Bill Clinton Is Amazing
Gary Gerard,
dumbhoosier.com
Bill Clinton Is Amazing
Gary Gerard
Times-Union General Manager
I think Bill Clinton may be the single best politician of all time.
Nobody does politics better than Bill. And as a speaker? The guy is
top notch. Lots of politicians have the gift of soaring oratory –
President Barack Obama is one of those.
Clinton has that to be sure, but on top of that, he really knows how
to communicate. He knows how to get people to listen and he knows
how to engage them.
He’s just that good.
Which is why I wasn’t a bit surprised that he gave a masterful
speech at the Democratic National Convention Wednesday night.
By all accounts, it was one of the best convention speeches ever. Oh
sure, it had it’s share of obfuscations and exaggerations. But
that’s to be expected, especially during this campaign, which has
turned out to be a bit of a lying contest at times.
But as I was listening to Bill talk, I couldn’t help but remember
all the mean stuff he said about Obama back in the day.
Way, way back in 2008 when Hillary Clinton was running against
Obama. It was hers, you know, that nomination for president. The
first female to be nominated? It was hers. And then there was this
upstart U.S. Senator from Illinois and the next thing you know, it’s
gone.
I couldn’t help but think the speech Wednesday night was more about
2016 than 2012. More about keeping Bill and Hillary’s brand alive
than about re-electing Obama. Because when it’s all said and done, I
don’t think Bill and Hillary really like Obama all that much.
Then I watched an interview with Edward Kline, the author of the NYT
best-seller “The Amateur.”
Kline’s sources – and I always take “sources” with a grain, or a
block, of salt – told him senior White House advisers like Valerie
Jarrett wanted to relegate Bill to a minor role at the convention.
That didn’t go over well with Bill.
Bill advised that if he didn’t give the nominating speech, he would
not attend.
The White House, apparently believing they needed Bill more than
Bill needed them, acquiesced. In addition, Kline’s “sources” say,
Bill refused to give the White House an advance copy of his remarks,
saying he wouldn’t be told what to say.
These “sources” may or may not be credible, but given the cool
relationship between the Obamas and the Clintons, I certainly
wouldn’t place that scenario beyond the realm of probability.
There are plenty of documented and undocumented Barbs tossed by Bill
at Obama. There was the “amateur” comment. The “incompetent”
comment. The “getting us coffee” comment. The “carrying our bags”
comment. All of these have surfaced recently in books
published by Washington insiders.
During the 2008 campaign, Bill asked Charlie Rose of PBS, “I mean,
when is the last time we elected a president based on one year of
service in the Senate before he started running?”
And there was this 2008 rant:
“That is the central argument for his (Obama's) campaign. ‘It
doesn't matter that I started running for president less than a year
after I got to the senate from the Illinois state senate. I am a
great speaker and charismatic figure and I'm the only one to have
the judgement to oppose this war from the beginning, always, always,
always.’ ... well how could you say that, when you said
in 2004 you didn’t know how you would have voted on the resolution,
you said in 2004 there’s no difference between you and George Bush
on the war, you took that speech you're now running on off you
website in 2004, and there's no difference in your voting record and
Hillary's ever since. Give me a break. This whole thing is the
biggest fairy tail I've ever seen.”
More recently, there was Bill, saying that Mitt Romney was a
“sterling” business man and his business experience “crosses
the qualification threshold” to be president.
And there was Bill saying that all of the Bush tax cuts should be
extended in the current economy, even though President Obama wants
to tax those making more than $250K.
All of this came flooding back to me when Bill was giving his
speech.
Clinton talked a lot about his own successes, which are well
documented. And indeed, those were some prosperous years.
What I don’t get is how Bill’s successes somehow translate to
President Obama. I mean, the takeaway from Bill’s speech was that
given more time, the president will turn things around just like
Bill did. And since things were a lot worse when President Obama
took over, he needs more time – another term, that is – to get the
job done.
When Clinton was president, he moved to the center and dragged his
party along with him. He worked with Newt Gingrich and Republicans
through the Contract With America. He balanced the budget. He did
welfare reform and welfare-to-work. He signed “Don’t' Ask Don’t
Tell”. He signed NAFTA. He signed the Defense of Marriage Act, for
crying out loud.
He was a free-wheeling capitalist, making big pro-business moves
like signing the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which repealed the
Glass-Steagall Act. Glass-Steagall had been around since the
Depression. He loosened housing rules by rewriting the Community
Reinvestment Act, which put added pressure on banks to lend in
low-income neighborhoods. He also signed the Commodity Futures
Modernization Act, which exempted credit-default swaps from
regulation.
Under these policies, coupled with the tech boom, business soared in
America.
(Now, some would argue the pendulum swung too far and all stuff,
coupled with 9/11, helped create the ensuing economic meltdown.)
But the bottom line is, Bill did not act much like a liberal.
Compare and contrast this with Obama, who has dragged his party to
the left at every juncture, who scrapped Bill’s Democratic
Leadership Council, who repealed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” who favors
gay marriage, who has been completely unable to work with
Republicans, who couldn’t even get Democrats to vote for his budget,
who has raised spending, debt and deficits exponentially, who favors
raising tax rates on investors and enacted a giant new health care
entitlement.
Bill and President Obama are two very different people.
To suggest that somehow President Obama can transform himself into a
center left bipartisan diplomat, reaching across the
aisle to likes of John Boehner to fix the economy, seems a bit of a
stretch.
But never mind.
Bill still knows how to give a really great speech. Get ready for
Hillary in 2016.
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