Reply #46: that Obama statement is factual

[Not the Only One]

I think Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America (he did, even if we don't care for the direction of the trajectory)

in a way that Richard Nixon did not (Nixon didn't change the trajectory of America, except to make Americans more pessimistic about their Presidents/politicians in general)

and in a way that Bill Clinton did not (Clinton didn't change the trajectory of America, except to give us a booming stock market). Nixon, Ford, Carter, Bush 41, Clinton, and Bush 43 will not be viewed as transformative Presidents decades from now. That's actually part of the tragedy of Bill Clinton's time in office-- so much wasted potential. Bill Clinton could have been an amazing President, but he was more concerned with his needs over the needs of the country. Bill Clinton didn't provide leadership on things like renewable energy. We should be free of dependence on oil right now. We aren't because it wasn't a priority for Bill Clinton. He didn't lead the country and its voters to see that there was a grand future ahead of us that we could embrace if we had the courage to make it happen.)

He put us on a fundamentally different path because the country was ready for it. (Bill Clinton signed Republican welfare reform into law, which was a Reagan proposal. That's pretty amazing when you think about it. It's because Reagan was effective at getting America to view government as the problem, not the solution. That's very transformative. It's 180 degrees away from FDR, another transformative President.)

There's nothing untrue about what he said and I don't care if a politican tells me the truth about anything. I don't have to like hearing it. But it still is true.