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The thing that Clinton will be remembered for is balancing the budget and starting to pay down the national debt. Now, before Reagan, that would not be considered much of an accomplishment, just something that you naturally do, like walking with your head facing forward. But since Evil St. Ronnie made walking around with your head up your ass look so natural, balancing a budget seems like working miracles.
Clinton in actuality, was NOT a liberal. National health care stalled out within months of his taking office; "don't ask, don't tell" was as progressive as telling more people to try to pass as "high-yellow" would have been in the days of segregation; "ending welfare as we know it" was another capitulation, not progress. The worst, though, was NAFTA, the program to export jobs and import low-wage foreign workers. Remember, Clinton ran in '92 as a conservative Southern governor who was pro capital punishment and a fiscal conservative (when that meant balancing a budget).
If you compare Clinton with Eisenhower, I think you can reasonably say that Eisenhower was the more liberal of the two. Eisenhower actually built up the country with his advocacy of the interstate highway system and warned against the military industrial complex, something that Clinton never tried to go up against.
Clinton was only a respite that allowed the country to recover after 12 years of Reagan and Bush I. Can you imagine how bad the country would be if it had gone according to Herbert Wanker's plan, two terms for George H.W. and then two for Dubya?
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