For comparison, what did Bill Clinton run on in 92?

[AP]

I'm listening to a real video of Bill Clinton talking about his presidency. It keeps cutting out because of traffic, so I'm going to be selfish and post the link when I'm done watching it.

In it he says he campaigned on this (at 18:45):

- I'm going to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans.
- I'm going to reduce the defecit in half in four years.
- I'm going dramatically reduce spending.

He talks about how hard it was to pass the '93 budget. However, one thing that made it easier was that he could call a special session, and the only thing they can talk about is the budget. He called a 5 week session.

He said he was going to raise money through freer trade, because he was a free trader like FDR and JFK, and many Democrats are no longer. He was also going to raise money by investing in technology research.

More soon...

[madrchsod]

1. his feet.....

and his ability to with stand the onslaught of the fashits in this country. he left with a shit load of money in the treasury and saved our sorry asses from many terrorist attacks. oh yes he left with the united states of america well respected across the world. he can at least travel to just about any country in the world and be treated like a rock star. not bad for a guy that even some democrats and 95% of the republicans can`t stand.....

[AP]

2. "Dems had been losing since '80 because..."

(at 30 min) "well, '80 was a bizarre case because of horrible economy and Iranian hostage crisis...because Democrats were either too liberal in a classical sense, or becaues the Republicans could convince people we were. So I had to convince the base that I was good on social justice, environment, etc, but was also good on national security, criminal justice."

"I picked Al Gore because he was part of DLC, knew about nucelar weapons, voted for Gulf War in '91, and was good on global warming. But also, I thought he'd make a good president if I dropped dead or got shot, which is most important things, and this was a real concern -- including Bin Laden almost got me when he was on a trip to Bangladesh and Pakistan."

"I think Al helped get me elected, and did a good job. Wasn't threatened by him. I had fun with him. I still have fun with him."

[Hep]

3. Big Macs

Sorry, I don't want to trivialize the topic, but I couldn't resist.

[AP]

7. never mind.

[catmandu57]

4. It's the economy stupid

first foremost and always, that's why Clinton won in 92. After twelve years of rayguns and poppy the economy was deep in the dumpster.

[AP]

5. When I was third in the polls I knew I wasn't really third in the polls.

(at 49 min)

Sometimes you know the things that grip people's consciousness are things that aren't reflected in the polls right away. After winning Cal primary, went on Arsenio Hall, and was third in the polls. But I knew there was an incremental change.

At the time, insurance companies et al were trying to convince people we were humorless bureaucrats trying to crush the life out of people. Arsenio made people realize that we could make fun of ourselves.

The rule in DC is that you can make fun of yourself, but you can't make fun of the media.

[AP]

6. How to win an election:

at 51 min, the counter starts at zero.

at 1 min:

(1) Vote for me an I will... (tell them what you're for).
(2) Tell people something about the other guy that they don't know and won't like.
(3) Tell them what they'll get from you that they won't get from the other guy.

Gingrich's single greates non-ideological contribution to American politics was to prove that all elections are national elections.

We should have had a competing plan to Contract for America.

[AP]

8. How did Bush win:

51+4min

Gore only needed to get 5 out of 6 of voters who thought US was going in right direction.

Bush comes up with "compassionate conservativism." What does that mean? We'll give you everything you like about them (compassion) plus lower taxes and smaller government.

We didn't get our message until the last 6 days when we picked up 5 points, which was "vote for us if you want to keep the prosperity going -- they aren't like us, they're going to destroy the economy."

[AP]

9. After the election, in open-endede questioning,

many Gore voters said they voted for him to keep the prosperity going. many Bush voters said they voted for him becaue he was going to lower taxes and have smaller gov't.

[AP]

10. Can you watch this part without being really moved.

at 51 min + 21 min:

Audience member talks about having retarded sibling. When you were president, we had a lot of help from the federal government. We don't know. Why did you care about people like us?

rtsp://video.c-span.org/jdrive/smil/clint052303.smi

http://video.c-span.org:8080/viewsource/template.html?nuyhtg299lz6n0g6bfEu4dtgtloez6zihwEfzk02b7oDfwt6Crru00t6Eb5ghe7o4eiqgf3c9Bi5geDpe25f35Ceeb3Bf000x1amng5ymkyfl1by0iDa5mocgkhC50000000

[AP]

11. SH, OBL, and Clinton's frgn policy and why he supported IWR (months ago)

at 51+32 min

says that he believed that SH had weapons. Says you can't chose to not believe the intelligence, and that there was lots of intelligence.

Says that SH and OBL were high priorities in his administration



rtsp://video.c-span.org/jdrive/smil/clint052303.smi

[AP]

12. No American should have to chose between being a good parent v good worker

I'm a democrat because I believe that when I do really well because America has been good to me, that I should give back a little to make sure that America isn't the kind of world where people can't be good parents AND good workers. I want some of my money to pay for after school programs, for example.

51+36+7 min