C-SPAN: Christopher Hitchens: On Bill Clinton (1993)

Source:C-SPAN- Socialist writer Christopher Hitchens on C-SPAN, in 1993.

“Christopher Hitchens Interview For the Sake of Argument”

From Hitch Archive

"Mr. Hitchens and Mr. Buchanan spoke on current events in Washington politics, including the performance of the Clinton administration to date, and the reaction of Western countries toward the civil war in Bosnia. The correspondents responded to callers' comments criticizing the Clinton administration. Credit to CSPAN." 

Source:CSPAN- Left-Wing political writer Christopher Hitchens, on CSPAN in 1993.

From CSPAN 

"Mr. Hitchens and Mr. Buchanan spoke on current events in Washington politics, including the performance of the Clinton administration to date, and the reaction of Western countries toward the civil war in Bosnia. The correspondents responded to callers' comments criticizing the Clinton administration."  

Source:CSPAN- Pat Buchanan and Chris Hitchens on CSPAN, in 1993.

From CSPAN

This is certainly an interesting combo to have Chris Hitchens and Pat Buchanan, on the same show. 

Hitchens, a self-described Democratic Socialist and Pat Buchanan, would be what's called today an Alt-Rightist: someone who tends to be against free trade, multiculturalism, non-European immigration and perhaps immigration in general. Anti-internationalism when it comes to foreign policy and not believing that America should be involved in other countries human rights crisis's and civil wars. 

And then you have Socialist Chris Hitchens, who believes that the big central government, should decide what people need to live well. And that the central government should be responsible for a lot of those services. But tends to break away from Socialists when it came to foreign policy and did believe America and Europe, could play a positive role in seeing that people who live under authoritarian regimes, can break away from authoritarianism and even use military force to break those authoritarian regimes. 

Hitchens was in favor of America and Europe, being involved in the Balkans in the 1990s. Buchanan was against that. They weren't two men that even though one was clearly on the Left, Far-Left even and the other was on the Far-Right, that you could assume that either would automatically take a certain position on a certain issue.

You can also see this post at The Daily Times, on Blogger. 

You can also see this post at The Daily Times, on WordPress.

Conservable Economist: Timothy Taylor- 'Twenty Years Since The Welfare Reform of 1996'

Source:Common Dreams- President Bill Clinton, speaking in favor of Welfare To Work, in 1996.

“This week marks the 19th anniversary of legislation that conditions income assistance for parents and children on participation in a disciplinary program known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). Over the lifetime of the brutal TANF regime, the provision of actual income assistance has been overshadowed by the imposition of rules and services to regulate poor mothers’ lives. As the Black Lives Matter movement shines a light on the racism of so-called criminal “justice,” it is an important moment to consider how the intersecting inequalities of race, gender, and poverty are reproduced in the policy that claims to promote poor peoples’ “welfare.”

From Common Dreams

“Twenty years ago in 1996, President Bill Clinton signed into law the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, more commonly known as “welfare reform.” The welfare reform of 1996 sought to “end welfare as we know it,” as President Clinton had often stated. The Winter 2016 issue of the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management has a “Point/Counterpoint” exchange on the effects, which at least for now is freely available on-line, although many readers will also have access through library subscriptions. The intellectual combat here isn’t in the binary, black vs. white. fire vs. ice, war-of-the-worlds style. Instead, Ron Haskins takes the position the glass-half-full position in “TANF At Age 20: Work Still Works” (pp. 224-231), and then the team of Sandra K. Danziger, Sheldon Danziger, Kristin S. Seefeldt, and H. Luke Shaefer takes the glass-half-empty position in “From Welfare to a Work-Based Safety Net: An Incomplete Transition” (pp. 231-238). The authors then offer a response-and-rejoinder to each other, as well.”

From the Conservable Economist

“Ron Haskins, co-director of the Center on Children and Families at the Brookings Institution and senior consultant at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, speaks about welfare reform and its milestones throughout history.”

Source:UALR-TV- Brookings Institution Ron Haskins, speaking in favor of Welfare To Work.

From UALR-TV

Tim Taylor, makes some great points about the timing that Welfare to Work was done in 1996. The economy started booming again in 1994. The budget deficit was falling, unemployment was dropping. But we’ve had good economic booms where poverty didn’t fall at all and if anything went up. In the 1980s homelessness, became a national issue. Poverty went up and the prison population boomed.

In the 1990s the economy boomed after the 1990-91 recession, unemployment dropped dramatically, crime dropped dramatically and poverty which is the most critical issues in any Welfare reform, also dropped dramatically. Eleven-percent poverty level by 2000. The budget deficit didn’t just fall, but we had four balanced budgets in a row by 2001 and actually started paying down the national debt.

And yes the poverty level in America is now twenty-percent again, but that isn’t because of Welfare to Work. It would be higher without Welfare to Work. You might remember 2008-09 pretty well when we had this little economic disaster called the Great Recession. Which sent middle-income working families into families on Unemployment. You don’t get rich collecting Unemployment Insurance. People on Unemployment Insurance have lost their homes. Plus there was another recession from 2001-02 from another stock market collapse and thanks to 9/11.

The only way you get out of poverty (which means off of public assistance for non-retired workers) is with a good job. You need good skills to get a good job. If you’re a single-parent without good skills you’ll need childcare and health insurance as well. That is all part of Welfare to Work.

As much as today’s so-called Progressives (New-Left Socialists, in actuality) want to paint Welfare to Work as a racist scheme to kick minority families off of Welfare and force them to fend for themselves, you couldn’t be further from the truth if you were on Planet Pluto.

Welfare to Work and going further with that, with more childcare assistance, a higher minimum wage and make it more like 10-12 bucks an hour, forcing neglecting parents to at least take financially responsibility for their kids and making even low-income work pay more than Welfare, are the best things we can do for low-income families.

Work should never be an option on public assistance, but instead a requirement. Along with education and childcare, requiring parents, to keep their kids in school, would be big help as well.

Welfare Insurance, or cash payments, is only the first part in a new campaign to defeat poverty. That once you’re on WI you receive it but in a real short-term and take the first job that you’re qualified for. If you didn’t finish high school, you would do that as a condition for receiving Welfare. If you have a high school diploma now you’re in community college, or some other job training. Even if you have a job, but especially if you have a job and would get childcare assistance so you would have the time to get an education and work.

So instead of Welfare just being a net that catches people before they end up homeless or in jail or something, it instead is a vehicle to help people move themselves out of poverty. And once they finish their education they would even be eligible for small business loans and go into business for themselves.

Welfare and Public Housing, shouldn’t just be tools to prevent people from homelessness and starvation. But again vehicles to transport people out of poverty along with their kids.

If we truly want to fight poverty in America and I sure as hell do as both a Liberal and actual Progressive who wants to use government to empower people and create real progress, then homelessness and starvation prevention insurance, is not enough. You can’t just have people living a little more comfortably while still in poverty, but instead empower them to move themselves out of poverty. And even make it a requirement that people self-improve themselves. So we know who wants to work and be productive and who simply wants to live off of hard-working taxpayers.

You can also see this post at FreeState MD, on WordPress.

Clinton Library 42: President Bill Clinton's Press Conference- March, 1994

Source:The Clinton Library- President William J. Clinton (Democrat, Arkansas) giving a press conference in 1994.

"This is video footage of President William Jefferson Clinton delivering a press conference in the East Room at the White House.  This footage is official public record produced by the White House Television (WHTV) crew, provided by the Clinton Presidential Library." 

From The Clinton Library

As unpopular as the first two years of the Bill Clinton Administration were and how unpopular that Democratic Congress was, it was a very productive Congress and two years for President Clinton. And he actually managed unlike President Obama, to get support from Congressional Republicans on some of his initiatives. Like with two 1993 trade deals, NAFTA and GAT, Family and Medical Leave, the 1994 Crime Bill and few other things.

What cost President Clinton Congress in 1994, was not Congressional gridlock, or even his unpopularity, but really two bills that the President got out of Congress and one bill that President Clinton failed to get out of Congress, that Congressional Republicans in both the House and Senate were able to go to town with. 

The 1993 Deficit Reduction Act, that not a single Republican in Congress in either chamber voted for, that had a tax hike on the wealthy. The 1993 Crime Bill, that had a gun control provision, a background check before people could buy guns. And of course President Clinton’s failed attempt at comprehensive health care reform.

Whitewater, was a distraction for President Clinton and his administration, but as we know now and as President Clinton told the press over and over more than twenty years ago now, there was nothing there, as far as evidence of criminal behavior from either Bill, or Hillary Clinton. 

And the whole Whitewater investigation was an example of the problems with the so-called independent counsel law, because the Whitewater investment happened in the late 1970s and early 1980s. More than ten years before Bill Clinton became President of the United States. If the Independent Counsel, was only allowed to investigate Federal officials and what might have gone on while they were employed by the Federal Government, a lot of the Bill Clinton Federal investigations never happen.

What you see here with the questioning in this press conference, is a press that seems to only be interested in supposed scandal and not what is actually going on in the country and what President Clinton and his administration is working on, like as it relates to the crime bill, health care reform, relations with Congress with both parties, what is going on in foreign policy, like with North Korea, Somalia, the Middle East, China, North Korea, Russia, etc, this press conference looks like CNN of today, where they are overly scandal hungry. And where they’re looking for the next so-called OMG, or awesome story. That will drive ratings and they can spend all of their coverage on.

C-SPAN: President Bill Clinton's Welfare Reform Press Statement

Source: C-SPAN-President William J. Clinton-

Source:The New Democrat

The 1996 Welfare to Work Law, I believe is the best part of the Clinton Presidency. Along with moving the Democratic Party back to the Center-Left and making it a national party again. That can win outside of Washington, New York City, Boston, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, the traditional McGovernite and more social democratic areas of the country. Because the Welfare to Work Law, gave millions of Americans who probably only knew Welfare as far as any income that was coming into their homes, the opportunity to go to work. To finish their education and get themselves a good job. Which is what Welfare to Work is really about.

The only way to cut poverty in America, is to empower people at the bottom and near-bottom to move up the economic ladder and become economically self-sufficient. That gets to things like education and job creation, as well as economic development and infrastructure in low-income communities. You can give someone on public assistance the biggest public assistance checks that you possibly can that American taxpayers are willing to subsidize. But as long as people on public assistance are collecting those checks and can’t support themselves without those checks, they’re on Welfare and living in poverty.

So to actually move people out of poverty, you have to empower them to get a good job. And tell them that they can’t stay on Welfare indefinitely and use that time to improve themselves and prepare to become members of the American workforce. That means childcare for their kids, requiring parents who are no longer involved in their kids lives to pay their child support payments. Encouraging employers to hire and train people who are on Welfare. And making education and job training available to people on Welfare so they can finish their education and get themselves a good job and get off of Welfare all together.

As President Clinton said many times, the Democratic Party should be the party that is about opportunity, empowerment, liberalization, liberation. Liberalization and liberation being my words, but that we should be a party that is about using government to empower people. Using a limited responsible government to empower people at the bottom and near-bottom who are struggling to work their way up the economic ladder and be able to live in freedom. Like most of the rest of the country. Not using government to make more people dependent. Or saying that people who are low-skilled and have kids can stay on public assistance indefinitely simply because they are low-skilled and have kids. As if they are disabled, or something for those reasons. Welfare to Work, is a big part of that.
C-SPAN: President Bill Clinton's Welfare Reform Press Statement

C-SPAN: Video: Al Franken at The 1996 White House Correspondents Dinner

This post was originally posted at The New Democrat on WordPress

Going back about twenty-years here to 1996, this was I guess March of 1996, but they were already counting votes for the 1996 presidential election between President Bill Clinton and Leader Bob Dole. They just decided to wait eight months to tell everyone. Because this presidential election was already over because Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich had to sit in the back of Air Force One. And threw a temper tantrum and stopped doing his impersonation of a middle age adult. And went back to being a thirteen-year old little boy who was just told he can’t have ice cream and cake for dinner. And as a result decided to shut down the U.S. Government.

The 1996 presidential election was one of the quickest in American history. Not as quick as 1984 with Walter Mondale and Ronald Reagan. Where Vice President Mondale decided to concede the election at 3PM EST on Election Day, but still a very quick election. Bob Dole was stuck between Speaker Newt Gingrich and President Bill Clinton. And was trying to get Newt’s fat ass off of his back and take on the best politician in America at least since Ron Reagan. In a country where the economy was booming and where we were essentially at peace with the rest of the world. Other than being peacekeepers in the Balkans.

And I think that was the major motivations of these political investigations in the Republican Congress against President Clinton. Especially with Senator Al Damato’s Banking Committee investigation into the so-called Whitewater story. Bob Dole is a very good if not great man who has given a lot to America and one of the most distinguished people who has ever served in Congress and who accomplished a lot there in his thirty-five years in Congress. Including being Senate Republican Leader for eleven years. But he wasn’t going to beat Bill Clinton and all of Washington knew that including the Republican Leadership.

C-SPAN: President Bill Clinton's 1993 Inaugural Address

Source:FRS FreeState

Before Bill Clinton became President of the United States, Liberal Democrats were seen as tax and spenders, soft on Crime, soft on defense, soft on welfare, anti-private enterprise, anti-success, anti-wealth, pro-centralize power, "that the Federal Government had all the answers to America’s problems". We were seen as anti-American, Unpatriotic anti-religious and fiscally irresponsible, deficits don’t matter. 

How times changed in just eight years because by 2000 Democrats and a lot of that credit should go to President Clinton, were ahead of Republicans on a lot of these issues. We were seen as the party of fiscal responsibility, we were now leading Republicans on tax cuts and foreign policy, crime and many other issues. President Clinton brought a real liberal agenda to the United States. Not the liberal agenda which is how liberalism has been stereotyped in America.  

But a liberal agenda that was based on what liberalism is actually about. Different from progressivism or democratic socialism and its very hard to tell the difference. Between Progressivism and Democratic Socialism today, at least how they are both practiced. But President Clinton’s liberal agenda was based on yes individual liberty. He didn’t want to empower the Federal Government to take that away from Americans, but he also wanted to empower people who didn’t have the freedom to live their own lives and be self-sufficient, because they lacked the skills to do so.  

President Clinton liberal agenda was based on, individual liberty and responsibility. That if you work hard and play by the rules and are productive, you should be rewarded for that and not have government on your back. This is what liberalism its different from progressivism that is more government oriented. Or democratic socialism that is almost completely government oriented. Its about empowerment, individual Liberty and responsibility. That free adults should have the liberty to live their own lives. But then have to deal with the consequences of their decisions. Good and bad and its also about equality of opportunity. 

Not equality of result, that for people who don’t have the skills to be successful and self- sufficient in life, that they are empowered to do so. Which makes society as a whole better off to have more well-trained workers, with the ability to take care of themselves. And more well-trained workers in the workforce, having good jobs and being productive. Paying their fair share of taxes, but not paying taxes that are so high, that it discourages people from being productive.

Bill Clinton put liberalism back on the map in the United States as a positive force for change and made it a mainstream political philosophy, because he was able to put aside the false negative stereotypes that had been suffocating liberalism the previous twenty-five years. And was able to show Americans, that it wasn’t about government doing everything or nothing. But that government should be limited to what it does well and what’s Constitutional. 

American Rhetoric: President William Jefferson Clinton's Farewell Address

Source:FRS FreeState

Before Bill Clinton became President of the United States, Liberal Democrats in America were seen as something we are not. We had all sorts of negative stereotypes about us, not all of them unfair. Because there are Democrats back then and today who meet these stereotypes, but they just aren’t Liberal Democrats. And there’s a different and accurate term that defines their politics. But they just aren’t liberal, even though they have some liberal views on social issues. 

Pre-President Clinton, Liberal Democrats were seen as tax and spend, big government supporters, Socialists. Who are soft on crime, soft on defense, soft on welfare. That we just wanted to soak the rich in taxes to take care of the poor. And soak the middle class in taxes to take care of them as well. That we wouldn’t do what was necessary to protect the country. And that we see the US Constitution a document to use for advice. But that it wasn’t enforceable.

By the time President Clinton left office in 2001, Democrats were more trusted on law enforcement, national security, foreign policy, the economy, fiscal responsibility than Republicans who use to own these issues. And this didn’t happen by accident. Just within the first two years of the Clinton Presidency, President Clinton got a deficit reduction package through Congress. That had deep budget cuts and a tax hike in the wealthy. 

President Clinton got two trade agreements through Congress as well. NAFA and GAT and got the 1994 Crime bill through Congress as well. That had the Brady bill on Handguns, meaning to buy a new handgun, you had to pass a background check. And new tough sentences on violent offenders. Including a Three Strikes Law, 25-Life for criminals convicted of violent felonies. 

Presidents are judged by what shape the country was in when they took over. And what shape the country was in when they left office. President George H.W. Bush by a lot of measures was a successful President. Especially on Foreign Policy, but the country was just coming out of recession. With high unemployment, low economic growth, high interest rates and Inflation and a large Federal debt and deficit. 

President Clinton also inherited a high crime rate when he took over in 1993 and all of those problems were either gone by 2001, or those problems were under control when he left office in 2001. And it didn’t happen by accident, because of the policies that the President got through Congress from 1993-95. But with also Welfare to Work in 1996, working with a Republican Congress.

President Clinton showed Americans that liberalism is not about being soft and irresponsible and that taxpayers will always cover the mistakes of others. That it was about individual liberty, the US Constitution and limited government. But that people also had to be held accountable for their decisions. And that America had to do what it takes within the US Constitution to defend itself. And that government can help people who are down get on their feet and become self-sufficient. This is why President Clinton was such a successful President, the best President we’ve had since Harry Truman. 

The Film Archives: C-SPAN: 1997 White House Correspondents Dinner Featuring President Bill Clinton and Comedian Job Stewart

President Bill Clinton was the Comedian in Chief. Because, For one he has a great sense of humor and has always had that and if you live the life he has, the life of riding a roller coaster full-time. Having to stop to vomit because of all of those rides and going from being up one second to falling flat on your face (the clean version) the next second, you would have to have a great sense of humor and be able to make fun of yourself to keep your sanity.

But President Clinton was also Comedian in Chief because of the time he was president. Running and getting elected President of the United States at the birth of the internet. Email and websites already up by 1992 and of course those things having not been fully developed. Like they were in the mid and late 1990s, but they were already there. Cell phones already around by 1992 and the phones you saw then look like the phones you saw by 1995 when cell phones became popular and cool and almost universal.

The twenty-four hour news cycle was big by the early 1990s and just got bigger during the Clinton Administration. With cable news plus the internet to go along with television and radio news along with print media. With these news organizations being addicted to the twenty-four hour news cycle. Having to be the first to report on a story that five people care about. Otherwise it could cost them a tenth of one rating point, or an entire newspaper or magazine subscription. 

President Clinton was also Comedian in Chief because of his hate squad, I mean opposition. Who actually turned out to be his best friends who saved him from himself. Because the American people had already decided they liked President Clinton and the job he was doing. And already accepted his flaws and decided they really didn’t like his opposition. Especially since these overly moral and extremely perfect people just also happened to be guilty of the same things that they were accusing President Clinton of. House Speaker Newt Gingrich comes to mind in a hot second. Who needs friends when you have enemies like this?

Once you become President of the United States, the number one sacrifice you give up and sacrifice is your privacy. The whole world is going to know about the same mistakes you and they make. Like having affairs when you are married with a daughter to a women half your age. Or raising money from other countries and you also have to know that your best friends, I mean opposition is going to accuse you of making the same mistakes and doing the same things they’ve done which is just the price of high power.

Remember This: ‘The Real Story- Behind the Clinton Scandals’

Source:Remember This- President Bill Clinton and his wife First Lady Hillary Clinton, in 1993-94.

“David Brock, a conservative-turned-liberal pundit, has said he was once a part of an effort to dredge up a scandal against Clinton. In 1993 Brock, then of the American Spectator, was the first to report Paula Jones’ claims. About the book:Amazon." 

From Remember This

The real story behind the Bill Clinton scandals was that most of them were bogus. (To be kind) The Lewinsky affair and the China scandal from 1996 were the only real stories and so-called scandals for Bill Clinton as President, which is nothing compared with Ronald Reagan with Iran Contra and Richard Nixon with Watergate. Or go back to Lyndon Johnson lying to the country about America’s involvement in the Vietnam War and the progress of the war.

The hatred towards Bill Clinton from the Far-Right and other hyper partisans in this country, except for the race factor, is not that much different from the hatred that Barack Obama has received as President. What they hate about Bill Clinton is what they hate about Barack Obama. Which is what they both represent, two New Democrats on the Center-Left who represent the changing of America that we’ve gone through as a country since the 1960s. With all sorts of new Americans having their freedom in this country. No longer restricted to living a traditional way of life.

The Far-Right in America lives in the 1950s. The rest of the country lives in the 21st Century as far as how Americans live in this multi-culture and lifestyle country where all Americans are free to be themselves. And no longer having to feel the need to hide who they are or try to be someone else. And when someone from this part of the country rises to power and becomes not just powerful and not just the most powerful person in the country, but in the world, the Far-Right goes nuts and accuses that person of trying to destroy their way of life and seeks out to destroy them.

You can also see this post at FRS FreeState, on WordPress.

You can also see this post at The Daily Press, on WordPress.

You can also see this post at The Daily Press, on Blogger.

Conan O'Brien: White House Correspondents Dinner Featuring President Bill Clinton (1995)

Source:Conan O'Brien- hosting the 1995 White House Correspondents Dinner.

“After writing for several comedy shows in Los Angeles, he joined the writing staff of Saturday Night Live. O’Brien was a writer and producer for The Simpsons for two seasons until he was commissioned by NBC to take over David Letterman’s position as host of Late Night in 1993. A virtual unknown to the public, O’Brien’s Late Night tenure received unfavorable reviews and remained on a multiweek renewal cycle during its early years. The show generally improved over time and was regarded highly by O’Brien’s departure in 2009. Afterwards, O’Brien relocated from New York to Los Angeles to host his own incarnation of The Tonight Show for seven months until network politics prompted a host change in 2010.”

Source:Conan O'Brien

To write a blog post about 1995 or even a satire about it I really have to go deep into my memory bank to remember what I think about that year.

I was only nineteen for most of 1995 that year.

President Bill Clinton and Bill Maher touched on Vice President Al Gore’s reinventing government program that looked to save money in the Federal budget by making programs work better and consolidation.

The OJ Simpson murder trial of course was big and if you watched anything on cable news that year, you would think that was the only story that year.

House Republicans wanted to gut PBS which the President touched on by saying that: “PBS could only afford to send Jim Lehrer and not Robert McNeil because of the budget cuts”. They were the co-hosts of the PBS NewsHour in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s.

The 1996 presidential campaign was already going on with Bob Dole the Leader of the Senate already the GOP frontrunner for president. And the Leader proposing to move Congress’s Senate sessions up to New Hampshire and Iowa, so Leader Dole wouldn’t have to fly back to Washington as much.

I could go into the government shutdown that happened in the fall of 1995, the Oklahoma City bombing that happened in April 1995, but those things happened after this dinner and the people who performed that night performed before those events happened, so I’m not going to go into that.

But just the first few months of 1995 with a brand new Republican Congress the first one since 1953 and House Republicans donating their lives to passing their Contract For America, you knew this was going to be a fascinating year. 

You can also see this post on WordPress.

PBS: 'The Clinton Administration - Early Struggles'

Source:PBS- President William J. Clinton (Democrat, Arkansas) 1993-2001.

"From the PBS documentary series "The American Experience"

From E. Elder 

The early days of the Clinton Administration were very rough for several reasons. One had to do with the White House staff that for the most part came from political backgrounds, instead of government backgrounds. So they were trying to govern for the first time ever together with not a lot of experience, at least in the Federal Government to begin with. Outside of Vice President Al Gore, OMB Director Leon Panetta and a few others.

They also had several controversies that they were dealing with. Like Gays in the military, Blackhawk Down in Somalia, a refugee crisis in Haiti and a few others. Like struggling to get their own deficit reduction plan and broader Federal budget proposal through a Democratic Congress that had a large majority in the House and a clear, but not super majority in the Senate. Which made President Clinton look like he couldn't govern, at least early on.

But despite all of the troubles that President Clinton had in 1993 and to a certain extent 1994 with the failure to reform health care the Clinton Administration and that Democratic Congress was very productive as far as the legislation they were able to pass. Like free trade with NAFTA and GAT, deficit reduction, gays in the military, the 1994 Crime Bill, Family and Medical Leave and a few other things. So they were very productive even early on even though they weren't very popular. 

You can also see this post at FRS FreeState, on Blogger.

Clinton Library: President Clinton's 58th News Conference (1994)

Source:Clinton Library- President William J. Clinton (Democrat, Arkansas) 42nd President of the United States.

“This is video footage of President William Jefferson Clinton delivering a news conference. This footage is official public record produced by the White House Television (WHTV) crew, provided by the Clinton Presidential Library.

Date: May 26, 1994

Location: Press Briefing Room, White House. Washington, DC.”

From the Clinton Library

President Bill Clinton’s 58th press conference covering mostly foreign policy especially relating to China and Korea. The situation going on in between the North and South in Korea and what is called MFN or Most Favored Nation trading status with the People’s Republic of China.

President Clinton essentially making the case that trading and talking to the Communist Regime in China is a better path forward in how to deal with them instead of isolating them. I wish President Clinton had the same strategy with the Communist Republic of Cuba, but that is my take. 

You can also see this post at FRS FreeState, on WordPress.

ODN: Monica Lewinsky-Bill Clinton Scandal

Source:The Daily Press

The person I blame most for the Monica Lewinsky White House intern scandal and perhaps the only person I blame, is President Bill Clinton. For acting as irresponsible as he did, for getting involved romantically at all with an intern. Doesn’t mean I believe he should’ve been impeached for it and definitely not convicted which the Senate didn’t do. Independent Prosecutor Ken Starr and the House Republicans if anything acted more irresponsible than President Clinton. But the fact is this scandal doesn’t happen without Bill Clinton.

And Clinton, gave the meat to the Confederate Republicans that I now call them, not all Republicans, but the far-right in the party, who’ve been looking to kick Bill Clinton out of office since he became President back in 1993. And if anything were looking to kick Clinton out of the Governorship in Arkansas when he was Governor there in the 1980s. Because he was a Baby Boom Liberal Democrat from the 1960s, who believed in things like civil rights, equal opportunity, reducing poverty. But who also believed in things like fiscal responsibility. And not someone they could label as a tax and spend Progressive and beat in an election. So the path for them to defeat Bill Clinton was much harder.

Bill Clinton, I believed scared the hell out of the Far-Right in America, because he reminded most of the country of John F. Kennedy. And someone who was part of the New Democratic Liberal coalition in the party. That had moved past the Roosevelt-LBJ Progressive Era. And someone who could communicate to a wide ray of Americans and had moved past the 1950s culturally. And understood that it was no longer the 1950s and that the country was becoming more diverse. Ethnically, racially, culturally, regionally. And Confederate Republicans hadn’t moved past the 1950s yet. And were still in that little box and weren’t ready to see Americans that most of the country wasn’t familiar with in the 1950s.

The Far-Right, or Neo-Right, isn’t ready for a country that was becoming more liberal and libertarian culturally and socially. As well as economically and they saw Bill Clinton as a threat to their way of life and what they saw as Traditional America. And someone who had to be stopped. Without President Clinton’s irresponsible behavior, this scandal and grand jury testimony never happens. President Clinton’s behavior was the red meat that Confederate Republicans thought they needed to kick him out of office. Since the rest of the country wouldn’t do it for them and they betted that the country with fall inline with them. To oust President Clinton from office, which of course didn’t happen.