Pocket Full of Mumbles

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Friday, October 14, 2005

Comparing Legacies

William Jefferson Clinton

Whitewater
Lying to a Federal Grand Jury
The DNA-stained infamous blue dress
"I did not have sexual relations with that woman..."
Allegations of Sexual Assault, and Rape
Impeachment


George Walker Bush

Managing the 9/11 response
Ousting the Taliban
National elections in Afghanistan
Ousting Hussein
National election is Iraq
Constitutional Referendum in Iraq

--all this with 3 more years in office to go.


As to President Bush's supposed low approval rating, here's a bit of context:

Presidential Approval Ratings, 1953-1999 (11)

President Average (%) High (%) Low (%)

Kennedy 70 83 56
Eisenhower 65 79 48
Bush (41) 61 89 29
Johnson 55 79 35
Clinton 54 73 37
Reagan 53 65 35
Nixon 49 67 24
Ford 47 71 37
Carter 45 74 28


With President Bush's Lowest Approval Rating [thus far in his presidency] currently sitting at 41%, his lowest low is still 4+ percentage points higher than the each of the previous six presidents.

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

EL, once again your looking at both the past and present with blinders on. If your going to make bullet point lists then you need to be even-handed and fair.

Just for the appearance of fairness you could have mentioned:
1. The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993
Let women have time off for pregnancies.
2. The Brady Bill
Tried to keep assault weapons under stricter control.
3. Communications Decency Act
Increased fines for media companies being indecent.
4. NAFTA
Supported and signed
5. Troops deployed to Kosovo
6. Economic Prosperity
* More than 22 million new jobs
* Homeownership rate increase from 64.0% to 67.5%
* Lowest unemployment in 30 years
* Higher incomes at all levels
* Largest budget deficit in American history converted to the largest surplus of over $200 billion
* Lowest government spending as a percentage of GDP since 1974
* Higher stock ownership by families than ever before


Every Presidentcy has its highs and lows. You seem unable to remember some of George W.'s though, so I'll help:
1. Highest military budget since the late 1990s
2. Withdrew from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty
3. Paid propaganda regarding No Child Left Behind
4. No mobile Bio-weapon labs. No uranium sales from Niger. No found WMD.
5. Turned a budget surplus into a budget deficit through tax cuts favoring mainly the wealthy.
6. Cronyism=Katrina Disaster

I got the above from quick perusals of their profiles on Wikipedia. There are more positves and negatives for both. Your pat little list amply demostrates your personal beliefs and preconceptions.

My personal preference is for a philandering president that knows how to be a steward of the nation. Rather than an idealogical, light-weight, that really isn't interested in the nuts and bolts of federal policy.

October 16, 2005 1:02 AM  
Blogger Eric said...

"Your pat little list amply demostrates your personal beliefs and preconceptions."

Of course it does!

"My personal preference is for a philandering president that knows how to be a [less than good]* steward of the nation."

Of course you do!

----
*Lack of emphasis mine.

Oh! And let's not forget that your list also... "amply demostrates your personal beliefs and preconceptions."

October 16, 2005 1:27 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Way to go EL!

October 17, 2005 1:20 PM  
Blogger Eric said...

I think it's worth pointing out that BenT had to go online and look for much of his facts about the Clinton legacy. And all of his "facts" are valid. But the point is, he had to go look for them.

My list of "Legacies" are off the top of my head. Most people won't be able to look at Clinton and rattle of the list BenT offers. Instead, they will remember the DNA stained dress, and the infamous quote... "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinski."

Of course not! He got blow jobs, and diddled her "vaginal orafice" with nice fat cubans. THAT's what the public will remember.

October 17, 2005 2:16 PM  

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