Why Clinton surpassed himself in praising the President who has undone Clinton’s own works

Fred Barnes at the Weekly Standard has an interesting analysis of Clinton’s speech last night which culminates with this:

In his 1996 State of the Union Address, Clinton uttered this famous line: “The era of big government is over.” He followed with this: “We have worked to give the American people a smaller, less bureaucratic government in Washington. And we have to give the American people one that lives within it means.”

Obama has done the opposite, enlarging the federal government’s size and reach, running $1 trillion deficits for four years, and offering a budget that would add another $6 trillion in debt over the next decade. Yet Clinton, at least tacitly, embraced the Obama record.

On top of that, the Clinton wing of the Democratic party—that is, pro-business moderates and conservatives—has all but vanished since Obama became president. Certainly Obama has done nothing to keep even a remnant of it alive. If anything, he’s responsible for killing it.

So why did Clinton give Obama such a wildly affirmative endorsement for reelection? I think he had his reasons. He wants to remain viable as a major figure in the party. His wife Hillary may run for president in 2016. Just as important, he craves the love of Democrats. With last night’s speech, he kept that love flowing his way.

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Terry Morris writes:

I don’t know about all that. One must ask himself, had Clinton been given a leftist Democratic majority in both the House and Senate, as Obama was handed initially, would Clinton have pursued the course he did at the time? I tend to think the answer to that question is an unequivocal no.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at September 06, 2012 09:28 AM | Send