What was Bill Clinton's worst mistake?

[Quixote1818]

Bill was a good president but he was far from being a progressive president and it seems his policies would have pissed off a lot of DUers. If you have a beef with Bill what is it? NAFTA? WTO and "globalization"?

Can we expect that Hillary will be any different?

[msongs]

1. to answer your question: yes, she will not throw boomers under the bus nt

[Blaze Diem]

2. NAFTA. The rest I can live with

NAFTA

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Not impeaching senior over the BCCI scandal expecting the

pubbies to leave him alone

And them folding on things like NAFTA, even if they were fully ready to go before he took over

His second bigest mistake, the Communications Act

[aquart]

7. Didn't Bill sign the bill that knocked out our banking protections?

Lotta bad economic ideas in the Clinton administration.

But they did go after Microsoft...which George tied up in a ribbon and handed back to Bill Gates. He didn't slap his wrist so much as give it a playful squeeze.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. Yep

but not going after real criminals set the table for today....

It started in 74 with Ford's Pardon, then in 1988 when we refused to go after Reagan over Iran Contra... but Clinton had a chance to stop it, and blew it within months, the promise... that they would cooperate... and the country could not go through that trauma again and we had lots of things to do and that would get in the way.

Now where have I heard this in the recent past?

[aquart]

26. Pardoning Nixon ruined this nation.

I hope congenial Mr. Ford rots in hell.

[bellasgrams]

19. What kind of bank protection are you talking about?

[aquart]

22. The ones put in place after 1929.

The ones that prevented another Great Depression. But that's a dim half-memory and I may be wrong. (I tend to remember my reaction to things rather than the things themselves.)

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

41. How was Bill Clinton supposed to impeach Bush senior? n/t

[Thothmes]

49. What is the point of impeaching someone that is out of office already.

At that point Federal criminal charges filed and prosecution in a court of law could proceed.

[gateley]

4. NAFTA

[Union Thug]

5. Yes. NAFTA/WTO/NeoLiberal Globalization

And with respect to Hillary; more of the same. But, if she's the Dem candidate, I'll support her. I mean, we've been working with the lesser of two evils for a generation now. No sense getting excited about the chances of a genuine progressive reaching the whitehouse anytime soon. Why set oneself up for disappointment?

[NanceGreggs]

6. Not saying, from day one ...

"Ask me anything you want about my activities as president. But my personal life is none of your f*cking business."

[RaleighNCDUer]

10. IOW, answering the question "boxers or briefs?"

Could have shut the door on it all right there.

[NanceGreggs]

16. That door would have taken time to slam shut ...

... but yes, I believe it could have been slammed with the right PR and attitude.

Let's not forget that the GOP had their eye on the 2000 election prize: another Republican in the WH. They wouldn't have been too quick to hoist the 'The US president's entire personal life should be an open book' flag. Way too many skeletons in that closet.

They would have gone after him anyway; this was just one issue, IMHO, that could have been shut down - but unfortunately wasn't.

[cigsandcoffee]

8. I have a recollection that he said it was Janet Reno.

Take that with a grain of salt, but I do remember it from somewhere.

[napi21]

9. I guess it was agreeing to sign NAFTA, but truthfully, his biggest

mistake was believing he could continue dipping his wick around DC and believing he wouldn't get caught! If it hadn't been for Monica, her big mouth, and that damn dress, think how much BETTER his Presidency would have been! He always talks about his idol was Jack Kennedy, and since he knew Jack "got away with philandering while in the WH, he was certain he could too. I never held what he did against him, but that he was such a smart man and displayed such boatant stupidity!

[Yupster]

24. It was the dress that did him in

If it wasn't for the dress, he'd still be lying that Monica was a delusional groupie.

Actually to answer the question, welfare reform was no great prize either.

[earthlover]

43. I agree it was Monica/dress...caused Gore to distance himself from an administration that...

should have made Gore a shoo-in to be elected by a steal-proof margin. Peace and prosperity and budget surplus. But has to be distanced because of Monica.

So...as a result....we have Bush. THAT did more harm than any other of Bill's mistakes.

[John Q. Citizen]

11. Bill's worst mistake was being a tool for the oliarchs. But he doesn't see it as

a mistake, he's sees it as a good move.

[TahitiNut]

12. NAFTA/WTO, Hillcare, Welfare Deform, Telecom, DADT, and deregulation.

"Liberal" for corporations, screw job for the working poor.

[lumpy]

20. All of the above

x

[Hardrada]

32. Exactly.

[sjdnb]

13. Bill used 'moderate/conservative' positions to allow him to advance

policies that benefited the lower/middle classes, human and civil rights, etc. That's what a SMART Dem with an opposing Party holding a majority in Congress needs to do (ref: FDR/JFK)

But, if I had to offer one major mistake, it is supporting Hillary unconditionally. If he wants to support a legacy candidate, might I suggest that Chelsea is far more intelligent and politically savvy. With a few more years of seasoning/experience, she will become a heck of a candidate.

[Quixote1818]

15. Chelsea is a class act! It will be interesting to see her continue to blossom. nt

[Richard Steele]

21. NAFTA. That thing has SOOO many wrongs wrapped up in one package. nm

[B Calm]

35. NAFTA was a republican introduced bill. Majority of republicans

passed it and signed into law by a democratic president. Lets not forget NAFTA's origins!

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

17. Rwanda.

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. On foreign affairs absolutely

[TahitiNut]

23. Ubetcha... his worst foreign policy blunder, by far.

One million dead in a matter of three months.
:cry: :cry:

It was a blunder in concert with the UN Security Council blunder in not heeding the Canadian warnings. At least some of Clinton's timidity was based on the beatings he took from the GOP for Blackhawk Down the prior year, a situation he inherited that went to hell and back in his first year - like Waco.

[aquart]

25. Nope.

Sorry. Bad as it was, we could not go in alone and nobody was else was planning to go. When a nation decides to murder its own citizens, that is an internal, NOT an international, affair.

It is horribly, agonizingly frustrating, and feels innately wrong, especially for families with relatives still in the country, but that's a simple, ugly fact of national sovereignty.

It took YEARS for Clinton to persuade Europeans to intervene with us when the Serbs started their mass murder spree. Years of mass graves. Europe didn't care.

It sounds so noble, but for Americans to invade an African nation because Africans were incapable of behaving themselves? And how would we do it, anyway? Mass murder the mass murderers? And stay forever? Because you really haven't tried to imagine how welcome we'd be. Think Iraq.

If we invaded Rwanda, when could we leave? Because as soon as we did....

Clinton wasn't wrong to stay out of Rwanda. He was able to go to Bosnia because he finally managed a coalition, there had been so much disgust when the UN peacekeepers were forced to stand by and watch men be bussed to their murders. I seem to recall that the Belgian contingent threw their red berets on the tarmac as soon as they reached Belgium.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

28. It was worse than that. He and Albright actively tried to stop UN action.

[Beelzebud]

27. Not saying "My personal life is none of your business."

The guy basically had a sexual harassment trial, while he was president, and yet with our current administration even the lackey's can't appear before congress because of a claim of executive privilege.

[Swamp Rat]

29. I still don't know why he didn't politely tell them to fuck off.

:shrug:

[baseballhead]

30. Presidue

If he had not left his DNA on the blue dress then Al Gore would be in office instead of Bush.

[B Calm]

31. Not showing the republicans his huge massive penis! That's all they wanted..

[TAZller]

33. Signing DOMA

A horrible example of triangulation... demonstrating that even for a progressive democrat that anything is negotiable even hate...

[Warren DeMontague]

34. Whatever it was, it was a hundred times better than George W. Bush's most stellar success.

I can tell you that much.

[krispos42]

36. Ejaculating

The seman stain let to a frivilous impeachement, which now has the current Democratically-controlled Congress afraid to impeach traitorous and criminal BushCo because it would look like payback.

I'm not really thrilled with the Telecommunications Act of 1996, either.

Or Paula Jones... :scared:

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

37. The DMCA. -nt

[Naturyl]

38. Welfare Reform

Real Democrats don't throw the poor under the bus to score crossover points.

[dipsydoodle]

39. Help me to understand

If health care is , quite justifyably , a big issues now then why didn't he do anything positive to provide free health care to all of your children, at least to the age of 16 , regardless of the income level of their parents ?

We've had that in the UK for 60 years or so - what's the problem ?

[MiniMe]

40. Unzipping his pants with Monica

[Rockholm]

42. And letting her do her thing.

[OnyxCollie]

44. Telecommunication Deregulation Act of 1996. nt

[riverdeep]

45. 'Allowing' Jocelyn Elders to put in her resignation.

Of course, that's the nice way of saying it, she was actually told to leave. Saying obvious things like the war on drugs isn't working or that masturbation is normal shouldn't get you shown the door, it should get you full backing. But he caved in his first real showdown. It would set the pattern for the next six years.

[Zywiec]

46. Iraqi sanctions that killed over 500,000 children n/t

[Connie_Corleone]

47. Not intervening in Rwanda. nt

[Triana]

48. NAFTA (n/t)