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Memo to Obama FansClinton's presidency was not a failure.

By David Greenberg
Posted Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2008, at 3:34 PM ET

(Continued from page 1)

Clinton detractors also like to grouse about "triangulation." This was pollster Dick Morris' cynical term for the election-year opportunism behind Clinton's moderate-seeming but mostly inconsequential ideas in 1996, like the V-chip (to screen out television violence) and school uniforms. On economics, however, Clinton's construction of policies that defied traditional left-right categories was substantive. The Earned Income Tax Credit, which originated in a pilot form in the 1970s, attracted conservative support in the 1980s as an alternative to transfer payments as a way to help the working poor; Clinton made it a signature policy, expanding it in his 1993 bill to an additional 15 million families—a result that added up to the most significant anti-poverty measure since the Great Society. The virtuous cycle engendered by Clinton's balanced budgets—which by paying down the debt won the confidence of bond traders and helped bring down interest rates—eventually won over many who had doubted the strategy.

Both Clintons bear some blame for the Democrats' loss of the Congress in 1994, to the extent that it stemmed from the failure of their health care plan (though anyone who thinks the plan's demise was just a matter of too much secrecy and too much big government should read Paul Starr's historically accurate American Prospect piece from last fall). But if that loss impeded the passage of big-ticket legislation, it also led to bipartisan laws like welfare reform, which remains an apostasy to many on the left but did probably help to reduce poverty and promote employment. Equally significant for historians, the shift of the administration's focus from big legislation to the filigree of the budgetary process led Clinton to achieve much under the radar. The Children's Health Insurance Program—crafted by Ted Kennedy and Orrin Hatch, with Hillary Clinton as a central player—was passed in Clinton's 1997 budget bill, not as a stand-alone item. Other budgets increased funding for the worker retraining that Clinton said was necessary to adapt to the dislocations of globalization.

By the end of the Clinton presidency, the numbers were uniformly impressive. Besides the record-high surpluses and the record-low poverty rates, the economy could boast the longest economic expansion in history; the lowest unemployment since the early 1970s; and the lowest poverty rates for single mothers, black Americans, and the aged. Real wages, after declining over the course of the Reagan and Bush years, rose under Clinton. To be sure, the gap between the very rich and everyone else widened—as it has continued to do since—but gains for the rich, for once, didn't leave behind the poor and lower middle class.

This isn't to say that Clinton never favored Wall Street interests. The repeal of the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act in 1999 allowed financial institutions to consolidate, which many on the left, such as economics journalist Robert Kuttner, believe contributed to the mortgage crisis. NAFTA and GATT remain controversial, though most experts agree that free-trade agreements are necessary for maintaining America's economic strength. But the wisdom of Clintonism was to see past the old frameworks that pitted advocates of growth against proponents of fairness and to find ways, using the high-tech economy, to reach both goals together.

It's the economic achievements of the Clinton years that people recalled when they scratched their heads at Obama's claim that during the last 10 to 15 years—i.e., the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush presidencies—Republicans had the "new ideas." On the contrary, while it's possible to argue that the GOP claimed the mantle of newness in the 1980s, when Democrats were still groping for their postindustrial vision, it was precisely in 1992—with the emergence of Clinton's fusion of populism and neoliberalism—that Democrats did find a program for the globalization age. And it worked.

This is one reason for the economic split between Democratic voters this winter. While upscale whites and blacks of all income groups are preferring Obama, downscale white and Hispanic voters in the Democratic Party—and a considerable number of struggling African-Americans, too—regard a Hillary Clinton presidency with hope and optimism. For them, the Bush administration's neglect hurts in the pocketbook. A recent quote from a high-profile Democrat put it well: "I think there's no doubt that there were good things that happened during those eight years of the Clinton administration. I think that's undeniable. … And, particularly, when looked at through the lens of the last eight years with George Bush, they look even better." The speaker? Barack Obama.

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David Greenberg, a professor of history and media studies at Rutgers, has two new books out: Presidential Doodles and Calvin Coolidge.
Photograph of Bill Clinton by Paul J. Richards/AFP.
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