Clinton: Which part of '90s wasn't great?

The part of the 90's that wasn't so great was the inability of the Clintons to keep their personal morals in check. Not a week went past when there was not one controversy after another. Even after they knew that the Sheriff of Nottingham (Ken Starr) was camped out on their front steps, they found some kind of pile of dog poop to step in.

The 90s may have been good, but then the CLINTONS signed NAFTA. I remember that there were riots in Seattle at the time, but I really didn't pay it that much attention. If people really want a daily reminder of why they lost their job, vote Clinton. Personally, I think the sight of Bill back in the White House would be disgusting, not to mention the Lewinsky saga!!!

Actually, the unemployment rate in March of 1996 was higher than it is today.

And what about the first World Trade Center attack by the terrorists? That was 1993.

And who can forget those Bosnian snipers shooting at Hillary Clinton?

Which part wasn't great?

Bill having oral sex in the Oval Office, maybe?

all of the 90 s boy she is an elitist

You commenters don't understand, when Hillary is elected she will bring back the Tech Bubble and everything will be super swell.

snark

9,000 jobs were just now cut at CitiGroup...yeah...NAFTA was a good deal, alright !!! Thanks, Bill !

Unemployment averaged higher in the 90s and higher during the Clinton administration than it has under Bush.
In the 1990s, Al Qaeda was able to grow unchecked.
In the 1990s, the tech boom, based on companies that made no or little profits and in many cases companies that lost money, lead to the stock market collapse in 2000-2001.
In the 1990s, Clinton sold mililtary technology to the CHinese in exchange for campaign cash.

Mary, NAFTA was one of the few things Clinton did right (the other was finally signing welfare reform). Those riots in Seattle were from unemployable slackers who don't bathe and eat from dumpsters. In other words, worthless folk who haven't a clue about reality or anything.

Companies like Tyco, Enron, Quest and Hollinger Int'l all started cooking their books in the '90s, too. When CEOs see that a known liar and perjurer has made it to the top and successfully used the power of his office and personality to fight off impeachment charges, they just figured "why no me, too?"
Treating the first WTC bombing as a police matter and not militarily responding to that terrorist attack is something that looms large in our recent history as the height of stupidity, too.

"Unemployment averaged higher in the 90s and higher during the Clinton administration than it has under Bush."

Unemployment when Clinton took office from Bush Senior in 1993: 7.3%

Unemployment When Clinton handed over office to Bush Jr. in 2001: 4.2%

Unemployment today: 5.1%

Bush has NEVER gotten the uneployment rate lower than it was when he took office, after 7 full years of his policies.

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/data/UNRATE.txt

Treating the first WTC bombing as a police matter and not militarily responding to that terrorist attack is something that looms large in our recent history as the height of stupidity, too.

Posted by: Jeff | April 18, 2008 10:34 AM

Right. Now, as I recall, 2000 followed 1993, so the lessons of 1993 would have been learned by 2000.

In 2000 we had a national election. Participants in that election included two of your heros -- GWB and Sen. McCain. Please identify one single, solitary public statement by any of these foreign policy geniuses that in 2000 suggested a different approach to the the terrorist situation.

Either that or admit that your post is nothing but Monday-morning quarterbacking.

Posted by: John D | April 18, 2008 10:04 AM

Hey Johnny, you're fired! A thousand monkeys typing on a thousand typewriters will be doing your newsletter from now on.

Treating the first WTC bombing as a police matter and not militarily responding to that terrorist attack is something that looms large in our recent history as the height of stupidity, too.

Posted by: Jeff | April 18, 2008 10:34 AM

What country should we have invaded in 1993 Jeff?

Peace? There were twice as many major world combats during the Clinton administration than during the Bush administration. Just because we were letting al qaeda, the Taliban, AQ Kahn et al flourish, and not stopping genocide in Rwanda, Iraq, Algeria, etc., doesn’t mean it was peaceful. We were involved in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Somolia. Obviously not as many American casualties, but not what I would describe as “peace”.

Prosperity? Yes, but nothing to do with Clintons.

Luke, please explain how Clinton policies created jobs.

The 1950s were great too. Can we bring back Ike?

Treating the first WTC bombing as a police matter and not militarily responding to that terrorist attack is something that looms large in our recent history as the height of stupidity, too.

Posted by: Jeff | April 18, 2008 10:34 AM

Show me where Senator JOHN MCCAIN demanded military action? I remember him wanting to cut and run from al-Qaeda in Somalia, but I don't remember him calling for a military response to the WTC bombing. Please direct me any speeches he gave on this subject and also when did he submit a declaration of war for Congress to consider????

Peace? There were twice as many major world combats during the Clinton administration than during the Bush administration. Just because we were letting al qaeda, the Taliban, AQ Kahn et al flourish, and not stopping genocide in Rwanda, Iraq, Algeria, etc., doesn’t mean it was peaceful. We were involved in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Somolia. Obviously not as many American casualties, but not what I would describe as “peace”.

Prosperity? Yes, but nothing to do with Clintons.

Luke, please explain how Clinton policies created jobs.

Posted by: Ted | April 18, 2008 12:18 PM

Ted: Perhaps you might compare how many of our armed forces died in combat during the Clinton admin with the number that died during the current disaster.

Even a brain dead Bus apologist like you (but I repeat myself) should be able to do that comparison and realize that one era was substantially more akin to peaceful than the other. If you folks had either brains or shame you'd be embarrassed with these arguments.

Posted by: John D | April 18, 2008 10:04 AM

Wow, when you lie, you don't fool around do you?

First of all, AlQaeda: The Clinton adminsitration convicted the perpetrators of the first WTC bombing. While Bush has allowed AlQaeda to expand in Iraq with his immoral occupation.

2nd, the "real" unemployment rates:

Clinton monthly avg 4.86
Bush monthly avg 5.07

Though Bush's avg was higher, I won't quibble over a mere .21 difference. A question that needs to be asked is how much of a "lag" effect is there on such data. How much of Bush Sr.'s economy is reflected in the early part of Clinton's first term. Same for Clinton going into Bush Jr.'s. And does it really matter? How can we tell if business cycles and outside influences that the president and congress can't control might change the job market.

It is not always wise to simply use statistics, they don't always tell the whole story.

You can take a look at the "numbers" yourself. The following data is monhtly averages from the U.S. Department of Labor
Bureau of Labor Statistics.

1993 7.3 7.1 7.0 7.1 7.1 7.0 6.9 6.8 6.7 6.8 6.6 6.5
1994 6.6 6.6 6.5 6.4 6.1 6.1 6.1 6.0 5.9 5.8 5.6 5.5
1995 5.6 5.4 5.4 5.8 5.6 5.6 5.7 5.7 5.6 5.5 5.6 5.6
1996 5.6 5.5 5.5 5.6 5.6 5.3 5.5 5.1 5.2 5.2 5.4 5.4
1997 5.3 5.2 5.2 5.1 4.9 5.0 4.9 4.8 4.9 4.7 4.6 4.7
1998 4.6 4.6 4.7 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.6 4.5 4.4 4.4
1999 4.3 4.4 4.2 4.3 4.2 4.3 4.3 4.2 4.2 4.1 4.1 4.0
2000 4.0 4.1 4.0 3.8 4.0 4.0 4.0 4.1 3.9 3.9 3.9 3.9
2001 4.2 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.3 4.5 4.6 4.9 5.0 5.3 5.5 5.7
2002 5.7 5.7 5.7 5.9 5.8 5.8 5.8 5.7 5.7 5.7 5.9 6.0
2003 5.8 5.9 5.9 6.0 6.1 6.3 6.2 6.1 6.1 6.0 5.8 5.7
2004 5.7 5.6 5.8 5.6 5.6 5.6 5.5 5.4 5.4 5.5 5.4 5.4
2005 5.2 5.4 5.2 5.1 5.1 5.0 5.0 4.9 5.1 5.0 5.0 4.8
2006 4.7 4.7 4.7 4.7 4.7 4.6 4.7 4.7 4.5 4.4 4.5 4.4
2007 4.6 4.5 4.4 4.5 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.7 4.7 4.8 4.7 5.0
2008 4.9 4.8 5.1

A blinkin’ – What does “Obviously not as many American casualties, but not what I would describe as “peace” , mean to you? Can you comprehend English? Yes, genius, there have been more American casualties during the Bush administration, but there is no way you can prove that we would have less casualties had Bush not been elected.

Now, do you consider the 90’s a “peaceful” time? Any answers on how Clinton created jobs?

JT,

How about getting bin Laden when the opportunities arose in the 1990's.

As far as invasions, I believe Bill Clinton did unleash the full military effect of the United States, at least under a democratic administration, by lobbing a few cruisl missles into Iraq, Sudan, and Afghanistan. So technically, Bill Clinton invaded three countries, that's not counting the whole Bosnia thing.

As far as the unemployment stats - Luke and David J have it right, but have no idea for the cause - two things lowering capital gains tax rates to 20% and also if you remember that thing called Y2K created a bunch of jobs in the late 90's. Also, unemployment lags the economy, so while the economy was starting to tank in late 2000, unemployment was lagging a few months behind. Looking at DJ's stats, unemployment was starting to climb as Bill left office.

To David: You'll note from the DoL statistics that you've added that the unemployment rate under Clinton did not decrease substantially until his (their) crazy policies were held in check by a Republican Congress. Ah the Clinton 90's, how I do long for them, Bosnia, Rwanda, failure in Somalia, Embassy bombings, comparative worth, gun bans, huge tax increases (which we will get again if we elect either one of the two Dem idiots), decreasing our military by 2/3, reinventing government (see decreasing our military by 2/3), the Cole bombing, whitewater, Clinton in jogging shorts, Rose law records "found" on a WH table, Puerto Rican terrorists, pardons easily available, and what I miss most of all is some pontificating moron wagging his finger at us and lecturing us.

Well, the tech bubble bursting was not a great thing. Losing my job a factory and having to get a lesser-paid job in a warehouse was not a great thing. All the accounting scandals that Dems tried to blame on Bush/Cheney, which forced my 401K down the tubes, occurred during 1996-2000. My 8.5% fixed mortgage rate that I had until 2002 when I was able to get a 5.75% fixed mortgage rate was not so great either.

So Hillary, the Clinton years were not the best of times for everyone, especially us regular Joe’s who were not able to grow up to be executives in a corporation.

To DAvid and All the Other Clinton Lovers: Now that I've started engaged my memory for the 90's and the Clinton's I can't stop reflecting on those heady wonderful times. Additional memories include Janet REno, alligator wrestling, Podesta/Pena and their crimes, the definition of "is", Johnny Chung, finally we get some rent money on the White House Bedrooms!, Ho Lee, stealing secrets from Los Alamos, let's kill all the religious nuts - Waco was just the start. Why didn't we think of product placement in TV as a public service ad sooner - what genius, those travel office folks were lazy bums anyway, plus we had to repay our "wag the dog" hollywood friends. Oh the wistful memories - take me away to those glorious 90's!

To David and All the Other Clinton Lovers: Now that I've engaged my memory for the 90's and the Clinton's I can't stop reflecting on those heady wonderful times. Additional memories include Janet Reno, alligator wrestling, Podesta/Pena and their crimes (did they ever go to jail), the definition of "is", Johnny Chung, finally we get some rent money on the White House Bedrooms!, Ho Lee, stealing secrets from Los Alamos, let's kill all the religious nuts - Waco was just the start. Why didn't we think of product placement in TV as a public service ad sooner - what genius, those travel office folks were lazy bums anyway, plus we had to repay our "wag the dog" hollywood friends. Oh the wistful memories - take me away to those glorious 90's!