Props to Clinton

[Parkbandit]

Seriously.. a great speech last night. I really do appreciate him as an orator.

Gore though.. I felt like I should thrown him a crying towel. My god man... get over it!

[Wezas]

Clinton's speech was awesome. My favorite part of course being when he was considering thanking Bush for his tax break now that Clinton is in the top 1%. Subtle pokes like that - and not long drawn out rants are part of what makes him a great politician.

:edited to add:
Anyone know where I can download the video of the speech? My girl missed the speech last night and wants to see it.

[Edited on 7-27-2004 by Wezas]

[Back]

I actually missed it. Usually I'm watching anything he is on. Couldn't find video, which I'm sure will pop up later today. But I did find this. Transcript. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-4355167,00.html)

Very inspiring. Very true.

[DeV]

Thanks for posting that link Backlash. Great speech.

[Latrinsorm]

I wish Clinton was running (and I could believe him). :(

[Parkbandit]

Personally.. I think term limits on Presidents is stupid.

With that being said.. Clinton did more to hurt the office than anyone since Nixon. He is why people believe politics is dirty. His only saving grace was his speeches.

[Skirmisher]

Just don't marry him and you should be able to believe him.

[Back]

Link to speech videos. (http://www.dems2004.org/site/apps/nl/newsletter3.asp?c=luI2LaPYG&b=125919)

[GSTamral]

All things aside, Clinton was an excellent orator, and his ability to deliver speeches with a humanistic fluidity and articulate even the stupidest of statements as though they actually meant something is very reminiscent of the Reagan era.

I mean shit, if integrity and personal values were the only important things, Carter would never have lost an election. And in actually looking back at it, with the exceptions of Reagan, Carter, and FDR, I can't think of a single president in the 20th and 21st century I would call a decent human being.

But then again, being a decent human being does not qualify one for the presidency, nor should it be taken that not being a decent human being would prevent someone from executing the tasks of the presidency in an excellent fashion (Ike, Taft, Ford)

[GSTamral]

Just to add to a previous statement. Yet another reason I can never find myself voting for Kerry.

The Massachusetts bloc, Kennedy and his cohorts, which include Kerry, are the primary reason that Carter could not get anything done in this country. They stripped their leader of his power because he was smarter than they were, and they abandoned the country during a time of crisis and chaos.

That may be the best example we have in history of how the kerry/kennedy coalition has handled power during a crisis situation. I just can't see how they can turn around and criticize anybody for anything after what they did. They are standing on a pillar with Ariel Sharon and Arafat. That pillar is reserved for the pre-k students that need time out.

[Numbers]

Clinton's da man. Sure, he made some bad marital decisions, but he's probably one of the better presidents we've had in a while.

He spoke at my graduation at Syracuse last year. Good speech.

[Latrinsorm]

Originally posted by Skirmisher
Just don't marry himHey: my body, my decision.

I mean, uh, right! :)

Tamral: I'll never get why you have it in for Wilson so bad.

[Parkbandit]

Originally posted by 3704558
Clinton's da man. Sure, he made some bad marital decisions, but he's probably one of the better presidents we've had in a while.

He spoke at my graduation at Syracuse last year. Good speech.

A good orator who held the office during good economic times that lied while under oath.

That is his legacy... which is FAR from great.

[Jolena]

Oh come ON people..if you are using his infedelity to his wife and lying about it as the reason that he was not a good president then I feel bad for you. He is not the first nor will he be the last president/politician/man period who has cheated on his wife and then lied. Do I care that he lied? of course I do, but he was in a corner and when in a corner most of us would be scared to admit our fallacies as well. The fact that he was slammed so badly for his infidelities to his wife in my opinion was horrendous considering our past presidents. I for one, believe JFK was a wonderful president but the fact is he was a whore..and he slept with a LOT of women just as other presidents have.

If you want to use something against Clinton to say he was not a good president, fine. But please don't let it be his infidelity or the fact that he lied about it. Come with something else. Please.

[Edited on 7-27-2004 by Jolena]

[DeV]

Originally posted by Parkbandit

Originally posted by 3704558
Clinton's da man. Sure, he made some bad marital decisions, but he's probably one of the better presidents we've had in a while.

He spoke at my graduation at Syracuse last year. Good speech.

A good orator who held the office during good economic times that lied while under oath.

That is his legacy... which is FAR from great. When I think of Clinton, the first thing that comes to my mind isn't that he lied under oath, nor is it the whole Monica Lewinsky affair. I think of our economy, which was pretty damn good at the time.

[GSTamral]

I have it in for Woodrow Wilson because

1) He invented the estate tax (stamp tax)
2) He crippled the economy long term in exchange for a short term boost
3) He led us unnecessarily into WW1.
4) He created contracts with Europe that tied down the economy into shipping and freight contracts which sucked.
5) He was a bitch.

[Ilvane]

I think the only one who should be mad at Clinton for lying about his affair is his wife. After that, the millions of dollars spent to find out that he cheated on his wife wasn't worth it to me.

Then somehow the Republicans convinced people that they would be better off under Bush, and look at what has happened.

I will vote for Kerry on the principles that he stands for. I'm more concerned about Bush's lying to the American people saying there were weapons of mass destruction, and other lies he told to get to Iraq.

Clinton lying under oath was demeaning to his wife.
Bush lying to the country has cost multiple American and Iraqi lives.

-A

[Boobstastegreat]

I don't feel Clinton did much for the economy. He obviously got the benefit of the doubt though. The economy during the Clinton-era should be credited to Reagan.

[Back]

Originally posted by Boobstastegreat
I don't feel Clinton did much for the economy. He obviously got the benefit of the doubt though. The economy during the Clinton-era should be credited to Reagan.

If you follow that logic, then everything, good and bad, is all on George Washington.

Clinton was in office for 8 years. He inherited a federal debt in the trillions and left with a surplus in the trillions. Look it up man, no joke. Bush Jr wiped that surplus out in the first two years of his presidency.

That argument is so tired it should have been left on the playground where it started.

[Artha]

Clinton left during a recession, even he acknowledges this.

[Boobstastegreat]

Originally posted by Backlash

Originally posted by Boobstastegreat
I don't feel Clinton did much for the economy. He obviously got the benefit of the doubt though. The economy during the Clinton-era should be credited to Reagan.

If you follow that logic, then everything, good and bad, is all on George Washington.

Clinton was in office for 8 years. He inherited a federal debt in the trillions and left with a surplus in the trillions. Look it up man, no joke. Bush Jr wiped that surplus out in the first two years of his presidency.

That argument is so tired it should have been left on the playground where it started.

See, the funny thing about that...The economy (and therefore changes to influence the economy) do not happen instantly. Therefore, the economy is influenced by decisions made 4-8 years before I believe.

[Artha]

Not only that, but there was the dot com bubble, which burst shortly before Clinton left office.

[Back]

4-8 years dosen't cover all the Regan-Bush years. Don't forget those 4 Bush years there. Regan had good economics as statistics show during his term. I won't argue that.

But about the immediacy of economics, I'll point to when Greenspans talks, the economy changes the same day.

No doubt, some things enacted in the past have an affect on the future. Like when Clinton and Gore proposed a plan when they came into office to reduce the defecit and boost the economy at the same time, which worked.

Or like when Regan outlined his plan.

[Edited on 7-28-2004 by Backlash]

Great speech. KErry is still a douche.

[Latrinsorm]

Originally posted by GSTamral
I have it in for Woodrow Wilson because

5) He was a bitch. I get it now! :!:

[Edaarin]

Originally posted by Backlash

Clinton was in office for 8 years. He inherited a federal debt in the trillions and left with a surplus in the trillions. Look it up man, no joke. Bush Jr wiped that surplus out in the first two years of his presidency.

That argument is so tired it should have been left on the playground where it started.

Err...that statement is badly twisted. The national DEBT is, has been, and will be for quite some time in the trillions. During Clinton's presidency, they stopped running a DEFICIT (basically spending for that year was less than what the government got in payments through foreign stock/property/taxes).

The debt will be in the trillions for years to come. Our national GDP is only somewhere around $10 trill, there's no way in hell that anyone can manage to erase the kind of debt our country has and turn it into trillions in surplus.

And I don't care what the President does in his private life, so long as he doesn't flaunt it and it's not illegal.

EDIT: On a side note, Gore came to speak at my high school's graduation (I *think* it was class of '99, I was a freshman then and playing in the orchestra at graduation). He wasn't a bad speaker, but I don't remember a damn thing he said. That's not the mark of a great orator. I remember thinking that it would have been better to have Tommy Lee Jones as a keynote speaker (apparently both Jones and Gore were college roommates with one of the grad's father).

[Edited on 7-28-2004 by Edaarin]

[Back]

Originally posted by Edaarin

Originally posted by Backlash

Clinton was in office for 8 years. He inherited a federal debt in the trillions and left with a surplus in the trillions. Look it up man, no joke. Bush Jr wiped that surplus out in the first two years of his presidency.

That argument is so tired it should have been left on the playground where it started.

Err...that statement is badly twisted. The national DEBT is, has been, and will be for quite some time in the trillions. During Clinton's presidency, they stopped running a DEFICIT (basically spending for that year was less than what the government got in payments through foreign stock/property/taxes).

True enough, but we were closer to eliminating it than we are now. Perhaps there is some hocus pocus reason that debt means better economy. If there is, give me the shaman's phone number. I could use some extra cash about now.

[Edaarin]

It's sort of complicated, but there's a school of thought in economics that advocates adjusting government spending depending on whether it's an expansion or recession. There's a lot of problems with it though. You want to run a deficit to give the economy a little boost in a time of recession (with the thinking spend more money to make money), and a surplus whenever there's growth (slow down the economy before it gets too hot). That's the bare bones idea of it.

The problems lie in the lag time it takes for implementation, the unpredictability of future estimations of what the economy will be like, and the fact that more often than not politicians will do what will get them reelected, not what's best for the economy. That's why we've been running a deficit almost every year for the past 40 years, very few politicians want to be the ones responsible for cutting government spending (which goes to programs like education, health care, etc) because they're slated for reelection the following fall or whatever. The result = a pretty much insurmountable national debt.