Clinton/Gingrich (for the rebe-ster)

[dgs49]

Thanks to pundit Larry Elder for resurrecting some of the contemporaneous media thoughts on the roles of Gingrich and President Clinton in the economic situation and the balanced budgets of the late 90’s.

In 1995, Time magazine named Newt Gingrich "Man of the Year." To quote their explanation,

"Leaders make things possible. Exceptional leaders make them inevitable. Newt Gingrich belongs in the category of the exceptional. All year -- ruthlessly, brilliantly, obnoxiously -- he worked at hammering together inevitabilities: a balanced federal budget, for one. ... Today, BECAUSE OF GINGRICH, the question is not whether a balanced-budget plan will come to pass but when.”

[Remember the “Contract with America”?]

"Gingrich has changed the center of gravity. From Franklin Roosevelt onward, Americans came to accept the federal government as the solution to problems, a vast parental presence. ... Newt Gingrich wants to reverse the physics, make American government truly centrifugal, with power flowing out of Washington, devolving to the states."

"Having organized an insurrectionist crew in the House, Gingrich seized the initiative from a temporarily IMPASSIVE PRESIDENT and steered the country onto a heading that the speaker accurately proclaimed to be revolutionary."

In 1996, Newsweek's Evan Thomas wrote: "More than anything else, Gingrich wanted to dismantle the 'bureaucratic welfare state.' To do that, he understood, he had to attack Congress' addiction to deficit spending. When he assumed power in 1995, he consulted CEOs who had downsized their own companies; they advised him to stake out bold positions and force others to follow. ... UNDER GINGRICH THE HOUSE PASSED A BUDGET THAT TRULY RESTRAINED THE GROWTH OF FEDERAL SPENDING."

In 1998, Time's Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy wrote: "If Clinton has always had a gift for turning weakness into opportunity, Gingrich has a gift for turning opportunity into rubble. NEWT WAS THE ONE WHO MADE UNBALANCED BUDGETS A THING OF THE PAST, BUT IT WAS CLINTON WHO SOMEHOW GOT CREDIT FOR IT, rode to re-election (and) hauled his own party toward a more sensible center. VOTERS MIGHT HAVE RETIRED CLINTON IN 1996 FOR MOVING TOO FAR TO THE LEFT HAD GINGRICH NOT COME ALONG AND YANKED THE WHOLE ENTERPRISE TOO FAR TO THE RIGHT."

The current Bill Clinton biography entry in The New York Times reads: "Mr. Clinton sought to remake a once-broken Democratic Party in a more centrist mold. ... Part of Mr. Clinton's centrism came out of necessity [because] after the attempt to reform the health care system, led by his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, foundered, Democrats last control of both houses of Congress in 1994, ending four decades of control of the House."

The recession ended 22 months before Clinton took office. He did nothing whatsoever to end it. Gross domestic product growth the quarter before Clinton took over was 4.2 percent.

And largely due to the MSM’s decades-long dis-information campaign, Clinton is given credit for the prosperity and the balanced budget of the late 90’s, and Gingrich is remembered for “shutting down the Federal Government.”

Pretty fucking pathetic, if you ask me.

[Scooter]

Newt Gingrinch has always been his own worst enemy, which is why he was forced out of the leadership of his party in disgrace, and why not even today's ever more rightward lurching Republican Party could stomach the thought of making him its nominee.

[dgs49]

He is an odious personage to be sure, but why deny his historical accomplishments? The facts are what they are.

[rubato]

He is an odious personage to be sure, but why deny his historical accomplishments? The facts are what they are.

Ethics violations and an ability to predict the exact opposite of what will happen as a result of public policy economically?

Newtie was a moron.



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[Lord Jim]

As Jimmy Carter once observed, "life is unfair"....

Bill Clinton has an "aw shucks" Reaganesque charismatic way about him that makes folks give him more credit for things than they give to a pudgy, piggy eyed, annoyingly high pitch voiced character like Gingrich....

Without regard to the facts...

That's just the way it is...

[rubato]

Newtie screwed the pooch. Everything he said would happen, didn't.

He's a loser and stupid.

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