Obama Can Gain More by Following Clinton

During the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, Bill Clinton reclaimed his party’s leadership as well as his legacy. He gave a 50 minute performance that was experienced by 20,000 people in attendance and thousands others who watched it on TV.

Clinton rescued the Democratic Party from excesses before and he is doing it again today. When he won the presidency, the party had exhausted its fiscal credibility. He inherited a party that could not be trusted in handling the country’s finances.

Clinton changed that perception and made the country and his party financially responsible. His team, which included Paul Begala and James Carville, prided themselves for maintaining a balanced budget. They managed to do so with a GOP Congress that slashed capital gains taxes and helped produced four balanced budgets. Clinton’s team also made middle class tax cuts.

Clinton transformed the Democratic Party from one with excessive expenses to a home for balanced-budget loving, working people. They relearned how to win and given the chance to govern the nation. But President Obama ditched all of that.

Since Obama took office, he governed the nation like an old Democrat and not like Clinton. According to former Senator Fred Thompson in 2008, President Obama was George McGovern without the experience. President Obama embraced industrial-age solutions and spending without limits.

During the Charlotte convention, the consensus was that Democrats were entitled to take money from other people’s parents rather than borrow money from their own to start a business. Delegates cheered at the opportunities to take profits from Americans who pay taxes instead of taking taxes.

Clinton said that Republican economic policies quadrupled the national debt before he took office. The Republicans also doubled the debt in eight years after he left. He maintained that President Obama’s plans would slash the nation’s debt.