Last week, I committed an act that may ban me from future Republican gatherings, permanently block me from Rush Limbaugh’s website, and subject me to being smeared as a heretic. It was a most heinous act, almost too shockingly disturbing to admit to publicly---I actually visited the Clinton Library while visiting a friend in Little Rock. Even more damning, I actually enjoyed it.
Now, when Clinton was president, I held highly contradictory views of him. During the Clinton Administration, I had this vague feeling that I was being sold something all the time. Listening to Bill Clinton was kind of like being around a used car salesman in a bad leisure suit. You knew what was going on and it felt a little greasy, but you kind of accepted that this is just how the game is played. His dalliances with women that bordered on trailer trash and his less-than-credible, “I didn’t inhale” claims were unbecoming of a chief executive and signaled a lack of self control. The affair with Monica Lewinsky and the scandal and drama that unfolded was pretty revolting. The affair itself didn’t bother me—people have their own peccadilloes. It was the lying under oath to a Grand Jury that was reprehensible. Still, I didn’t have the burning hatred for Clinton that many Republicans did. Neither did I think he was one of the greatest presidents of the 20th century. My overall view was that he inherited an economy in ascent and in general, didn’t do much to screw it up. In foreign affairs, I thought him a bit timid, lobbing a few missiles from afar at our real enemies--Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, while putting our troops in harms way where we had no dog in the hunt—Somalia and Haiti. And most disconcertingly, he was slow to act during the genocide of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and did nothing at all when hundreds of thousands perished in Rwanda. On balance, I thought him to be an O.K. president, but just that.
Shockingly, though, while strolling through the library with the photos, and media displays and artifacts, a wave of nostalgia washed over me. That’s right- nostalgia. Never in a million years would I have expected to feel this way over the Clinton years. As I strolled through the panoramas and reviewed events of the Clinton administration, it was natural to contrast them with what is going on under the new Democratic administration. With some perspective, I have come to the conclusion that Clinton was shady and slippery when it came to dealing with matters in his personal life, but in matters of policy, he was pretty principled, at least as far as politicians go. At his core, Clinton was a believer in free markets, free trade, and limited government. He was willing to spend political capital pushing back on his own party to accomplish objectives consistent with those core principles. By passing Welfare Reform and shepherding NAFTA through, Clinton demonstrated his willingness to lean against important elements of his constituency. NAFTA and Welfare Reform would be crowning achievements in any Republican administration and far outshine anything George W. Bush was able to accomplish on the domestic front.
Now, when Clinton was president, I held highly contradictory views of him. During the Clinton Administration, I had this vague feeling that I was being sold something all the time. Listening to Bill Clinton was kind of like being around a used car salesman in a bad leisure suit. You knew what was going on and it felt a little greasy, but you kind of accepted that this is just how the game is played. His dalliances with women that bordered on trailer trash and his less-than-credible, “I didn’t inhale” claims were unbecoming of a chief executive and signaled a lack of self control. The affair with Monica Lewinsky and the scandal and drama that unfolded was pretty revolting. The affair itself didn’t bother me—people have their own peccadilloes. It was the lying under oath to a Grand Jury that was reprehensible. Still, I didn’t have the burning hatred for Clinton that many Republicans did. Neither did I think he was one of the greatest presidents of the 20th century. My overall view was that he inherited an economy in ascent and in general, didn’t do much to screw it up. In foreign affairs, I thought him a bit timid, lobbing a few missiles from afar at our real enemies--Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, while putting our troops in harms way where we had no dog in the hunt—Somalia and Haiti. And most disconcertingly, he was slow to act during the genocide of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and did nothing at all when hundreds of thousands perished in Rwanda. On balance, I thought him to be an O.K. president, but just that.
Shockingly, though, while strolling through the library with the photos, and media displays and artifacts, a wave of nostalgia washed over me. That’s right- nostalgia. Never in a million years would I have expected to feel this way over the Clinton years. As I strolled through the panoramas and reviewed events of the Clinton administration, it was natural to contrast them with what is going on under the new Democratic administration. With some perspective, I have come to the conclusion that Clinton was shady and slippery when it came to dealing with matters in his personal life, but in matters of policy, he was pretty principled, at least as far as politicians go. At his core, Clinton was a believer in free markets, free trade, and limited government. He was willing to spend political capital pushing back on his own party to accomplish objectives consistent with those core principles. By passing Welfare Reform and shepherding NAFTA through, Clinton demonstrated his willingness to lean against important elements of his constituency. NAFTA and Welfare Reform would be crowning achievements in any Republican administration and far outshine anything George W. Bush was able to accomplish on the domestic front.
This is in stark contrast to our current administration, which has demonstrated a willingness to be slippery on matters of policy and has yet to demonstrate in any way that it is willing to lean on the more liberal elements of its constituency. Is there any policy position that the administration has taken that Ted Kennedy would object to? Obama talks up bipartisanship, but stiff-armed the Republicans in passing the stimulus bill. He talks about stimulus, yet not much in the recently passed spending bill has anything remotely to do with real stimulus. He talks about tax cuts for 95% of Americans, but the bulk of it is really just a transfer payment. If you are not paying taxes and only receiving a check, that is welfare, not a tax cut. Most egregiously, he claimed last week that the budget stimulus bill was free of earmarks, which brought a snicker from the audience. The “earmark free” stimulus was chock full of earmarks, containing pork barrel projects such as a as a $950,000 convention center in South Carolina and the biggest knee-slapper of all--$1.8 million set-aside for pig odor research in Iowa. I’m not opposed to the pig odor research per se, but we’d get more mileage out of it if we started in Washington. Obama has learned that labels matter, and if you name something different than what it actually is, you can throw them off the trail for awhile.
In the opening weeks of his administration, Obama has taken immediate and concrete steps to neutralize several of Clinton’s most important accomplishments. The stimulus package effectively gutted welfare reform and signaled to the world that this administration is willing to see our commitment to free trade erode by permitting the “Buy American” provision in it. In one of the media presentations at the Clinton Library, I even heard Clinton’s semi-famous speech proclaiming that “the era of big government is over.” I almost could hear Obama’s voice in the background singing, “We’ve only just begun.” I’m starting to come around to the point of view that Clinton’s sleight of hand in his personal matters were pretty venial sins after all, especially in contrast to the verbal deception that is going on now.
I never thought I’d ever say this. But, Bill, I miss you.
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