Why cant the Democrat's just admit that Clinton was the worst president in the U.S. history?

Question

I mean come on he had 8 affairs in the 8 years he was President

He paid terrorists money to keep us from getting bombed ( and because Bush didn't pay they bombed us)

I mean COME ON... teen pregnancy went up by like 20-30% or something...

Answer 1

Because he wasn't.

I could care less about my president's sex life. As long as he takes care of the national debt, works hard to ensure positive relations with the rest of the world, works to improve education and helps protect the environment.

Clinton did all of that and more.

Answer 2

I'm not a Democrat, but I am liberal, and I obviously admit it!

8 affairs, 1 marriage. Still a better track record than many other presidents past (not sure how many affairs Kennedy had, and he was a great President!). Just think of the top 3 Dem candidates (Clinton, Obama & Edwards): 3 candidates, 3 marriages; vs. MCain, Giuliani and Gingrich: 7 or 8 marriages between them? I lost count... And who knows how many affairs they had compared to the ones they actually got caught at.

Think Abramoff, Iran Contra (profiting from sales to terrorists to fund militias to fight other terrorists?), Watergate, Vietnam, etc. Those don't qualify as horrible events in an administration?

Teen pregnancy may have gone up in Clinton, and down in Bush 2, but abortion rates have also skyrocketed under Bush. An interesting correlation...That is what "abstinance only" education does. Coincidentally, you do have to take pop culture factors such as entertainment and internet into account when considering trends.

Answer 3

Where are you getting your information? A cracker jack box? Clinton's affairs didn't make him a bad president, they made him a bad husband- and I think your numbers are a little exaggerated. Had he paid terrorists to keep us from getting bombed that information would not have come out for the first time (that I've ever heard) on Y/A! And even if he did, it seems to me that not getting bombed is a good thing. Clinton did not impregnate 20-30% of teens- I don't think you can hold anyone accountable for that except the teens themselves.
What Clinton did do was balance the budget, keep the peace, listen to his constituents, work with the UN, and correctly pronounce the word nuclear, if I recall correctly. Close your mouth, open a book, and do some research.

Answer 4

I'm a Republican, and I don't think he was the worst President. Yes, it's true that he could have been much more proactive against terrorism. And, yes, he as the 2nd President to be impeached. But, after all, he did approve 9 out of 10 of the planks on Gingrich's Contract with America, even though other Dems argued against it. Historians will probably place him somewhere in the middle of the pack, not very far from Bush 1.

Answer 5

Because he wasn't the worst (and neither is Bush for that matter). Politics being what they are, though, presidents are always going to be damned and crucified by people who hold opposing political views. Very few people today would claim that FDR or Lincoln were the worst president we've ever had - on the contrary, in both popular opinion polls and surveys of historians they always come out as two of the greatest ever - yet when they were in office they were on the receiving end of just as much venom and vitriol from their opponents that Bush and Clinton take from their opponents today. It's a classic case of, "the more things change...." In fact, no less of a man than Thomas Jefferson (another excellent president who was also excoriated by his political enemies) remarked at the end of his second term that, "Never did a prisoner, released from his chains, feel such relief as I shall on shaking off the shackles of power."

Anyway, if you want examples of really, truly inept and ineffective presidents, take a look at the careers of Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan (totally unable/unwilling to do *anything* in the face of a mounting crisis), Warren Harding and Ulysses Grant (two of the most corrupt and crony-laden regimes in US history), or John Tyler and Andrew Johnson (who couldn't even maintain the support of their own parties, never mind the country as a whole). I would certainly rate all six of them as worse presidents than Bush or Clinton.

Answer 6

Ha! Thanks for making me laugh. Teen pregnancy went down during the Clinton presidency. The teen birth rate had fallen eight years in a row, dropping 20 percent from 1991 to 1999 to the lowest rate in the 60 years data on teen births have been recorded. His teen pregnancy rate is the lowest on record.[Centers for Disease Control, National Center for Health Statistics, Births: Preliminary Data for 1999; FY 2001 Budget, p. 66]

I hope you kidding - do you even research this, or do you just say it because you heard some old fat white guy say it? I don't even understand what the affairs have to do with anything. Are you aware that many President's have had affairs? At least talk about the lying rather than, "He had affairs! He's a bad man!" My God, read a book! I'm not even a huge fan, but your statement is just completely ridiculous. It's one thing to not agree with him, there's there's absolutely not way a moderately intelligent person can say that he's the worst in U.S. history....

I'll give you one thing, it takes balls to say that given the record of our current President. Well, balls or no brains...

Answer 7

You make some great points, but forget about the marital transgressions. They have nothing to do with his performance as President. In fact, perhaps Clinton would have been better as President if he weren't hounded and harrassed so much. Can you imagine if JFK, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, had been confronted about his infidelities with Marilyn Monroe? He probably would have been so rattled and distraught that the Cuban incident might have ended very differently...... very badly. Think about it.

You can't blame the President for teen pregnancy. There are a lot of sources a lot closer to home who are much more immediately responsible.

I don't mean to sound like I'm defending Clinton, but in general we exaggerate the power a President has.

Jimmy Carter was much, much, much worse!

Answer 8

It's really hard to make that statement and make it stick. Clinton was a screw up, beyond any doubt. But so was Carter and so was Kennedy, to name a few. Carter left us with miles long gas lines and double digit inflation (That was caused by the basic flaw in the liberal mentality), Kennedy was grandstanding and nearly started a nuclear war (read the book "The Cuban Missile Crises") and escalated our presence in Vietnam, which got thousands of kids killed.

The problem you are going to run into is that the liberals have a feel good mentality that completely precludes logic or long range thought. You'll never get them to understand that problems, much less the solutions unless it gives them warm fuzzies right now.

Answer 9

Being a bad person and a bad President should not be intertwined..but unfortunately they are. He created great policy, got the US economy rolling, eliminated the US deficit... BUT made poor personal choices...I still think he was a good President, even though I am a Republican.

As for the terrorists, I've never read anywhere that he paid them to leave us alone...I would argue that statement.

And...I'd blame parents for not teaching their children about sex, not the President of the United States.

Answer 10

He wasn't the worst. I still say McKinley was the worst. His policies (obsession with isolationist tariffs and the gold standard) directly resulted in the Great Depression; also it was a time of brutal expansionism and propagandism. McKinley was a eugenist, an extremist and a fundamentalist Christian nutjob (in the respect that he really and truly believed he had one-to-one conversations with God; the man was far from what anybody with an ounce of humanity would consider a Christian). He was repugnant and actually insane. It's little wonder the as*hole was assassinated.

PS: Kudos to Joby27.

Answer 11

No I really do think that will be W's place in history. His administration's antics make Watergate look like a tea party. And they tried to impeach Clinton for LYING, heck they've got more lies on Bush and his adminsitration then anyone . I don't think the Dems can get it done in time before the next election but it would sure be nice if they did.