Why do so many American’s blame Bill Clinton for failures that have happened under Bush’s Administration?

Question

This is a serious question, so please don’t start being abusive. I’m British & really want to understand this.

I see a lot of comments like “Lucky Clinton wasn’t in-charge on 9/11” or “Clinton ignored Bin Laden & didn’t prevent 9/11” etc.

Outside America, Clinton was popular & gave the US a great image. He helped Britain find peace with the IRA and supported the Kosovo conflict.

Didn't he also stabilise the US deficit & put the economy in the black (currently in the red)

I read he was attacked by the right wing Neocon’s because he didn’t sponsor their aggressive, conflict driven foreign policy. It was smear?

Didn’t Clinton have "A Comprehensive Strategy to Fight Al-Qaeda" that was handed to Bush & then ignored?

http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB147/index.htm

http://www.mikehersh.com/Republicans_sabotaged_Clintons_Anti-Terror_Efforts.shtml

The first WTC attack was in Clinton’s first month as President. But he didn’t blame Bush Snr. Why is Clinton blamed for G.W. Bush?

m.c - that's a pathetic answer. I've asked a real question, backed it up with facts and want to learn.

If you don't understand US politics & can only call names, then why don't you read and learn, rather than type and be ignorant????

Leogirl0804 - I didn't know all that, and I do try to follow US politics from over here.

Was he charged with rape? I knew of an accusation that was later backed off, because it was a smear.

Did he really destroy the morale of America? It was a boom time I thought?

He was a thief? What did he steal?

He did nothing to stop terror? He did launch Afghan-Sudan strikes in respone to terrorism. He also launched Desert Fox to contain Saddam. Also, Richard Clarke stated that Clinton did have a detailed plan against terror, but Bush didn't continue it.

I might be totally wrong though??

Thanks so far everyone.

You can understand why it's confusing over here. Most US people seem so sure in their answer, but many answers are totally opposite of one another.

Then there's some that call you a "Troll" (m c) just for taking an interest in US issues!!

It's not easy.....

Answer 1

This goes to the heart of the question as to why Republicans won't take responsibilty for their mistakes.

Answer 2

It's become a game of the far right that still supports Bush to use misdirection and point the finger at Clinton. It is usually employed when they cannot defend the actions of a President they blindly follow, no matter how clear it has become that he has made a horrifying mess in the Middle East and refuses to admit to it or take even his own Joint Chiefs of Staff's advice. Even Bush admitted that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, but you will still find people who cling to the notion that they did like it's a life raft. He abandoned the war on Al-Queda to invade a country he was obsessed with before 9/11 ever happened, and now can rightfully claim there are terrorists in Iraq. Of course there are now, he opened the door for them to walk right in and set up camp. I personally know Republicans who would give anything to go back to the Clinton days, not just Democrats. Generally, the Republicans in YA that post nonsense about Clinton are hardliners to say the least and they, like President Bush, have a major problem admitting that they have been wrong about anything.

You will see accusation after accusation about the Clintons, none of which were ever proven. The Clinton haters worked for over 8 long years to prove their accusations and were unable to do so, yet they act as though their accusations are fact. You will see a good deal more of this if Hillary decides to run. For these people, conjecture passes as fact and always will.

Answer 3

Somalia, in truth, all of Africa is an ever boiling cauldron. getting in contact more desirable than what we did, or on an same time as a lot as we did, became a mistake, there is not adequate stability to enter into their internecine wars. As we've considered in Iraq, there must be a significant help for yet another crew to take ability previously helping in a coup will produce something drawing close peace and stability. which couldn't Clinton's fault. Bin Ladin is out for his own aims, at the same time as he would have taken good thing about something provided his movements weren't the end results of something all and sundry did or did not do. not even Bush. Clinton fought his Congress on each and every action their administration tried to take hostile to Osama, hes a complicated guy to get, as Bush has failed time and time lower back himself, and that with the full rigidity of the U. S. protection force and the help for the first six years of a similar party congress, and interior the aftermath of 9/11. Clinton did get the bombers to blame for the first bombing and for the bombing of the Cole. So he wasn't basically mendacity about. That drugs production unit became supposedly generating chemical guns too. Launching a missile is utilising protection force rigidity.

Answer 4

To change a nations course takes time. Policies are changed,
people are changed and the new officers need time to discover
the breadth and range of their predecessor's work. Like any
person, Clinton has good and bad points. I'm pleased that our
image is intact especially in Britain. Unfortunately, Clinton did not
reduce the US deficit. No one can eradicate a trillion-dollar deficit
(that took 40+ years to build) in just 8 years. If Clinton had a
comprehensive strategy for fighting al-qaeda, he wasn't very
forceful in implementing it. Clinton was told of Bin Laden before
the first WTC attack but did nothing. As for the blame, our media
is liberal in their politics and often report news with a liberal spin.
A president is just a decision-maker. Regardless who the sitting
president is, his decisions are only as good as the information
he is given with which to make a decision. It is also a popularity
contest. Our President often becomes consumed with keeping
his job. Democrat or Republican, they are all under the influence
of political "winds."

Answer 5

Probably because republicans are notorious for the blame game.
want proof, just look at every time one gets into office. it is the same story every time.
they're an ex-movie star that helps the CIA do something dramatic, gaining favor of the voter, and being elected.
after they spend us into huge out of control debt, they let it ride and racking up the interest until a democrat gets elected and has to fix it.
the democrat reduces wasteful spending, and gets the problem where it is manageable, and then the republican PR specialists the next election racks the democrats for cutting the military , and raising taxes, when in reality the only thing that was trimmed was wasteful spending. the only reason the taxes went up was to pay off what the republican had already spent the previous term.

but the reason they spend so much time blaming Clinton, is because they spend so much of their time listening to spin-masters on the radio talking about how Clinton did this or did that wrong, when actually it was a republican dominated congress that didn't approve all of Clinton's proposals, cut his anti-terrorist bills to almost nothing, and left themselves getting caught with their pants down on September 11. 2001 before they actually started approving Clinton's previous proposals for GWB!

most of these half-wits like Rush fail to mention, that most thigs a president does has to be approved or appropriated by congress, and guess who has been majority in congress every since the middle east affairs have started desending into failure after failure?
Hint: they are still majority now, until January 2007.

yes clinton lied about his sexual conduct with a fat girl, but how many guys haven't?? how many guys would turn down a BJ in the oval office? not many!

12 million to prove the guy had hetrosexual relations with a woman that wanted to publicize it for financial gain.
what kind of security hole did that close?
how did that make America stronger?
how was it worth 12 milion to prove that Clinton was the biggest pimp in the world? not many people can say that they made someone famous like clinton did Monica!

Answer 6

It appears to me to be a characteristic of humans to blame things they don't like on people they don't like, even if the two are not related. The Clinton Bush thing is big international politics, but there was a Canadian situation back in the 1980's which never made much press. The Province of Ontario raised the sales tax and added it onto restaurant meals over $4. Many people blamed the increase on the Prime Minister of Canada who had absolutely nothing to do with the situation. He just happened to occasionally display streaks of arrogance which turned some people off.

Answer 7

It's just a simple blame game that politicians do all the time! Since Bush and his Republican administration have screwed up so badly in Iraq that they figure they could blame stuff and Clinton as a scapegoat since right now Democrats are the minority but thank God that will change next year and then Bush could take some blame and his fuckin self and his administration!!!

Answer 8

The first WTC attack was in Clinton’s first month as President. But he didn’t blame Bush Snr. Why is Clinton blamed for G.W. Bush?

so true.
I think there is an awful lot of Americans with learning disabilities out there.

Answer 9

911 was the best thing to happen to Bush. Bill Clinton was an articulate intelligent man. Bush is his opposite.
Oliver North gave a speech to congress in the 80's, the Reagan Years, and told them that the man he feared the most in the world was Osama Bin Laden. He's been on our map for 25 plus years.
The right wing propaganda in the USA is worthy of Goebbels himself.
I think there is a conflict of interest (Bush family- Bin Laden family ties)
Enough for a rational person to say........ This whole think stinks to high heaven.
Merry Christmas UK

Answer 10

Conservatives usually have tremendous problems with sex and sexuality. You'll notice how much time they spend worrying about what others do in private.

Clinton had a little consensual affair with an adult who worked at the White House. When they heard that it was something other than plain vanilla sex, conservatives had no idea how to deal with it, and were so embarrassed they couldn.t look a member of the opposite sex in the eye.

So to deal with their own shame, they rewrote history, denying all the tremendous acheivements Clinton acheived, and blaming every disaster made by Bush on him.

Answer 11

It's really quite simple. Bush absolutely refuses to take responsibility for anything he's done wrong and screwed up. When the right has mouth pieces like Limbaugh, Savage, Hannity, etc, speading there propaganda, it makes blaming Clinton very believable. It's called brain washing and there quite effective at it. Keep telling the lies enough times and the sheep will think its true. Just take Polaris' answer for example.