What I thought was good about Bill Clinton's speech is that he stuck to the issues. There was none of the divisive "You didn't build that" nonsense that has become the Obama and Elizabeth Warren platform. There were no fear mongering false accusations that the Republicans are trying to take away access to contraception or the right of women to choose. Instead, he gave an argument to all of the issues that the average person actually worries about.
Of course, I think some of Clinton's arguments were pretty ridiculous. For example, he complimented Obama's energy policies and cited some domestic gas production statistics. The gas (and associated jobs) boom in North Dakota and elsewhere is happening despite Obama's policies, not due to them. Obama has mostly shut down U.S. offshore drilling while offering assistance to Brazil and others to develop their offshore resources. Obama is the only obstacle remaining in the way of the Keystone Pipeline. Obama once said that his policies would put coal-powered plants out of business. Link How about supporting cleaner coal technology instead? Obama's idea of domestic energy production is to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve - and solar cells.
Despite what Clinton says, I still think Obama's executive order ending the work requirement for welfare recipients is a scam to reduce the unemployment numbers ahead of the election. See my welfare fraud post. Some new numbers come out tomorrow - we'll see if there is a drop in unemployment that is larger than can be explained with new jobs. It's true that the executive order requires states who want the work requirement waiver to basically do a better job getting people employed - but it'll take months for the government to evaluate any state's alternative program. So in the short term, it is a drop in the work requirement to get people off the unemployment rolls.
But I think Clinton had a point on some of the economic issues and the debt. His sound bite about the GOP argument was, "We left [Obama] a total mess. We feel like he didn't clean it up fast enough. So fire him, and put us back in." It is true that a big part of the debt consists of Bush tax cuts and Bush war costs (but you could make the same argument about a lot of expensive entitlements or discretionary programs, too). Bush doubled the debt from about $4.5T to about $9T. I get that. But the problem is that Obama has increased the debt even more in half the time and has no intentions of turning the budget deficit around. Our debt is now higher than GDP, but that does not phase Obama as he saddles our economy with amnesty and more entitlements, i.e. Obamacare, without reforming any of the existing ones.
I'm voting for the Republicans this year with the hope that the Tea Party brings enough fiscal common sense and political pressure to the GOP to break the status quo. The Tea Party has changed the GOP in the short time since Bush was in office. The Tea Party is why Paul Ryan is the VP nominee. The Democrats are not going to do our country any favors when it comes to the debt and deficits. Their shift has only been towards the social extremes. If the Democrats pull this election off, I'll be in agreement with them on one thing: it'll be Bush's fault.
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