Peter Baker, NYT: "If Bill Clinton Were President"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

If Bill Clinton Were President



STRATEGIST By 1996, President Clinton had outflanked his rival, Newt Gingrich.

By PETER BAKER
Published: December 11, 2010

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/weekinreview/12baker.html

WASHINGTON — By the end of last week, it certainly looked as if Barack Obama had outsourced his presidency to Bill Clinton. First, he cut a Clintonian-style deal with Republicans on tax cuts and then he literally turned over the White House lectern to his predecessor.



Equally riveting and astonishing, Mr. Clinton’s blast-from-the-past performance in the White House briefing room on Friday afternoon reinforced the impression of political déjà vu, the sense that once again a Democratic president humbled by midterm elections was pivoting to the center at the expense of his own supporters.

But as no less an authority than Mr. Clinton reminded us, the comparison is incomplete and imperfect. “The story line is how well we worked with the Republicans and all that,” he said during his brief West Wing comeback. “But you know, we played political kabuki for a year.”

Indeed, the real history of his response to the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994 was more complicated than the reductionist version. And so far, Mr. Obama’s response to the November elections has been more complicated as well. The current president’s uncomfortable tax compromise with Republicans harked back to only one aspect of Mr. Clinton’s recovery strategy in 1995 and 1996, although the howls of protest from the left must have sounded familiar to the visiting former chief executive. Mr. Clinton’s approach involved as much confrontation as conciliation, and most of all, improvisation.

[aquart]

1. Lotta words to say nothing.

Obama gave them what they wanted and Christmas presents, too.

[howmad1]

2. Just think:

If Clinton would have kept his prick in his pants, how different this country would be now. Al Gore would have won by a landslide. The chimp would be an asterisk in history and the dems would rule forever. How Clinton and a blow job fucked this country royally.

[ladjf]

3. Clinton is done. We've already seen where his priorities are. nt