Opinion Almost 23 years later, how do you assess Bill Clinton?

At the time I thought he was level headed and his decisions were fair and balanced. I doubt he would even be considered a Democrat by today's standards. His extracurricular activities were an national embarrassment. And now that I'm older I feel they were almost illegal.

As we know today, his actions helped fuel the 2008 financial crisis.
 
chardog said:
on a side note, did yall forget that clinton is responsible to the 2008 housing crash? Bush wasnt the only guy pushing for lowering mortgage standards through the floor, Clinton also did as well, and engineered balloon payments with his national homeownership strategy.
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I just mentioned it ^^^
 
I actually think he was a good potus even though he is really shady. He always gave me a used car salesman vibe. He is responsible for the omnibus crime bill which added around 100k cops, increased funding and equipment, and some other things to try and combat the very high crime rate and murders during the 90s crack epidemic. What’s funny is that biden tried to take some credit for omnibus when he first started running and then when he got criticized by blm for the crime bill being responsible for increased prison sentences and lots of black people getting caught up in those sentences (heaven forbid anyone be held responsible for their actions) he quickly downplayed it to them, then when he was called anti-police, he backpeddled and again and started taking credit again for it.
 
Jack V Savage said:
Meh. It's crazy how many people buy the myth that he was fiscally conservative, which I think goes to a broader misunderstanding of how budgeting works. Didn't face many real challenges in office (relative to most presidents), but didn't mess anything up either. Bad on foreign policy, as you'd expect given his experience, mixed on the economy, shameful behavior. I think he rivals JFK as the worst Democratic president since Wilson.
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Damn. That seems harsh. I thought he was a good President for you guys. Can you expand when you have the time? No pressure.
 
JudoThrowFiasco said:
Had the easiest stretch of issues of any president I can think of.
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He did have the 90s crack epidemic and all the extreme violence that came with it and he also had a rough time recovering after he blasted Monica Lewinsky’s blouse, but can you really blame the guy for doing that considering what he is married to. Holy ahit, imagine having Hillary on her back with her giant cankles up in the air. I just threw up in my mouth a little
 
chinafination of america... that was bill

nafta.... that was bill

both had nice short term gains for sure, however it can be argued that it wasnt so great for america.
 
nhbbear said:
He did have the 90s crack epidemic and all the extreme violence that came with it and he also had a rough time recovering after he blasted Monica Lewinsky’s blouse, but can you really blame the guy for doing that considering what he is married to. Holy ahit, imagine having Hillary on her back with her giant cankles up in the air. I just threw up in my mouth a little
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Divorce is always a better option than cheating. I would never cheat on my wife. If you get at that point, don't be a pussy, don't make excuses and divorce. Cheating is an act of betrayal I loathe.
 
Overall he was terrible for our country and his wife was even worst. China would still be a 3rd world country living in the early 2000's if it weren't for the
Clintons selling us out on behalf of the globalists..
 
koquerelle said:
Divorce is always a better option than cheating. I would never cheat on my wife. If you get at that point, don't be a pussy, don't make excuses and divorce. Cheating is an act of betrayal I loathe.
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I 100% agree. I have been cheated on and it really sucks. I hate people that cheat, and that goes for any friends as well-I just think less of people that cheat.

I would never cheat on my wife(we have been together since early 1999) but I always have this fear in the back of my head because of my college years and cheating bitches. But I am guessing that Hillary was aware that bill was a cheater and Monica was def not his first or only affair, just the one that went public.
 
koquerelle said:
Damn. That seems harsh. I thought he was a good President for you guys. Can you expand when you have the time? No pressure.
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Killing the AFDC program didn't have the positive effects proponents claimed and did greatly increase extreme poverty (particularly among children) in America, even as the economy boomed (generally, the issue of poverty is separate from the overall strength of the economy). Other aspects of the "reform" also greatly increased poverty among young adults with disabilities. Interestingly, that wasn't "achieved" with overall cuts to the safety net--it was just reallocated to benefit the working poor more than kids and the disabled, for example the EITC was expanded while AFDC was killed and SSI was cut (I know I'm using a lot of acronyms for talking to someone who isn't American about 30 year-old policy, but you can Google this for specifics--I'm just doing a broad overview). Of course, some of that was pressure from Republicans, but he still did what he did.

I don't think I have to say why he was an embarrassment as head of state. The Waco siege was also a massive fuck-up that he deserves some blame for.

I give him credit for some trade deals (though I think Bush 41 deserves most of the credit for NAFTA), but he was generally not that interested in foreign policy. Dragged his feet on the Bosnian situation, did nothing really about Rwanda, etc. Made bad decisions on terrorism.

On the budgeting thing, I think one of the most annoying misconceptions around is that annual deficits are a result of the annual budgeting process. First, the deficit involves spending and revenue. Revenue levels are determined by overall economic strength (which presidents generally have little to do with), tax levels (can be changed by laws, and presidents can play a part, but it's mostly a matter of the existing system), and to some extent tax enforcement (presidents can influence this the most, but it's the least significant part). Then most spending is determined outside of the budgeting process--for example, Social Security outlays are determined by existing law rather than appropriations, and debt interest has to be paid. The third or so that is "discretionary" isn't actually that discretionary (for example, the Transportation Budget is going to be about what it was last year--it's not going to be significantly cut or increased unless there's some big program). And defense (which is about half of the third) is determined more by the needs of the military than anything else--Democrats always try to cut it a little, Republicans always resist, but it always ends up following roughly the path set by need. If you want to measure presidents' impact on deficits, you have to look at law changes they led rather than annual deficits while they were in office. Clinton's record is OK there (and note that he was president at a time when austerity was clearly the right move from an economic standpoint--it was not the right move at any time after he left office until 2022, though you can argue that it actually started to be the right move in 2019).

I'd say that overall he was president during good times for America and did an OK but not great job. He also looks good because of the contrast with Bush 43 and Trump, but that's also not really fair (that is, recent comparisons massively sucking isn't actually to his credit). I think he's also another point in favor of wanting presidents with experience (and valuing experience over native intelligence--Carter, Clinton, and JFK were all really smart but inexperienced and mediocre presidents, while Biden and LBJ were not as smart but way more experienced and much better presidents). Keeping the comparison to other Democrats to get partisanship out of the discussion (you can also compare Reagan, Nixon, and Bush 41 to W and Trump--though W and Trump lacked both experience and intelligence).
 
Strictly speaking about his job he is the best president we have had since he was in office. The 90s were great and everyone loved Bill. Even dudes that pretended to be outraged he got head on the side were thinking damn that guy is cool af.

Now is the guy a pedo? Yes I would bet my life on it. Kinda sucks he ruined his legacy with it but it is what it is.
 
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