Clinton - What do you remember most?

[Clarkmeister]

Now that we are 2 years removed from Bill Clinton's presidency, what do you all take from it? Forget all the sex stuff, what about his actual policies and impact on our nation?

I remember thinking two things during his presidency:

1. I thought his foreign policy sucked. We let the whole Milosovich (sp) situation get way worse than it ever should have gotten. And in general we weren't strong enough.

2. I remember thinking that Allan Greenspan was The Most Powerful Man in the Universe and gave him the credit for the economy's health rather than Clinton.

Now we have a president who is too strong with his international policy and suddenly Greenspan looks Mortal.

Anyways, (at the risk of making this too complicated) what do you all remember most about Clinton and on a scale of 1-10 how do you rate his presidency? Also, please provide a frame of reference by rating Reagan, Bush the First and Dubya (to date).

Reagan: 7.5
Bush the First: 8
Willie: 7
Dubya: 5

[Dynasty]

I'll remember that President Clinton was a lying scumbag.

I don't think Clinton accomplished much of anything. He's not going to be given credit for the good economy of the 1990's by historians any more than Eisenhower gets credit for the 1950's economy (yes, I know there was a recession during Eisenhower's presidency). Clinton rode on the back of a good economy and did nothing with it.

I think Clinton's most enduring legacy beyond being a lying scumbag is that his early incompetancy cost the Demorcratic party both houses of Congress and paved the way for conservatism to be the dominant ideology in the country.

If you want numbers:

Reagan: 8.5 (led the Soviet Union down the road to collapse)
Bush the First: 6 (won an important war, did little else)
Clinton: 4.5 (what the hell did he do all day?)
Duby: 7 (winning a war, longterm tax cutting implemented)

[B-Man]

I will remember what he almost accomplished--peace in the Middle East (well, at least between Israel and the Palestinians). I used to think a peaceful solution was impossible, but he nearly pulled it off through years of diplomacy culminating at Camp David in 2000. If Arafat had accepted the deal which he was offerred at Camp David (and which he now says he wishes he had accepted), and peace had prevailed, Clinton would have had that tremendous accomplishment as his lasting legacy.

Instead, his legacy is, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman..."

(oh yeah, and that he oversaw the longest peacetime expansion in our economy's history, but I'm not sure how much credit he should get for that).

[Dynasty]

Even if Arafat accepted the deal, there would not have been peace. There are too many groups in the Middle East who are committed to destroying Israel. The signing of a "peace" agreement would have been a rallying cry for all those groups to launch more attacks.

[B-Man]

You very well may be right. But unfortunately, we will never know.

[Dynasty]

unfortunately, we will never know.

Perhaps we are fortunate not to know- or to have lived through even more violence in Israel.

[patrick dicaprio]

how could you rate bush the first over reagan??!!

the thing i will remember most about clinton is his creative use of cigars and the shredder working 24/7 (or at least his wife's).

Pat

[HDPM]

If by the "sex stuff" you are including the perjury and the forcible rape accusation, I can't get past it. If you are just excluding the consensual sex acts with women over whom he had power, I can put it aside. (Even though it interfered with his job and made the Oval Office a joke) As far as policy, Clinton accomplished nothing good. He did manage to get more gun control through. So I give him F's on that. He did manage to screw up the military. His anti-terror policy was ridiculous. Lob a few cruise missiles and declare victory. LOL. He kowtowed to Arafat and still couldn't get a Middle East peace deal, so that was a total waste. But Clinton's whole career is a total waste of time, unless you like the damage he did. Let's not forget the pardons or the autocratic theft of western lands (in one case to benefit a donor) He sold out to the Chinese too. He is a lying, draft dodging, impeached, rapist, perjuring POS. So here's my ranking:

GW: 7, but could go higher or lower very easily because of the current instability.

Clinton: 1.5. Incompetence prevented more damage to the country.

GHWB41: 5.5. Did OK. Lost to Clinton by running a lousy campaign and the stupid "read my lips" BS. You get marked down for losing to Clinton. Did lay some groundwork for the strong economy. Did pretty well in the Gulf War, but did not resolve certain problems that Clinton totally botched.

Reagan: 9. Got the country out from under both Watergate and the disaster of the Carter presidency and engineered the end of the Cold War. When he came in a loser country like Iran had us by the short ones. We had lost any semblance of acting like a superpower. Can't get a 10 because of the scandals and the fact he couldn't curtail social spending. And opposed gun control even after getting shot unlike another guy who took rounds that day. [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[Clarkmeister]

If I judged Clinton's presidency as you do I would have to slaughter Reagans rating as well. As truly despicable lying to the American people on live TV is, its not nearly as bad as the illegal [censored] that went on under Reagans direction. I ranked Reagan as high as I did because I overlooked his stuff just like I overlooked Clinton's. Maybe its just me, but I think that violating the constitution, violating international law and running clandestine wars in multiple foreign nations is light years worse than being a womanizer and lying about it.

Reagan did a lot with regard to the Soviet collapse. He also took the nation from zero national debt to the monster whose interest payments now eat up a third of each years' annual budget. I firmly believe that the economy that Bush inherited was completely the fault of Reagan.

as far as your comments on gun control..........

Because I am largely ignorant on the subject, why don't you let me know what it currently takes to get a gun license. Please include an editorial detailing measures you think that should be repealed and proposed measures you think should not be passed.

As far as myself, I think that extensive background checks and some reasonable amount of training (taking a class and "graduating") should be required to get a license. Purchase of a firearm should require a license and yet another background check. The 3 day waiting period that I *think* is law currently seems reasonable to me.

Like I said, I don't even know if my views are more or less extreme than current law. From what I know of the Brady bill, I don't think it was that unreasonable and am unsure why you would slam the man.

[Adnirol]

I remember him as a lying scumbag who inherited an economy on an upswing, tried to take the credit, turned the econpmy upside down and is trying to blame bush for his poor fiscal policy.

My ratings:

Reagan: 9.5
Bush the First: 8
Willie: 4
Dubya: 8.5
Nixon 6
Johnson 3
Kennendy 7.5
Truman 8
Eisenhower 8.5