Tweet
Ok here I am trying to unwind at the close of the Labor Day weekend . I was watching TV when here comes a Democratic Political commercial featuring Bill Clinton bemoaning the collapse of the middle class. Clinton rightly points out that deregulation and tax cuts got us into this economic mess and it is killing the middle class. However in a typical slick Willie move Clinton tires to distract the viewer from his own attacks on the middle class. Let’s review Clinton’s major achievements while in office:
Nafta
Gatt
Commodities deregulation
Banking “reforms” killing Glass Steagall
Welfare “reforms” killing the working poor
His failed attempt to gut SS (Thank god for Monica)
feel free to add anything I missed
Now I know the Democratic Tribe loves Bill and venerate his time in office but Clinton did as much as Ronnie R, George H and George W to kill the working and middle classes. The media needs to call him on this but they won’t
25 Comments
I didn’t see the commercial, but doesn’t he run the risk of that backfiring on Obama and the Democrats considering that things haven’t gotten any better for middle class in the last 4 years?
Get real. You said it yourself: Clinton is extremely popular among Democratic party members, of course they are going to trot him out to deliver the message whenever they feel it will do them some good. Unfortunately for most of us here, the Democrats don’t give too much of a damn how we feel about it.
The Clintonistas rule the roost within the inner circles of D political culture these days. Speaking out against Bill and Hillary is considered heresy by these people. Even Obama is tied to this faction willing or unwilling. It’s one of the ironies of his admin. that even as his appeal has faded as he follows most of the Clinton agenda and has surrounded himself with Clinton era cronies, Bill’s popularity hasn’t been negatively effected at all, in fact quite the opposite.
Actually, in reality, trotting out Slick Willie as a top Barry Backer exposes the Dims for what they truly are, remember shortly after SW left office he was rewarded with the lottery type payment of around $80 million for services rendered while in office. That by itself explains many of Barry’s positions and his motivation for selling his snake oil policies.
The only problem I see is the Dims blamed Snore’s loss on his distancing himself from SW, and the fiction of Nader’s usurpation. Who will they blame the loss on this year if there’s no Nader?
Yes. Next question.
I know I am just in a crappy mood I decided to relax and Clinton showed up on TV so I got a little POed :) In all honesty he does not look well
Deregulating the telecommunications industry in 1996, leading to more consolidation.
Ditching his life long friend Lani Guinier when she was up for confirmation for a civil rights position. Instead of defending her, he withdrew her nomination when Jesse Helms objected. Yeah, that Jesse Helms. I guess he was hoping for some “bipartisanship” in return.
Bill Clinton had cut a deal with then speaker Newtie to partially privatise Social Security. Then the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke, and Clinton had to use all his political capital to save his horny ass, so privatising Social Security fell to the wayside.
When I saw that commercial, the first thing I said was “you had a lot to do with that deregulation, dumbass.”.
Oh, well, end of Clinton rant.
Oops. You said that one already. Sorry.
And I bet the one big regret that Clinton has right now is that he didn’t hold out for much more. Eighty mil is so terribly Nineties, isn’t it?
For professional politicians, all your objections are besides the point. Their point is electability, electability, electability. Either getting yourself into office or getting someone else into office. Governing is a remote consideration, if it’s even on the agenda. That’s why administrations are such turnkey operations: just get into office and the administrative pros will supply the executive personnel. Package deal, all set up and ready to go.
Back when mutual funds were hot, there were companies who offered turnkey services to would be mutual fund owners: you paid them to set you up as a legal mutual fund in the states of your choice. Run the fund yourself or hire a manager. The object of the game, of course, was to get the attention of a larger fund and be bought out. I suppose you could say that’s the object of the political game, as well. Difference being the political game probably pays much better.
I’ve seen the ad, btw, and, yes, it’s infuriating. What a shameless, bald faced liar.
Clinton also used his influence so that SEC would approve of American power companies buying “privatized” foreign companies and ruthlessly gouging the captive clients. (Remember, American public utilities originally weren’t supposed to even operate outside their own *states*.)
Read Greg Palast’s books, or [url=http://www.politicalhotwire.com/general-political-discussion/13797-hillary-clinton-board-directors-wal-mart.html]the essay reprinted here[/url]. Clinton went so far as to visit Pakistan in September, 2000, essentially blessing the military coup that had propelled Gen. Pervez Musharraf to power. That’s a rather odd thing for a sitting President to do.
But the man Musharraf had toppled, Nawaz Sharif, had indicted ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto for cozy deals with energy companies, including Hillary’s little pet, Entergy. (Which went from almost bankrupt to making billions, thanks to deals like Hillary helping them to buy London Electricity for no money down, and then make over a billion in profit after less than two years putting the screws to Londoners.) So Clinton and Tony Blair and the IMF threatened to cut off Pakistan’s credit, Musharraf got rid of Sharif, the power deals stayed in place (with the plants now under the control of the army) and Bill came and smiled.
My grudging support of Obama after the primaries amounted to “well, at least he’s not a fucking Clinton”. Instead, Barry Zero has given us Bush policies, implemented by a cast of Clintonistas. Yay?
“Ah feel yer pain.” Yeah, feel *this*, Billy.
Oops, Wrong tags, above. Sorry about that.
H1-B Visas (huge expansion) / Outsourcing.
Please die quickly Bill (but he will probably keep a going like Energizer-Cheney).
Opening doors for the Rodham Brothers’ excellent adventure in the Russian Satellite of Georgia, and pardons, including for selling cocaine.
Bill Clinton is Haiti‘s sweatshop overlord.
He’s also “helping” in Honduras after his friend and former employee Lanny Davis lobbied for US support for the golpistas,
and KHillary scolded Zelaya for trying to return. Even the golpistas said the negrito knows nothing.
Subsequently, Bill took narco politico banker Carlos Slim down there to check out investment opportunities, and declare Honduras “open for business”, including privatizing schools as teachers were being mowed down en mass.
Then there was Pardon Gate- Selling pardons, including to Mark Rich.
Judicial Watch has been trying to get documents through FOIA, but just like Obama’s covering up President Cheney’s criminal regime, Bush did the same for Clinton.
I’ll just stop there. We could be busy all night.
..Bunch of criminal thugs.
Jill Stein ?
Jane Hamsher and Glenn Greenwald. They’ve already been blamed for the 2010 losses. Supposedly, because they criticized Obama a lot, they suppressed Democratic turnout. After all, they are far more influential than the poor, helpless President of the United States. :D
You don’t seem to understand, Bill can’t go away. The Democrats are about to ramp up their 2016 campaign for Hillary, so the 1st Husband needs time in the spotlight.
..After all, we can’t handle honest democracy. We have to have royal houses rule us. Can’t wait for Chelsey in 2028. After all, let’s face it, the people are lemmings, easily manipulated by fear of “them” and will gladly give power to whoever tells a better fairytale.
you need some videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClfpG2-1Bv4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOFdTQAaSBs&feature=related
He ran on NAFTA – you at least had a chance to vote against it – show me where NAFTA caused significant job loss, vs. manufacturing that went to China. NAFTA has been roughly a draw in terms of net gains/losses, but trade overall has increased.
Welfare reform – show me where it really hurt, vs. the Bush additional “reforms” in 2002 that made reform draconian.
“Gutting Social Security” – yawn, sure, right.
Imagine the fate of both Obama and Clinton if they appeared before the Revolutionary Tribunal and Committee of Public Safety and were judged by Robespierre.
Recommended.