own shoes some days.
Boy, the good old days..
Presidential Candidate Bill Clinton was scheduled to speak in Downtown Toledo Ohio at a very popular restaurant named Bud and Lukes. I was an outside sales representative for Minolta copiers and Downtown Toledo was my territory.
I had followed his campaign faithfully because he seemed to truly care about ALL the people of the United States, not just the rich, but everyone. I awakened that morning with a high temperature and was diagnosed with pneumonia. Needless to say I was unable to go to work and my doctor had threatened me with hospitalization if I couldn’t keep my medicine down.
As it turned out this was a tremedous stroke of luck for me because rather than stand outside Bud and Luke’s for a glimpse of Presidential Candidate Clinton I was able to watch the meeting he held inside the restaurant. He sat there with common ordinary people who were invited to speak with him and I was highly impressed that he started each conversation with the Toledo residents there with the same question. “If I am elected President what can I do for you?”
I cannot remember any presidential candidate ever asking such a question. I listened to each person talk about a need for health care, the lack of jobs and the poverty inflicted on them by years of Republican dominance. From that moment on I followed each and every speech Bill Clinton made and with each word he spoke I became firmly entrenched as a definite supporter.
I was raised in a Repbulican home but by the time the elections rolled around I had swayed more people to vote for Bill Clinton. I convinced my parents to listen to him on television one night and from that day on they were firm Clinton supporters and eventually voted for him. If he could run for office again I would campaign for his re-election because he cared about each and every one of us.
He was brilliant, charismatic, knowledgeable about every single issue and dogged in his persuit of an office where his ideas for a better America could be put into effect. He exuded confidence, complete knowledge of every issue and was prepared with a concrete solution for each problem.
That is what we need today on the upcoming Presidential ballot. Someone who can indeed do damage control, for they will inherit a godforsaken mess following George’s hideous eight years. Whoever runs for the Presidency the next time around should turn to former President Clinton for guidance and someone should stand up and refuse to allow Diebold voting machines. Let’s go back to private paper ballots that cannot be manipulated by “hackers,” or God forbid idiots like Harris in Florida or Jeb Bush.
And as far as George Bush, well, I think he should spend the next year in Guantanamo so he can see what he has done to so-called traitors. My Yorkshire terrier could have done a better job than “Dubya.”
I agree about Bill Clinton. He was a masterful politician and had awesome leadership skills. I have had a lot of nostalgia for his administration during the past 5 1/2 years. The comparison of Clinton with Bush is, shall we say, quite painful. I always have wondered what Clinton would have accomplished if he hadn’t been impeached. He’s a fatally flawed human being, but there’s something very lovable about him, even with his flaws.
His wife, while smart and capable, seems to lack his charisma. Since his sexual history and their marriage will be put through a microscope, I am surprised that she is interested in the nomination. Fair or not, the Republicans will make that all we hear about-so things could get very ugly.
The Republicans were so set on character assassination with President Clinton that they forgot that Clinton wasn’t only the guy that shagged Monica. Clinton tried to turn the country back to the important things – like the economy, the jobs, the foreign policy etc. The Republicans just did too good a job pointing fingers and getting us to look at what they were saying instead of letting Hillary take care of the infidelity problems. Sure he lied – how many other men who have been caught out have? Almost all of them.
The Republicans used that circus to draw our attention away from the good that he was doing. Zippergate will be his legacy, but he actually was a much better Pres than the one who stole two elections. Heck, even Nixon was better than this Bozo, George II.
Just remember. Kerry was right – Cheney already IS President.
Will somebody please get him out of office without destroying what’s left of America?
Bill Clinton was one of our better Presidents. His “lie” over Monica was totally irrelevent. If only he could have remained president for another decade or so, none of this stupid crap in the mideast would have occurred, the world would still respect us, and, the nation would have been nearly out of debt by now. But No….we get Doofus instead.
The Democrats have forgotten their philosphy. Worse yet, they have allowed the Republicans to bastardize it. The right has re-defined liberalism in unflattering ways, and the left has gotten so caught up in defending themselves, that they have actually embraced the negative image. They feel they have to wear the caricature mask, rather than take back their own agenda.
Clinton understood that true liberalism was never about fiscal irresponsibility. It was not about huge government, excessive taxes, social welfare or anti-commercialism.
True liberalism as it was historically defined, has always been about the idea that we, Americans, are all in this together. That the financial or social health of any segment of society can and will have an effect on other segments of society. ie. a nation without an economically strong middle class, does not have a strong consumer class, and therefore it will have a negative impact on the business class who depend on consumers to drive growth. The lower class, if left to their own devices, and left poor and uneducated, become the bane of society causing stress and negative pressure on all other segments. It is in the interest of ALL Americans, regarless of class, race, or social standing to support the development of a society of empowerment for all.
When Clinton signed his “gays in the military” policy, as diliuted as it was, he understood that the benefit was not just for gay Americans. It was for the whole of our nation and our military, and as such was an important step in securing the ability to build a fighting force that would not be undermined by its members’ sexual orientation or their individual beliefs on the matter. And when he spoke to the nation about it, he SPOKE TO THE NATION. Not just to gay americans or ultra-left wing liberals. I believe it was the best possible solution at the time.
A real liberal views society as a whole, comprised of many, many links to a chain. When stregthening this chain, you don’t do it by building up the strong links, you do it by renforcing the weakest. This is the true concept of liberalism in America. The idea that we are all different, yet form a single force called a “nation”. That we are not here to simply receive, but that we each have responsibilities to one another, and to our nation as a whole. An idea that seemingly died with John F. Kennedy.
Bill Clinton understood this clearly, and perhaps more importantly, he was able to express it, sell it, execute it, and demonstrate its rewards.
The Dems need to stop trying so hard to differentiate themselves from conservatives at each issue level. It almost seems that Democratic positions today are merely born from being oppositional to Republicans’. They need to understand their own philosophy, and execute it regardless of any other party’s cross-over views or their own for that matter.
Any Democrat who believes the party needs to distance itself from Clintonism is a fool, and not a true liberal. They are merely a cog in the machine trying to define the party line rather than promote the philosophy.
A disheartened Liberal.
I think Valory1234 has posted the most ignorant defense of the president. You fell for his campaign lies and rhetoric and became a supporter of Bill Clinton. What a shame that you could not see through Slick Willy’s double talk.
Let’s not forget his lying wife-who said she stood by him so we should too. Of course he has a sham of a marriage and now Hillary is using the connection to run for office. I feel that I was lied to during that campaign and every time they pose as a married couple. Hilary’s only qualification for running for the Senate was that she failed to overhaul Health Care-and now she is a presidential candidate? How rediculous!
Why do women embrace that woman? She stood by her cheating husband-to become an elected official. Is that what advice we should tell to our daughters-stick by your man so you can get a job?
Let’s not forget that Bill Clinton lied in a court of law to advance his legal case. A woman brought a grievance about sexual harassment and Clinton’s defense was he never went outside his marriage. He is a lawyer and commited perjury-a crime that many in this country go to jail for. Democrats just say that they were inappropriate questions to ask. He lied-he commited a crime-he was above the law in his own mind. This from a man who cut his teeth in politics working to oust Richard Nixon. What irony!
Bill Clinton said Mark Felt was a hero. Mark Felt was #2 at the FBI-he did not need to leak classified material to the press-he could have gone public. Would Bill Clinton call Linda Trip a hero-for exposing the crime that Bill Clinton committed?
As for Dubya-he won the election twice. Yes some people misvoted in Florida-in a county for which Democratic Election Officials did not follow the rules when they printed the ballots. I doubt it was intentional-but if there were republican election officials in that district then I am sure it would be a ‘conspiracy issue’, With regards to Florida, would the dems prefer to count who people meant to vote rather than what the ballots were marked?
With regards to the war in Iraq-let’s not forget that Sadaam is an evil man. For no other reason than this dictator for 10+ years was shooting at Americans who were enforcing the no-fly zone-we should decimate their country. But let’s not forget that this evail man, similar to Hitler and Stalin and Musseline- used chemical weapons on his own people-invaded nearly every neighbor-was an evil man. 10+years of UN Resolutions-it is time to act—otherwise who is to protect peace in this world? Libya got the message-they are cleaning up their act. TIme for North Korea and Iran to follow suit. You have crazies-calling for the destruction of Isreal, making nuclear weapons-I say Walk Tall and carry a big stick.
The demise of the Soviet Union saw organized crime raise. For years Americans were being kidnapped and held for ransom-did anyone say that we sould not have brought down the Berlin Wall? Did anyone say, we should return the Soviets to power?
AFter WW2-how long did it take for Germany to set up their own currency and establish democracy-and that was a country that had lived in peace before. Did anyone say we should have allowed Hitler to do his thing?
Why should we expect Iraq to embrace democracy overnight, to live in a lawfull society? It takes time, a small minority of insurgents are trying to destabilize the government-they will be crushed. We have started a democracy in the Arab world-let it spread to to Saudi Arabia, Iran and Syria-won’t it be a better world. I think we will hail W. as a visionary.
I think we will remember Bill Clinton as president during the dot com era that went dot gone. Let’s hope we remember Hilary as a footnote as the first first lady to become Senator and nothing more.
mikenlaca
And there goes the right wing poster….Hate Rhetoric…..Vehemence…..weak and uneducated arguments…..a missguided passion against the Doctrine of infallible facts. No wisdom to be found. Rather one expects gun fire to errupt at any moment….as if THEY were the only people ready to die for what they believe.
Clinton was an amazing politician, and his legacy as President grows every day that Bush remains in office. But what lesson is in there for Democrats today? Bull Moose is correct in saying that Clinton’s balancing of the budget made the Democratic Party respectable to the business class and helped pave the way for progressivism. But where is the evidence that today’s Democrats reject that legacy? Democrats from Howard Dean on down cite Clinton’s balancing of the Federal budget as one of his best acts in office, and as something only Democrats can do once in Congress.
The problem with Clinton, though, was that so much of it depended on his personality. Without it you have Gore (from 2000, not today, mind you). Clinton was an expert tactician of power, often moving the country in a more progressive direction than today’s liberals recognize. But he didn’t launch the sort of long-range vision of society that other Democrats could replicate. Coming from Clinton’s mouth, it worked. But coming from another politician’s mouth, it doesn’t.
But I think the country is in a different place now than it was in the 1990s. At that point, conservatives felt that their vision of society was ascendant and triumpant, and that Clinton’s electoral victory in 1992 was an unwarranted block in the natural rise of the conservative Republican movement that first came into power in 1980. Today, however, the conservative movement has run its course and the American people largely reject it. The more popular conservative proposals, like welfare reform, have been enacted into law. But the total evisceration of the New Deal, or the rejection of all governmental action on matters of the environment, are extremely unpopular with the American electorate. Conservative domestic policy is an electoral loser today. Only the war (when it was popular), and social issues (in districts where the GOP can maximize evangelical turnout) keep the Republican Party afloat. With a few exceptions like school vouchers, the substantive issues at the heart of conservative Republicanism are dead.
From the article: “Bill Clinton is raising eyebrows among some Democrats these days. First, there’s his friendship with the father of “the enemy” (George Bush Sr.).”
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Thirty years ago I could see significant difference between most professional republican and democrat politicians.
To simplify my views today..I see republicans as wearers of read coats with blue linings and democarats as wearers of blue coats with red linings, interchangable from inside out as it becomes personally convenient….in short, they are in my opinion, all tergiversators.
The main problems with today’s Democrats, are disunity and disorganization. They also lack the kind of personality candidate that can sell a more liberal agenda.
As much as I dislike the Conservative policies, they have been, by and large, coherent, and extremely well-organized, thanks largely to Newt Gingrich, and his Contract With America. This unity is only now beginning to crack, leaving them in partial disarray.
Republicans have also had the advantage of
brilliant, ruthless attack dogs like Karl Rove and Lee Atwater, who have the uncanny ability to make black look like white, and vice versa. They win elections because the goal is to win at any cost.Their attack ads are obviously extremely effective, and as much as we can bemoan their tactics will probably stay that way-especially now that Rove has gotten out under the cloud of a pending indictment.
The Democrats badly need someone with that kind of talent, maybe not quite as ruthless.Someone who can capitalize on the 2/3 of Americans who have suddenly woken up and realized they’ve been sold a bill of goods by the Republicans.
Mikenlaca:
Clinton’s Conservative enemies brought him down. They knew his weakness, and went in for the kill. Our own fair Coulter was terrified that Paula Jones would settle her lawsuit, and begged her not to. Like almost all great men, Clinton had was flawed-so were FDR, JFK, MLK and LBJ, and even Thomas Jefferson, yet no one suggests they were not great men. Conservative Newt Gingrich the great promoter of “family values”, must have been talking about other families, as he was a serial cheater, who left his first wife, Marianne, when she was recovering from cancer. This was about the time he was urging impeachment of Clinton.
Bush has also lied. His lies have not been in court, because with a Republican majority, he never has to worry about being subpoenaed for hearings to investigate those lies. But his low poll numbers for credibility tell the story.
Clinton’s greatest, and best quote during the ’92 campaign should be the quote revived in ’08.
“It’s the deficit stupid” with a new addition, “it’s the spending AND the deficit stupid!
It’s that simple for the Democrats, utter that line a few million times, and the public AND big business will both fall in line.
Kim Ritter
There is no problem with todays Democrats. It was NEVER Gingrinch that did anything! It was a decade of lies and deception coupled with wave the flag up yer arse propaganda on TALK RADIO and then FOX phony News that screwed this country. Not “un-organization”.
The damage was caused by Pro-Active liars not well organized dullards. ["Shoot ATF agents in the head"-G.Gordon Liddy]….["Democrats are traitors and should be shot"-Ann Coulter]…and thousands and thousands of hateful rhetoric statements pounding the public unopposed for over a decade! They are funded by BIG BUSINESS money that DO NOT WANT TO PAY TAX. The want to weaken government and openly SAY SO! Why…So THEY can control government through the lobby as unopposed as possible. No, if Democrats are anything, it is oblivious to the REAL DANGER these people are to our nation.
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I didn’t agree with everything Bill Clinton did, but I’d vote for him again. I wish he’d run in ’08 instead of Hillary.
Salmineo- I have listened to enough talk radio to know that it distorts reality, and its ratings thrive on outrageous rantings of right wingers. Twenty years ago listeners to these rantings would have been dismissed as fringe elements of society. Now they are a political force to be reckoned with.
But, I stick to my point. The Dems have lost a lot of elections because they ran poor campaigns. Gore was not a great campaigner, and Kerry did not know how to respond to the Swiftboat attack. In Maryland, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend ran such a badly organized campaign in a solid blue state, that the first Republican governor in a generation was elected. She threw it away due to inept campaign skills. In the recent congressional campaign in California, Franicine Busby was leading until she was caught on tape saying you didn’t need papers to vote. The mistake helped Bilbray get into office.
I don’t like the values of the Conservative Republicans, but thats a different issue than saying that they don’t know how to win. They do. Democrats have been out of power since ’94- 12 years . If they’re going to start winning, they need to run smarter, and need to unify.