God I miss him

PRESIDENT CLINTON: My fellow citizens, tonight is my last opportunity to speak to you from the Oval Office as your president.

I am profoundly grateful to you for twice giving me the honor to serve, to work for you and with you to prepare our nation for the 21st century. And I'm grateful to Vice President Gore, to my Cabinet secretaries, and to all those who have served with me for the last eight years.

This has been a time of dramatic transformation, and you have risen to every new challenge. You have made our social fabric stronger, our families healthier and safer, our people more prosperous.

You, the American people, have made our passage into the global information age an era of great American renewal.

In all the work I have done as president, every decision I have made, every executive action I have taken, every bill I have proposed and signed, I've tried to give all Americans the tools and conditions to build the future of our dreams, in a good society, with a strong economy, a cleaner environment, and a freer, safer, more prosperous world.

I have steered my course by our enduring values. Opportunity for all. Responsibility from all. A community of all Americans. I have sought to give America a new kind of government, smaller, more modern, more effective, full of ideas and policies appropriate to this new time, always putting people first, always focusing on the future.

Working together, America has done well. Our economy is breaking records, with more than 22 million new jobs, the lowest unemployment in 30 years, the highest home ownership ever, the longest expansion in history.

Our families and communities are stronger. Thirty-five million Americans have used the family leave law. Eight million have moved off welfare. Crime is at a 25-year low. Over 10 million Americans receive more college aid, and more people than ever are going to college. Our schools are better--higher standards, greater accountability and larger investments have brought higher test scores, and higher graduation rates.

More than three million children have health insurance now, and more than 7 million Americans have been lifted out of poverty. Incomes are rising across the board. Our air and water are cleaner. Our food and drinking water are safer. And more of our precious land has been preserved, in the continental United States, than at any time in 100 years.

America has been a force for peace and prosperity in every corner of the globe.

I'm very grateful to be able to turn over the reins of leadership to a new president, with America in such a strong position to meet the challenges of the future.

Tonight, I want to leave you with three thoughts about our future. First, America must maintain our record of fiscal responsibility. Through our last four budgets, we've turned record deficits to record surpluses, and we've been able to pay down $600 billion of our national debt, on track to be debt free by the end of the decade for the first time since 1835.

Staying on that course will bring lower interest rates, greater prosperity and the opportunity to meet our big challenges. If we choose wisely, we can pay down the debt, deal with the retirement of the baby boomers, invest more in our future and provide tax relief.

Second, because the world is more connected every day in every way, America's security and prosperity require us to continue to lead in the world. At this remarkable moment in history, more people live in freedom that ever before. Our alliances are stronger than ever. People all around the world look to America to be a force for peace and prosperity, freedom and security. The global economy is giving more of our own people, and billions around the world, the chance to work and live and raise their families with dignity.

But the forces of integration that have created these good opportunities also make us more subject to global forces of destruction, to terrorism, organized crime and narco-trafficking, the spread of deadly weapons and disease, the degradation of the global environment.

The expansion of trade hasn't fully closed the gap between those of us who live on the cutting edge of the global economy and the billions around the world who live on the knife's edge of survival.

This global gap requires more than compassion. It requires action. Global poverty is a powder keg that could be ignited by our indifference.

In his first inaugural address, Thomas Jefferson warned of entangling alliances. But in our times, America cannot and must not disentangle itself from the world. If we want the world to embody our shared values, then we must assume a shared responsibility.

If the wars of the 20th century, especially the recent ones in Kosovo and Bosnia, have taught us anything, it is that we achieve our aims by defending our values and leading the forces of freedom and peace. We must embrace boldly and resolutely that duty to lead, to stand with our allies in word and deed, and to put a human face on the global economy so that expanded trade benefits all people in all nations, lifting lives and hopes all across the world.

Third, we must remember that America cannot lead in the world unless here at home we weave the threads of our coat of many colors into the fabric of one America. As we become ever more diverse, we must work harder to unite around our common values and our common humanity.

We must work harder to overcome our differences. In our hearts and in our laws, we must treat all our people with fairness and dignity, regardless of their race, religion, gender or sexual orientation and regardless of when they arrived in our country, always moving toward the more perfect union of our founders' dreams.

Hillary, Chelsea and I join all Americans in wishing our very best to the next president, George W. Bush, to his family and his administration in meeting these challenges and in leading freedom's march in this new century.

As for me, I'll leave the presidency more idealistic, more full of hope than the day I arrived and more confident than ever that America's best days lie ahead.

My days in this office are nearly through, but my days of service, I hope, are not. In the years ahead, I will never hold a position higher or a covenant more sacred than that of president of the United States. But there is no title I will wear more proudly than that of citizen.





Thank you. God bless you, and God bless America.

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28784/print

isn't it?

*shudder*

Unfortunately for our country, The Onion had a crystal ball.

This article was one of the funnier, and more prescient, articles the Onion has put out. As a 10-year reader of the Onion, I think around that time was their glory days.

As you can see by reading further downpost, folks will believe what they want to believe.

Truth has little (nothing) to do with it. Those who don't believe in something will even invent fantasies to continue their denial. (Have to love the posts about the innocent law enforment officer murdering, baby burning Branch Dividians to illustrate the point.)

Clinton gave me a fantasy of an America I could believe in.

The Onion clearly expresses the alternate view (echoed by others in this thread).

Desperately trying to keep the faith. These people scare me.

Democrats seem to think all of BushCo's current agenda magically came to be from a political vacuum created on Dec 13th, 2001. Fact is, most of Clinton's eight years laid the groundwork for the GOP.

Go ahead, flame me ... insinuate that I'm a Freeper. Won't change the facts. Clinton was a smooth talker, nothing more. A cult of personality.

What a load of crap.

Clinton will go down in history as one of the greats

it was this: "As for me, I'll leave the presidency more idealistic, more full of hope than the day I arrived and more confident than ever that America's best days lie ahead.

...there was no way for him to even imagine that Bushco would be such a disaster in everything he has done. Clinton laid the groundwork for ALL OF US and Bushco fucked it up beyond anyone's wildest imagination. No one should flame you for voicing your opinion, wrong as it may be...

Look at what the man accomplished during his administration. What more do you want? A budget surplus does not come from being a smooth talker. That was the result of sound economic policy, my friend. And we sure as heck weren't in a quagmire of a war. There was separation of church and state. Our civil liberties were still that, liberties. We still would have had a Hurricane Katrina, but it sure would have been handled a lot differently.

The GOP laid their own goddamn groundwork, and they filled it full of landmines.

Geez.

speculation. He is **THE** original DLC sell out. It is after all, his baby. Clinton abandoned most of the traditional Democratic values, so that we could have chump change in our pockets.

To his credit, he did give us Freedom of Information Act.

women's rights, reproductive rights, civil rights, trying to get health care for all Americans, advocating for the mentally ill, more of the tax burden carried by the rich, good foreign policy. He didn't abandon any of that, he embraced it.

He wasn't perfect, but it would be such a sweet dream to see him in office again. How far we have fallen under Bush's regime.

I haven't felt this betrayed since Green Day started selling records! Didn't Bill know Democrats were supposed to lead the country into stagflation??? And yet he balanced the federal budget more than once and decreased the national debt for the first time in decades! We were so betrayed! :sarcasm: (obviously)

He stayed true to the Democratic ideals as best he could in the political climate of those times. He had a Republican-controlled Congress who wouldn't give him what he wanted (look what happened to his health care reform agenda). He vetoed a lot of initiatives passed by the Pugs and, I believe, NAFTA was going to pass with or without him, but he made it more palatable than it would have been without his input. I think he served as a staunch defender of the American people the eight years he was in office, and that is why the Pugs tried so hard to get rid of him. Look how far we have fallen in just 5 years. I really miss him.

all that bad then. I don't know how it varied state to state, but the worst thing about it here was that single parents had to be in work or school when the babies were just 3 months old. That's too young.

But that aside, when it was 20 hours per week there were a lot of benefits to people. They ended up financially ahead and kept day care and health insurance as long as it was needed. People use to lose way too much by trying to work.

A lot of people did feel better to be contributing more, more a part of society. People can be scared and unsure when they've had no experience and the confidence they gained made them feel better too Many got training they could not have otherwise. Those who really couldn't work due to some disability or grandparents who were raising kids and just couldn't do both were excused from the requirement.
It was good.

Those were good times for job seeking though. As times have gotten worse the hours required have gone up, they are at 40 hours now, and sometimes that means trying to juggle two or three part time jobs. The ongoing support has lessened, you lose more by working. Training has been cut to just 3 months in a year, a big loss. It has become a mockery that takes from the quality of life.

But when it started, when it was realistic, when it was done right it made a lot of lives better. One of the programs for it was near my office and I got to know a lot of the women. I saw them blossom. They liked to pop in from time to time long after they were working. I was just so happy for them.

It was designed to delay the problem long enough that Bill could be out of office before it started having an effect. Since most people wouldn't be needing assistance for five years straight, it wouldn't seem like much of a problem initially. But, after a lengthy period of recession, even those fully willing to work would be out of a job for a few months here, a year there, and, eventually, that lifetime limit will catch up with more and more of those who are most in need, and they'll have no option but the streets.

It hasn't hit yet, but it will certainly do so soon (as long as Bush's "jobless recovery" continues), and will keep increasing in severity year after year, as more and more lower income people exhaust their benefits. Because it isn't like unemployment insurance, which builds up again once you start working -- when you're out of welfare benefits, you're out for life.

:-(

I saw the good of 20 hours with support. That 5 year limit is another big crack for people to fall through.

...Clinton was, at best, a half-hearted progressive. He spent a lot of time trying to "triangulate" between Republicans and his fellow Democrats, winding up with positions that were, often, more on the GOP side of the divide. Or maybe it was the circumstances -- when he came up with something more Republican than Democrat, the Republican-controlled Congress would pass it in record time. When he came up with something more in line with traditional Democratic values, they would bury it.

But, even prior to the Republican takeover in 1994, he did less than he could have done. He aligned with the Republicans and against his own party on NAFTA, thus giving the big boost to globalization. He bungled universal health-care, coming up with a plan that practically nobody could understand, and that was based at least as much on making sure the major insurance companies would survive as it was guaranteeing health care for you and me. His actions on gays in the military ("don't ask, don't tell") failed to truly "integrate" the armed forces, while still allowing Republicans to make it into a hot-button campaign issue just as much as if he had done so. What it came down to is that, in his first two years, Clinton did such a slipshod job that the electorate was moved to hand both houses of Congress over to Newt's far-right Republicans.

And what bothers me the most is this: that, by triangulating and keeping his distance from progressivism, he ensured that any triumphs of his administration would accrue to him alone. Not to Democrats. Not to liberalism. Had he, upon taking office based on a promise of "change," actually embraced traditional liberal values and implemented progressive policies, the triumph would not be his alone, but that of our party and philosophy. He wouldn't have left office, however high his popularity, with "liberal" still considered a dirty word in the political lexicon, and with almost half the electorate willing to move onward by turning the White House over to a conservative Republican. :-(

But...on the other hand, we should consider this as well: granted Clinton was only a half-hearted progressive, look at the record of 1992-2000 (as opposed to the five years following), and realize what a great job even half-hearted progressivism can do for this country!

...I'm curious whether or not you recall that the GOP controlled Congress from 1996-2000?

I wonder if you also recall that Clinton was under increasing attack by the rightwing of the GOP from 1992 until the Starr "investigation" resulted in his impeachment and subsequent trial?

I wonder if you also recall that certain conservative members of the Democratic Party in Congress, such as Lieberman, heavily aligned themselves with the GOP-controlled Congress. That enabled the GOP-controlled Congress to pass virtually anything they wanted without fear of having to override a Presidential veto?

And finally, how is that Clinton recognized the threat of OBL and Al Qaeda, and attempted to kill OBL several times? As a follow-up, how is it that the NeoCon Junta dropped just about all surveillance of anyone connected to OBL and Al Qaeda after they took control of the U. S. centers of power?

And how was it possible that a country led by our last legally-elected President created the most successful economy the world has ever seen from 1992-2000, one that created a massive budget surplus and millions of new jobs, only to have it completely destroyed after the NeoCon Junta Coup of December 13, 2000?

Was originally enacted in '66.

Anybody who says anything about the market bubble having anything to do with ANY administration is someone who's is so desperately searching for something about which to complain that they're irrelevant.

The market, and the speculation within it, had absolutely NOTHING (provable statistically) to do with the deficit reduction, surplus creation and economic boom that included higher employment and productivity. None, nada, zilch, niente.

Yor Are Dismissed!
The Professor

Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías of Venezuela would have lasted about two to four months before NAFTA. The World Bank and IMF would have disassembled their currency that quickly. He would have been tossed by the people like so many others before him in the last century, in the midst of a total economic collapse.

This was a yearly occurrence during my lifetime. Thinking Brazil and ethanol in the 80's or even Mexico and the peso. If this type of collapse has occurred since NAFTA, I am unaware. Don't have my head in the sand on this, just maybe up my ass is all. If I'm wrong, someone please correct me.

Threw the door wide open for the media consolidation that is hurting us so much right now. Gave us Clear Channel and Sinclair. Now, I think there's plenty of things Clinton did right, but there's no shortage of things he did wrong either, and I ain't talkin' 'bout Monica.

a sad, self-loathing (what? surely not Democrat!) who can actually manage to link the B*shit mis-administration to the successes (and they were MANY) of the Clinton administration. I suppose you'd have preferred another term of Poppy B*shit? Such a tragic waste of a mind. How awful it must be to be you. I have gay friends, deeply closeted, who despise all other gays and make bitter, sarcastic remarks about them. Same thing.

UNICEF estimates that over 500,000 Iraqi children under the age of 5 died during UN economic sanctions imposed by Bush I, held in place during 8 years of Clinton, and lifted by Bush II.

100,000's of adults also died of starvation, malnutrition, diseases that were preventable or treatable in Iraq before the Gulf War.

Clinton left John Negroponte in charge at the UN - Negroponte - the man responsible for death squads in Latin American and now in Iraq. Clinton left Negroponte in charge he allowed the killing sanctions to be kept in place -- though the other countries on the council *begged* the US to allow them to be lifted.

I disagreed with his policy of weekly-bombings in the "No Fly Zone" in Iraq, but I will never forget that his policies lead to the deaths of 100,000's of the most vulnerable Iraqis -- children, the elderly, the sick.

Just because the deaths under UN/US economic sanctions were 'quieter' / more 'sanitary' than head shots and IEDS and napalm and white phosphorus does not mean that they were any less desperate.

...sanctions of Bush I at any point during his Presidency? Please tell me how he could have done that?

Your answer will help me understand just how connected to reality you and the other "Clinton-haters" really are.

Sounds like the accusation "Bush Hater." "Bush Hater" is an accusation used to over-simplify and dismiss reasonable concerns (yes, even hatred) of Bushes' policies. I hate Bushes' policies because they are causing death and untold amounts of pain.

I hate Clinton's policy regarding Iraq. I don't hate Clinton. I am cognitively complex enough to admire many of his actions and to hate others.

If you wanted to educate me as to why Clinton could *not* have an effect on lifting UN sanctions - there surely must be another way than to call me a "Clinton-Hater" and imply that I am "out of touch with reality."

I think that all of the following are true:

1. Clinton could have removed Negroponte from the UN and appointed someone else.

2. Clinton could have pushed to allow other countries in the UN to get their way about allowing Iraq to import chlorine so that clean water would have been available. This alone would have saved many, many, many thousands of lives.

3. Secretary of State Albright defended the policy of keeping UN sanctions in place. If Clinton did not agree with Albright, then he should have said so or replaced her. Lesley Stahl's interview with Secretary Albright:


4. Clinton himself defended the policy of keeping UN sanctions in place - saying that Saddam Hussein was the problem because he was building palaces. Ramsey Clark points out the following: There were 20+ million people living in Iraq. The money Hussein despicably spent on palaces would have provided about $1 a day per Iraqi for 5-10 days.

If you have reasons why you believe Clinton could *not* have an effect on lifting/easing UN sanctions - I would be interested in reading them, provided you can respond respectfully.

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:hi:

...IMHO, the poster was making a value judgement based on the actual contents of your post.

You know what they say about a duck, don't you?

:eyes:

...has failed to register on your "Clinton-hater" mind. By all means, let's blame Clinton for the actions of the GOP-controlled Congressional and Judiciary branches.

The only thing you got right was the fact that things REALLY changed for the worst when the NeoCon Junta completed their coup on December 13th...but the year was 2000, not 2001.

Next time you post, try to get your facts straight.

Thanks for starting this thread.

I very much miss President Clinton as well.

With President Clinton, you just had the sense that he was waking up every morning, trying to do the right thing by the American people.

It goes without saying, that George W. Bush has given NO indication he wakes up every day, trying to decide what is best for America.

And one of the reasons I admire Clinton so much, is because he hasn't seemed to turn into a bitter man.

He's been called everything but a child of God by the Rethugs. And he would have every right to be a bitter, angry man.

But you see none of that in him.

years of living with a sane "although" flawed parent set an example.

We are at the mercy of an insane idiot. That's not comforting.

I won't care who the president is as long as our system, constitutional rights, and checks and balances are restored and criminal activity is held accountable.

an ugly imitation of the old Soviet Union.

And I think the root cause of this is Corporations....and to me this was the biggest mistake Clinton made. He got into bed with Big Biz....that is what I hold against him....When will we have a leader who will stand up to and regulate this GREED?

But than he never tried to hold himself morally superior to others.
President's Clinton Carter and JFK. Isn't it a shame what the presidency has deevolved into?

I miss him too. :cry:

I think he was a great president. Maybe he was a smooth talker, but look what kind of talker we have now. Stuff like "bring it on" and all his mispronunciations and verbal mix ups-I'll take smooth talking any day.

I think he was an awesome President. Perfect? No, but awesome just the same.

kicked and nominated

gimme a break, Attila the Hun looks like a good leader compared to Chimpo

Even the Branch Davidian thing pales by comparison to what this mis-administration has done.

And IIRC, habeas corpus was never suspended for anyone while Clinton was in office. We never sent our whole damn armed forces into a country which was not a threat to us. No, Bosnia wasn't close to being our whole armed forces. We did not pay $3.00/gallon for gas--not even close. (Unlike Bush, Clinton opened the strategic petroleum reserves when necessary.) I don't recall the Clinton administration saying it had the right to hold any U.S. citizen secretly in prison, with no chance for the prisoner to have normal American judicial review of his case. I don't recall that anyone got a "national security letter". No CIA agents were outed, that I know of, during the Clinton administration. No oil company cleared a $9.9 billion dollar profit in ONE QUARTER while citizens were literally unable to afford a tank of gas to get out of town when a hurricane was coming.

a whole congregation of innocent folks in Waco needlessly.

http://www.public-action.com/SkyWriter/WacoMuseum/death/page/d_ub.html

Everyone seems to forget about this.

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And the tanks they used in the assult had "US Army" painted on them.

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the product he's selling you is still the U.S. Government.

And unless you own a mega-million dollar corporation, the U.S. Government is not your friend.

...Executive, Congressional, and Judiciary branches of government?

Ask yourself where we would be now had that been the case.

IMHO, Clinton did the best he could considering what he was up against. The economy was the best the U. S. had ever seen, we were in a period of peace, our international reputation was in excellent shape, and we had a massive budget surplus.

Before the NeoCon Junta Coup of December 13, 2000, you could count on the government to maintain certain social programs that protected the elderly, the very young, the poor, and the Middle Class. What do you see now? Are you better off than you were during the Clinton years?

Clinton looks wonderful. I miss him too, sometimes.

But remember, among other things, Clinton signed the so-called welfare reform bill.

By comparison with the Bush gang, just about anybody except Adolf's gang would look good.

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It's his crap.

maybe they're too busy undoing silly stuff like "habeas corpus" or "the Bill of Rights"...

at the Branch Davidian compound.

And, you know, if it had been Bush instead of Clinton as president, Bush would have given David Koresh a job in the administration, or would have put him on the list to provide "faith-based" services. How nice. Koresh was such a godly man.

professional and intelligent was running the show.

and spoke well, too. I would add compassionate to your list, because I think he was a very compassionate man, too. He wasn't perfect, no, but I certainly enjoyed the 8 relatively peaceful and prosperous years we had under his leadership. I think he would have done much better had he not been fighting the entire right wing thoughout his presidency.

The thing I think I miss the most though, is that he knew he worked FOR the American people, and answered TO us.

It's telling that Bill Clinton is loved around the world, and can walk pretty freely among crowds. I think * will never have that ability, no matter how long he lives. I don't agree with everything he did, but then, I don't agree with everything anyone does, and in that position, it would be difficult not to make some mistakes, or unpopular decisions.

I for one certainly miss him.

He makes Dumbya look like the AWOL lying chimp that he is.

The comparison between him and the Chimp is beyond laughable. It's shameful and embarrassing. How in the world did we end up with morons and criminals in charge of the country? What a disaster.

I mean, I really, really, miss him!

Hear that, freeptards?? I can see clearly now--why can't YOU?? You'll go to your grave never having even a smidgen of understanding. Why? Because you are so small-minded, so in-a-rut, so ineducable, that you can't LEARN! I truly pity you freepers.

Or at least he thinks so. I believe he is pulling strings big time, just like he did before Iowa last year.

I remember that Bill Clinton was a President for ALL Americans regardless of party, socio-economic class, race, age, religion...

I remember that I didn't worry when he was in office. I wasn't traumatized by him like I am with these criminals.

I had a life then. I had a country then. There was peace. The economy was good.

I miss him too.

...but do we want adult boy scouts running our country?

...I'm more worried about adults who would have washed out of Indian Guides! ;-)

And he is the ultimate boy scout. But he has no such ambitions unfortunately. :(

too bad about that coup and all.

I've had to accept that things are what they are, and that I need to work my ass off to get these undeserving bastards out of power.

what's really going on!

Bama

He distilled everything the far right was about in one short speech in plain and simple english that everyone could understand.

He was more effective that speech than all the speeches by democratic candidates and there were some good ones IMO.Too bad not enough people saw it or paid attention.

You can find it here if you want to hear it again.

http://www.npr.org/politics/convention2004/dnc_schedule.html

OTOH he was better than the current cabal.
When we have to look back at a smooth talking, corporate sell-out, as the good old days we're just fucked. :think:

My eyes have welled-up with tears, while I'm driving on the highway, as I listen to most chapters, read by the Big Dog himself.

Not that I was a HUGE fan of Clinton, but damn, it's so nice to hear a President speak with intelligence and passion and knowledge. (Unlike Idiot Son.)

Even my Repuke boss, who loaned me the CD's, says he likes Clinton, as a person. He's a fake repuke, anyway. :P

I highly recommend President Clinton's book - especially as read by him.

-Cindy in Fort Lauderdale