Bill Clinton was a "DLC man" [View All]

[question everything]

or whatever the term is.

Bill Clinton was not an ideal candidate and president for most of us. I did not vote for him in the primary because he "suspended" his New Hampshire campaign to send a mentally challenged man to his death.

But the economy did do well during his administration by lifting the wages of all, not just of selected segments. He did erase the Reagan/Bush 1st deficit that by then was larger than all deficit combined, and he left office with a surplus.

He did appoint two liberals to the Supreme Court that, until O'Connor resignation, held the tide against the rabid right wingers.

In general, I would hope that, in contrast to the RWers, we are a big tent party that welcomes all opinions, including, yes, of the DLC boogeyemen.

And I don't understand the attack on corporations. Most of us have been employed by corporations. They allow us to contribute to our communities and to our candidates. Yes, there are problems with the huge gap in compensation, but we should be able to address those. And corporations still provide most of our health insurance. Both Edwards and Obama still use employer-provided insurance as the center of their plan. Yes, corporations outsource many of our jobs, but if anyone thinks that any president is going to somehow prevent it, dream on. The only thing that an administration and Congress can do is to provide tax incentives to keep and to create jobs here. This is why investing in infrastructure and in light rail should be the top issue for any candidate: such projects would generate jobs at many levels of skills, jobs that cannot be outsourced.

So go on and attack the DLC and NAFTA and Clinton, but remember that Al Gore was part of that administration too, for the DUers who would love to have Gore join the campaign.

And, since this is a place for many to vent, fine. Go ahead, attack your opponents and praise your candidate, but before your candidate lose and you swear that you'll collect your marbles and go home, remember 1968: Many anti war activists were disappointed with Humphrey and simply stayed home. So we got Nixon and 7 more years of war, and of Watergate and Enemy List and, well, you know.

And before you decide to go home and not to vote for the final nominee, think of the Supreme Court. The elections of 2000 and of 2004 were pretty close and 2008 can be the same. Are you really ready to "stick with your principles" and not vote for the Democratic candidate, thus giving the Republicans a third term, with more Supreme Court Justices, helping Bush achieving his legacy of a court full of Scalias and Thomases?