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The comparisons are eerie if you look into it. Do you remember Bill Clinton saying that "the era of big government is over"? Actually he said that particular quote in is 1996 State of the Union Address. Even after 4 years he was still looking for common ground with Republicans.
Bill Clinton did not come into office as a divisive figure. He did not come into office spoiling for a fight. He came into office committed to finding a new path that sought common sense solutions to the full range of problems facing America, a path that would bypass the prior partisan divides and unite all Americans in a common resolve to better our lives.
When Bill Clinton first ran for office in 1992 the Republicans attacked him as another tax and spend liberal who would spend America into the poor house. Instead Bill Clinton actually balanced the Federal Budget for one of the few times in modern American political history. When Bill Clinton ran for President in 1992 Republicans attacked him for being a proponent of the Big Government Welfare State. Instead he asked Al Gore to Chair a Commission to Reinvent Government to make it smaller and more efficient. Instead Bill Clinton "cut government red tape", including many of the "bureaucratic" checks on corporate greed that we here at DU now complain so loudly about being gone. Instead Bill Clinton championed "back to the work place" Welfare reforms targeted to end a "cycle of dependency" that the Republican Party of the 80's said was to blame for cross generational poverty in America.
Bill Clinton was all about "finding common ground" with Americans of good faith from all political backgrounds who were tired of the endless partisan divisions that seemingly America got locked into after Jimmy Carter's election in 1976. And the Republican party responded by despising him for it. The Republican Party responded by launching Right Wing Hate Talk Radio. The Republican Party in 1994 responded by in 1994 engineering a Congressional Judicial Coup, as soon as they gained a Congressional majority, that installed attack dog Ken Starr as a Special Prosecutor empowered to investigate each and every facet of Bill and Hillary Clinton's personal lives. They let him spend four years and well over 50 Million dolors doing so. And finally the Republican Party responded by impeaching an American President, who had just been reelected with broad support from the American people, for the first time in 130 years over a blow job.
When I look back on the 90's and try to learn the lessons of that era the above is what jumps out immediately to me. Wes Clark gave an interview once, before he ran for President in 2004. in which he had this to say about the way Republicans operated during Bill Clinton's Presidency:
"Somebody once told me in business that when you're going to negotiate a business deal, you stake out (Clark SLAMS the table) your position and stand on it! Don't go in there and ask what they want. Say, `Here's what I want!' (SLAMS table again).
"You've got a Republican Party under Gingrich and Tom DeLay that says, `Here's what I want' (SLAMS table again). "Then you've got the Democrats over here saying, `Yeah, ah, yeah, we could, some of what you say makes pretty good sense.
"The result is the American people don't see the full spectrum. Before the 2002 election there were a lot of Democratic politicians apparently who said, `I don't have the information. I can't battle with the president on the information. He's got the intelligence. What if there is a smoking gun in there? I can't fight the president in my congressional district.'
"What we've got to do is stake (SLAMS table again) out our position. For instance on tax reform, stop (SLAM) saying (SLAM) you agree with simplification of the tax code. . . . We stand (SLAM) for progressive taxation. We're proud of it. If you make more, you should pay more, period!"
Why is it that so many of the same Democratic activists on DU who SLAM Bill Clinton for acting like Republican-lite in office by compromising core Democratic principles (even though it was his Administration that tried to bring universal health care to the American people), are so enthralled by Barack Obama's call for unity across Party spectrums now? Bill Clinton was certainly as charming and skilled a political figure then as the Democrats had produced since JFK, but more likely more so than any Democratic leader since FDR. Barack Obama today is no more compelling a political leader than Bill Clinton was when he was overwhelmingly reelected in 1996, only to be impeached a year later by the Republicans in Congress.
Since Hillary Clinton first ran for the U.S. Senate in 2000 she has gone out of her way to not act in a polarizing and divisive manner. She did not assert herself as a star in the U.S. Senate as soon as she got elected. She worked with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to get legislation passed for the American people. Hillary reached out in New York State to her Republican constituents and brought many of them around to supporting her during her successful reelection bid.
Hillary Clinton knows how to cooperate for the good of America, but she also understands how the Republicans fight. She understands that the last thing the Republicans will accept lying down is a Democratic candidate who attempts to unite the Center and Left in America, marginalizing the Republicans with their core Right wing base only. She knows that will threaten the Republican hold on power and throw their continuing legacy of divide and conquer politics onto the scrap heap of political history. She knows how hard the Republicans will fight that. She knows how dirty they can and will play. She has been through it personally and she can see what is coming. I am not sure that Barack Obama can.
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