And this is why his wife just ain't gaining traction. Yes, Bill's PERSONAL numbers are always up, but that's just the cutesy former president thing going for him.
People realize that his administration didn't cause any LASTING good aside from his Supreme Court picks. Yes, his economic plan helped, but NAFTA'S long-term effects have been devastating. And more and more people (like me who was 18 in 1992) are taking the rose-colored glasses off and realizing that Clinton was simply a centrist-conservative when he was president. And as a new, young president without a whole lot of experience had limited capital to begin with when he was inaugurated in 1993.
So a brand-new president with all this promise, with a majority on Capitol Hill, and what did we, as Americans get out of it? NAFTA. And that was George H.W. Bush's last big agenda item that he couldn't get through with a Democratic Congress. Oh, but Bill could. And he did.
I live in Massachusetts and I travel to NH quite often and have family there and know many people who are working in campaigns up there. And you know what has dawned on me?
Yes, the Democrats I talk to have hardly a thing good to say about Bill Clinton. Yes, generalized statements about, "the economy was good", and "we were at peace", and, one person my age even said, "everyone had a job, we were at peace, hell even the Back Street Boys were popular but it was just a temporary illusion to the bad economy we have now because of the trade deals that happened in the 90s."
I don't like Bill Clinton. And I don't think many Democrats, looking back, think his presidency was all that great. There, I said it.
A new president, once inuagurated, has very few big initiatives he can hope to work on and get through. President Clinton came to Washington with a Democratic Congress, yes, but it was also a kinda hostile one. The Nunns and Rostenkowskis and Foleys of the world didn't all trust or want to give up power to a young and new president.
So here is a man who comes to Washington with limited political capital to begin with and how does he spend it?
Bill chooses NAFTA over UHC.
Bill chose to spend a MASSIVE amount of political capital on George H. W. Bush's "carry-over wish list number one for the corporations" instead of something that could help the little guy and perhaps give him a legacy like LBJ with Medicare. He alienated people like David Bonior. He bought people like Dick Gephardt. And fucked us all, as Democrats and as Americans. All with a smile on his face as well as all the smiles on the faces of all the fat cat corporatist DLC-types. (sidenote: Doesn't the very sexy Mark Penn just LOOK the part of one of those fat cat corporate types?)
I think it is this realization setting in now for the Hillary Clinton campaign. The realization that her husband wasn't "all that" that is truly bringing Hill's numbers down. People DO NOT want a return to the 1990s. Hell, a lot of people I talk to about the 1990s ONLY remember NAFTA and the failure of UHC. Some people even cite the rise of the nasty SUVs and the lowered mpg standards that Bill Clinton signed in the 90s.
My prediction is that even if "The Big Dog" (and I HATE that fucking term for him) campaigns more and more for her, it won't make a difference. I don't like Bill and I am beginning to think more and more Dems don't really, either. They want him more as a nostalgic celebrity-figure than someone who has a say in running the country. He's like a monkey that entertains people. And that's it.
That man has zero business being anywhere near the White House again. He and Mark Penn and Hillary Clinton and Bob Rubin spent enough time there being caretackers for the Bush Family plantation.
I am VERY lukewarm about Obama and I have my doubts about him, too. He looks like Bill Clinton redux sometimes, too. Look at the similarities: both young newbies with little national political experience. Something just does not seem right or kosher about such unknowns. Just call me suspicious.
But I'd rather take a chance that things could perhaps be just a tad bit more progressive under a Barack Obama Administration when I already have an idea of what an HRC Administration will DEFINITELY be. With Bill Clinton and Mark Penn around Hillary, this country will not change that much. Certainly not as much as is needed right now when we are in a financial mess, heading for a recession, in DESPERATE need of Universal Health Care, AND are at a perilous time abroad.
For those who say that Clinton's economic package saved the economy at the time, I will give them credit. Yes, it eliminated the deficit and created a surplus. But the concurrent effect of NAFTA and all the other trade deals have led to what we are now experiencing economically. Economic packages come and go like seasons. Where is Bill's economic package at now? Oh, yeah, Bush got rid of it in a blink of an eyelash.
But there is something sacrosanct in Washington about free trade deals, that they last forever. A comprehensive UHC plan COULD have been something that Bill Clinton created that, like Medicare, 'lasted forever.' But he chose NAFTA. He made his choice and now the Democratic Party is making its choice.
And it's not going to be for Hillary. Sorry, Bill. Sorry, Mark.