Can any of our US sc(k)eptics tell me,

[mr blur]

why do many Democrats seem to hate the Clintons? Wasn't Bill the best President since, well... Kennedy?

[cosmik debris]

1. Mrs. Clinton is not the same as Mr. Clinton

She has left a trail of enemies in her wake for the last 25-30 years. Those things come back to haunt you.

Bill Clinton may have had his good side, but the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has had a disproportionately bad impact on the working class here.

And some of us are not too pleased with the dilemma of having to defend a President who publicly lied to us--even if it was only about a blow job. He embarrassed us, and we don't need that.

The bottom line is that the name Clinton unites the opposition better than any policy position. Some of us believe that we should be able to pick someone who is not so beneficial to the opposition, and someone who is not so divisive to the Democratic base.

That's just one POV. I'm sure you will get more.

[TZ]

2. Don't confuse DU with real life Dems

I don't think IRL that many Dems dislike Bill. Or at least until this election cycle. DU is very far left from most Dems in this country. I think a lot of people resent Bill for the Lewinsky thing, because it opened the door to Republicans to gain control of
Congress. As many real world Dems say "When Bill lied,nobody died". Hillary on the other hand, despite being labelled by the RW as "too liberal" while First Lady, has positioned herself as a centrist Senator, "centrist" almost being a bad word here.
And her vote for the IWR is NOT helping her here.
But Skinner REALLY put it well in a thread yesterday:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=4492205&mesg_id=4492521

[dropkickpa]

3. I'm pissed that he okayed the welfare reform

Him, a childhood beneficiary of welfare, rubber stamped reform that, yes, got people off of welfare, but not in a good way. They look at the numbers, not the results. The poor are always fucked over, and I expected more from him.

And NAFTA just made the situation of many of the working poor and lower middle class worse. Used to be, a manufacturing job COULD support a family, now, if you can find one, the pay is for shit in order to compete with non-US factories.

I hated those decisions then, and, now seeing the result of them, I hate them even more.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

4. It's fairly simple.

The Clintons are regarded as the Democrats who are entirely responsible for the cave-in to the Republicans on any number of issues. A lot of lefties have never forgiven him for welfare reform and yes, NAFTA. They are regarded by many as people completely willing to sell out their beliefs and values to win an election, even if it means stealing conservative ideas and making them their own. I don't see it that way, really. I seem them as liberals who tried (look at health care, gays in the military, etc) but ended up having to face the reality that the country was becoming more conservative. You must remember that this was all back during the heydey of the crazy militia movement, Rush Limbaugh's ascent, the Contract with America. A lot of people would have preferred that the Clintons stay liberal and lose to the Republicans than go moderate and win. They're regarded as sell-outs by those people.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

5. Oh, and let's not forget telecom deregulation.

That's the one thing that to this very day still pisses me off about Clinton - mostly because I don't think he HAD to do it.

[Warpy]

6. Clinton was a bitter disappointment to a lot of us out here

He had 2 years with a Democratic Congress and instead of overturning the worst parts of Reaganomics, he rammed through NAFTA/GATT and offered us the worst of all possible health care plans. Then he compounded the failure by rubberstamping the Draconian GOP gutting of welfare. He presided over the growth of wealth inequality and refused to fight Congress on their gutting of regulatory agencies and acts. He failed to restart the environmental initiatives that had begun with Carter and been scuttled by the first oily Bush in the Reagan years, initiatives that would by now have us a whole lot less dependent on offshore oil. He failed to stop the looting of US industry by multinational corporations who closed up shop here and opened up shop offshore.

So that's why so many of us do not want Bill back. He was a great GOP president. He was just a lousy Democrat.

[Imperialism Inc.]

7. I can only second wht yibbehobba and warpy said.

Only I would not say he was a disappointment. I didn't support Clinton in the '92 primaries but voted for him in the '92 and '96 general. Still, I had no illusions about what he would mean. It was clear he was in the center or center right in the '92 primaries. He did some good things but a lot of the bad things were the big things that had a lasting effect.

[Deep13]

8. Clinton understood that he worked for the USA and not just...

...the fanatics of his party.