We need Bill Clinton’s wisdom
The election of Hillary Clinton as our next president becomes even more crucial, and more appealing, given her recent announcement that in her administration, former President Bill Clinton would be “in charge of revitalizing the economy” and creating jobs. Although I do not believe it is government’s place to directly “create” jobs, it certainly can and should promulgate policies that facilitate job creation, and that is what President Clinton did.
No one was harder on President Clinton during the era in which his shameful White House sexual impropriety was splashed across the pages of newspapers throughout the world. He disgraced himself, the presidency, and our nation, and I believe that the accusations made against him by other women have merit. Nevertheless, it would be cutting off our nose to spite our face if he were deemed to have disqualified himself from serving our country again by virtue of being sexually out of control. We need his steady hand, skill, and wisdom more than ever.
Time has caused the image of Bill Clinton to improve markedly and I have come to have great admiration for him, while being able to separate him to some extent from the debauchery in which he engaged and initially lied about. He masterfully presided over a lengthy period of economic ascendancy and job creation. It brought millions of Americans out of poverty. His time in office was largely one of peace, and certainly if he could have been elected to a third term, or had there been a President Al Gore, there would have been no chance that our country would have engaged in the folly of occupying Iraq with all of its disastrous and immensely costly fallout.
As one who espouses the minimization of the tax burden, I did not like the about-face engaged in by President Clinton when his promised middle-class tax cut was converted to a tax increase upon his entry into office, but I had to eat crow. The boost in taxes had no deleterious effect on the economy, the doom andn gloom predicted by Clinton foes not ever materializing.
President Clinton skillfully engaged in “triangulation”, being a centrist and one who was willing to compromise in order to make the country better and to secure a significant portion of what he wanted to achieve.
The American people should be so fortunate as to have the best president in recent memory back in the White House in a prominent role.
Oren M. Spiegler
Upper St. Clair