Good morning, intrepid reader(s). Another scorcher today. Another day in the freeze box.
For a variety of reasons we were seriously torqued off last night.
Bloodwork back already...the number remains not good. Mor tests a-coming. We are torqued off again.
Trump delayed Iranian strikes once more. We hear the concerns. Trump looks bad, timid for the moment. But he also holds the cards here and can unleash unfathomable destruction whenever he wants. TACO? Really? Ask, well, Iran. Ask Maduro. Remember, Netanyahu is notorious for not making a decision until he has to. We suspect Trump is doing the same here. We remain patient.
Iran is talking tough. Reminder, the more bellicose the rhetoric, the more impotent is the rhetorician.
In his column titled 'The GOP's reversal of fortune', Colonel Schlichter notes something interesting about Bill Clinton, 'Bill Clinton was no conservative, but don’t confuse him with his clueless wife. He understood that for a Democrat to succeed, he had to make the Democrat Party safe for normal people to raise their families and walk the streets.' Quite right.
Bill Clinton's been out of office lo these 25 years now. We voted for the man in 1992 (no regrets, it was time) and against him in 1996 (Bob Dole, meh). Time passes, and Clinton's little ticks that annoyed us have faded from memory, as has our late 90's hatred for the man. All that's left is Clinton's record. So let's have a look at it.
Clinton's first two years in office were a mess filled with petty scandals (the White House travel office, White Water) punctuated by Hillary Clinton's failed healthcare reform bill. That woman ruins everything she touches. The end result was a Democrat wipeout in the midterms.
Bill Clinton recovered after the budget battle and government shutdown of late 1995 and was easily reelected, though the GOP maintained control of the House and Senate.
Clinton didn't do a whole lot in his second term, and mainly focused on keeping his approval ratings high. These were in the high 50s and lower 60s for most of his second term. Clinton micro-governed, worried about small technical matters and made sure he was on the popular side of most issues. The strategy worked. Clinton left office with high approval ratings, 66 percent according to Gallup.
The economy roared.
The Monica Lewinsky affair and impeachment dominated 1998. The senate acquitted Clinton and the country moved on. 'I did not have sexual relations, with that woman, Ms. Lewisnky,' is Clinton's most famous quote.
It is true that Bill Clinton has several legislative accomplishments to his name. NAFTA, the Crime Bill (boy that was controversial at the time), welfare reform in the first term, and the 1997 Budget Act in the 2nd term which capped spending.
NAFTA is a net negative now, no? The Crime Bill piggy backed on already falling crime rates brought about by innovative mayors like Giuliani, Daly, Riordan, and Rendell. Welfare reform was good. The 1997 Budget Act helped balance the budget.
In foreign policy, Clinton brought about the Dayton Accords - peace in Yugoslavia, and won the Kosovo War. His Peace Process machinations in the Middle East were disastrous and led to the Second Intifada. Clinton let Bin Laden get away.
The 1990s were good, there's no getting around it, and Bill Clinton was president. He was a peacetime president, with peacetime problems, which he mostly handled. Clinton was very often his own worse enemy. Was the country better off in 2000 than it was in 1990? Absolutely. We rate Bill Clinton's presidency a success, and give the man a B.
DOGE report.
We worked on the Sandinista counterattack scene yesterday. It was messy. We made it a lot better. We still have plenty of work to do.
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