The Bill Clinton legacy

[XemaSab]

Poll question: The Bill Clinton legacy

Nearly 8 years after the fact, what's your impression of Clinton's legacy? :shrug:

(I know it's a complicated subject for a poll. Also if you'd like to elaborate, please do so. :) )

[provis99]

1. best president since JFK?

hmm...that's not saying much...look at the other potential nominees: Reagan, Nixon, Bush I, Carter,...

[sailor65]

2. Empty Automotive Plants

everywhere we look.

[XemaSab]

15. NAFTA: No American Factories Taking Applications

:P

[Tesha]

3. Through his founding of the DLC and through his uncontrolled zipper, destroyed the Democratic Party.

Through his founding of the DLC and through his uncontrolled zipper,
Bill Clinton did great damage to the Democratic Party.

The DLC and their alignment with policies that are basically
mainstream Republican destroyed any clarity that people had
as to what Democrats actually stood for.

And Clinton's personal failings made him politically impotent.
Under him and with the "aid" of the DLC, we lost the House
and the Senate.

And the election victories of 2006 notwithstanding, the party
still hasn't recovered from the damage Clinton and the DLC
have done so far.

Tesha

[wyldwolf]

5. I thought fairy tales were told at night.

[Tesha]

7. Ahh, good rebutal! Chock-full of facts. (NOT) (NT)

[wyldwolf]

8. I was more factual with one line than you were in your entire post

[Tesha]

10. Your wit is only exceeded by your charm. (NT)

[wyldwolf]

11. Should we take you post, break it down into bullet points, and debunk it all?

...or do you prefer your fairy tales?

[Gman]

14. Puhleeeeez...

save the drama, please.

[Gman]

4. Best president in my lifetime

[jmp]

6. Doesn't mean much unless you include your age.

:P

[Gman]

13. 50+

[Armstead]

9. The "Smoke and Mirrors" president

Great at helping to create a glossy surface that covered over growing corporate power, inequality gaps and other policies that got us into the mess we're in today.

The problems didn;t start with GW Bush......Clinton paved the way.

[w4rma]

12. Short-sighted corporatist. (nt)

[LSdemocrat]

16. Not saying much, but: best president since FDR

Since FDR,we've had a raft of either mediocre, disasterous, or tragic presidents.

In the grand scheme of things, Clinton was an above average president, who did some good things, mostly in foreign affairs but also domestically. He left office beloved by most of the world and with America enjoying record budget surpluses. While mainly due to a Republican congress, he was unable to do truly great things, he left the country in a position to do great things, but unfortunately he was replaced by Dubya, who well, you know the rest...

[mitchum]

17. DLClinton: the lesser of two evils

[IndianaGreen]

18. My take on Big Dog: "He inherited bad times and turned them around"

He also allowed his philandering to get in the way of governance, and he pissed away the electoral mandate he got in 1996. He should have told the truth to the grandjury and it would have been done and over with. Instead, by committing perjury he opened the door to the sex-obsessed Ken Starr to make a federal case out of an extramarital affair.

Big Dog gets high marks on the economy, and a rather mixed rating on his conduct of foreign policy. Bill did some bad things in that area: keeping School of Torturers open at Fort Benning, CIA rendition program, Plan Colombia.

Then there is DOMA and Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

On a personal and anecdotal level, when Bill Clinton was President, everyone was working and having a good life. Then came NAFTA, and things began to turn sour.