Bill Clinton SHUT DOWN THE DAMN GOVERNMENT!

[KansasVoter]

Now, I bet that was not an easy decision either.

[tickledropstop]

1. Although Bill was a DLCer he was FIGHTER -- Good Quote during the shutdown...

In response to a discussion on Medicare, Clinton writes

"Armey replied gruffly that if I didn't give in to them, they would shut the government down and my presidency would be over. I shot back, saying I would never allow their budget to become law, "even if I drop to 5 percent in the polls. If you want your budget, you'll have to get someone else to sit in this chair!" Not surprisingly, we didn't make a deal"

[AndrewP]

5. Well, the two Presidents are different in their negotiating tactics

There...a nice PC way to say that this won't be a tactic our current President will ever use

[L. Coyote]

9. And they proceeded to work for his impeachment, by hook and by crooks

[Supersedeas]

42. Issa isn't backing off Obama investigations despite the President's concession to the superwealthy

[senseandsensibility]

18. The repugs lost big on that bet! LOL

I still remember when they backed down and Newty was on the news. It was the first time I'd seen him without that smug smirk on his face. He really looked shaken. And that's what would happen again if Obama stood up to them.

[tickledropstop]

2. No Chance of Obama ever, EVER doing This -- Repubs are going to have FUN for 2 years

[KansasVoter]

3. I LOVE and expected neg recs here on the GDP!

[tickledropstop]

4. I K&R 'ed at least.

[LAGC]

21. Here's another K&R.

Obama is no Clinton.

[EffieBlack]

6. There's a difference between shutting down government and allowing people's unemployment to lapse

Big difference

[DrToast]

7. Clinton had the luxury of a healthy economy

The unemployment rate was 5.6% and the economy was creating about 250K to 300K jobs per month.

[RaleighNCDUer]

17. In his first two years? That's not how I remember it.

Does "It's the economy, stupid" ring any bells?

Bush left us in a recession - one of the reasons he failed to get re-elected, despite his favorables over Iraq I, and rising unemployment. It took all of Clinton's first two years to turn that around. As we were still teetering on the brink of recession, he dared the repugs to shut us down. They did, and were seen as the bad guys because of it, ensuring his re-election.

[DrToast]

22. The shutdown wasn't during his first two years.

[msanthrope]

40. Don't try to confuse us with facts. n/t

[polmaven]

24. Exactly!

It was the right thing to do THEN. It is not the right thing to do NOW. Not yet, anyway.

[niceypoo]

55. LOL

Clinton walked into a recession

[Cali_Democrat]

8. Did Clinton have to deal with the worst economic situation since the Great Depression?

Didn't think so.

[harun]

11. If Obama ended the wars the economic situation would be like Clinton's.

[Cali_Democrat]

12. Link?

[niceypoo]

56. This depression was caused by tax cutting

Would Clinton have the balls to fix it? That is the real question and the answer is YES.

[ProSense]

10. You posted this in GD too?

Is it that important?

[DFab420]

14. I was gonna say..

I think it's because in GD people basically de-bunked this with:

Actually it was the republicans that shut down gov.
He also gave us:

DADT
Housing and Finance deregulation
NAFTA

[KansasVoter]

20. No, but fun seeing ow the responses / recs are different. Tells me a lot about this place!

[rasputin1952]

13. Truth be told...

it was Gingrich and his ship of fools that shut down the government...and they paid handsomely for it.

[dave29]

15. I was waiting to see how long it would take for someone to point that tiny detail out

thank you for setting the record straight :)

[Major Hogwash]

16. What year do you live in? Step out of the time machine now or else you'll wind up

stuck in the 60s like so many of the others posting here.

[senseandsensibility]

19. huh?

Why so hostile?

[karynnj]

23. The economy was in good shape then

With today's economy, I think it would be beyond stupid to do so - the economy is far too fragile.

[JamesA1102]

25. Didn't the government shut down lead to Clinton hooking up with Monica

Which lead to his impeachment which lead to Gore losing which lead to the Bush tax cuts which lead us to where we are today; so maybe that wasn't such a good thing.

[Clio the Leo]

27. well, it didn't "lead to it" but certainly gave him more FREE TIME...

.... and allowed fewer people in the Oval. lol, I think about that every time anyone brings up the fact that Bubba (love me some Bubba now!) allowed the GOP to shut down the government.

[Hippo_Tron]

28. Impeachment didn't lead to Gore losing

Clinton's approval ratings went up when he was impeached. Now it probably would've been a net gain for Gore if Clinton had kept it in his pants but the GOP really shot themselves in the foot with an overreaction.

[JamesA1102]

30. I disagree

Clinton's affair and impeachment made it hard for Gore to use him during the campaign.

[Hippo_Tron]

31. Clinton's affair and the media shitstorm made it hard for Gore to use him in the campaign

The impeachment made Clinton more popular, though.

[girl_interrupted]

33. Clinton left office with the highest end-of-office approval rating of any U.S. president since WW2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Clinton Gore made a big mistake not using him.

[JamesA1102]

43. The job Clinton did as President made him more popular

not the impeachment.

[Hippo_Tron]

44. Clinton's approval rating went up 10 points almost immediately after he was impeached

There was a measurable effect of the impeachment and it was positive for Clinton and negative for the GOP.

[JamesA1102]

45. No so negative as they won the next election. nt

[Hippo_Tron]

49. First of all, they stole the next election

Second of all, they didn't do as well as they did because of they chose to impeach Clinton.

[JamesA1102]

52. It was close enough to steal

So the public really didn't penalize them for impeaching Clinton just as they didn't penalize them for being total obstructionist the last 2 years.

[Hippo_Tron]

53. Post hoc propter ergo hoc

The fact that it was close enough to steal does not automatically mean that the Republicans were not hurt by Clinton's impeachment. Perhaps if they had not impeached Clinton, Bush would have won by 10 points. Clinton's approval ratings went from 60% to 70% the day after he was impeached. The public was clearly against the impeachment.

[Creative]

26. Yeah, but he was shrewd and crafty enough to blame it on the Republicans.

No one and I mean, no one, has ever had the kind of skills he possessed.

[Radical Activist]

29. Bill Clinton didn't have a two week deadline before an even worse Congress showed up.

[Hippo_Tron]

32. Shutting down the government forces the public to actually pay attention

It also makes the media focus on one story and it makes Congress and the President reach an agreement before they do anything else. Letting tax cuts expire doesn't create the same type of high stakes situation.

I wouldn't rule out a government shutdown in 2011.

[girl_interrupted]

34. Exactly, Clinton let the Republicans hang themselves

Smart move.

[rasputin1952]

38. Clinton had a great knack for taking GOP notions and turning them

into a situation where it looked like he came up with the ideas. After some twisting, he had some pretty good legislation moved through the grinder. Pre-empting the GOP was a great talent.

Couple of other things here as well...the House made a huge blunder in impeaching Clinton, it was obvious there was no chance of conviction, it made the GOP lose seats and Gingrich left the House in complete disgrace. Far more important though, because of impeachment proceedings, bin-Laden was put on the back burner, to emerge later as the bastard that brought us 9-11. Clinton tried to get bin-Laden, bush and the GOP saw it as a "wag the dog" situation...many people died because the GOP was trying to embarrass the president. They should be held accountable and not a damn one of them should be in office...Issa, Boehner and that piece of crap DeLay are directly responsible for the attack.

[PVnRT]

35. Try again. Newt Gingrich shut down the government.

[SKKY]

36. And I still say he did it because Clinton made him sit in the back of the plane...

...but that's neither here nor there.

[rasputin1952]

39. Don't forget the snit storm he created when he didn't get PoTUS

M&M's...:rofl:

[onenote]

37. different situation

Gingrich and the repubs were demanding sharp cuts in education, medicare, and other popular programs as the price of keeping the government running. Clinton was able to go to the public and say that cutting those programs was too high a price to pay. Today the repubs are demanding tax cuts for the wealthy as the price of keeping tax rates low for everyone else and for continuing unemployment insurance. Its much harder for Obama to say that giving tax breaks to the wealthy is too high a price to pay for tax and unemployment relief for those who need it.

[WI_DEM]

41. Clinton also gave us DADT, "Welfare" Reform, NAFTA, Telecommunications Act, & Dick Morris'

Triangulation policy. I love it when the "progressives" on DU try to use Clinton to attack Obama.

[leftynyc]

46. It's not attacking Pres Obama

to say Pres Clinton was a much better politician than Pres Obama. Some would take that as a compliment.

[mtnsnake]

48. He also erased Reagan's & Poppy Bush's deficit & gave us 8 yrs of relative prosperity & peace. nt

[BklnDem75]

47. Newt shut down the government

Get it right. Daily News front page had a cartoon of Newt in a diaper for doing that.

[Aramchek]

50. Obama wouldn't have to repeal DADT if Clinton hadn't signed it into law

[Aramchek]

51. and actually it was the Repukes who shut the government down, not Bill

[girl_interrupted]

57. Actually the Govt Shutdown wouldn't have occured if Clinton had given in to them

So, not to argue semantics, in effect, Clinton did shut it down by refusing to give in to their demands. He let the republicans hang themselves.

[niceypoo]

54. Obama would have traded Medicare and Environmental protections away...

...for more supply side, and the economy would have never taken off.