DNC threatens to out Black & White TV the RNC with tonight’s Der Schliekmeister rerun

Even before my Summer of 2001 conservative epiphany after 18 years a Democratic Party official, I used to chastise fellow Democrats for emphasizing President Bill Clinton’s glib wit on TV as the main reason for their support. The presidency is not a TV show, I would urge. No, politicians should be judged like we judge barbers. We prefer the actual work be accompanied by pleasing patter, but the quality of the haircut or laws are what matters.

But even on the matter of patter, President Bill Clinton managed to bring dark clouds within his silver linings  for example, by tryong to characterize his surrender on “ending welfare as we know it” in liberal class envy terms. His silver linings, of course, were concessions on taxes and spending to the first Republican Congress in 40 years that ensured the extension of the Reagan Recovery, but I digress.

The pressing issue is the former president’s impending address at the Democratic National Convention, tonight in Charlotte. But why should we care what the Secretary of State’s husband says? The Obama Campaign TV ad he currently stars in insists that America should stick with” Obama’s Plan” as opposed to that of the Romney-Ryan ticket. But who certified Bill the expert on likely successful economic plans? Isn’t it more accurate to deem Clinton more an expert on conceding and managing liberal defeat via Midnight Basketball? But then he had no Harry Reid.

We all miss the “Clinton Years”. Eras in America get identified with who occupies the Oval Office. But if ever their was an era that would more accurately named after a Speaker of the House (or Microsoft CEO), it is the 1990s. Post-1994 Election-Democrat Bill “the era of Big Goverment is over” Clinton was but a reactionary bit player in the On and Off Broadway hit prosperity of the last decade of the 20th Century. Yet, the media and academia give Bill the credit, much as they masked the Republican Prosperity of the 1950s as the “McCarthy Era” and the 1920s and 1980s as tainted by greed. Never mind that the Modern Democratic Party is singularly defined by the even more deadly sin of envy.

But let’s separate the actual job done by Bill Clinton during his terms in office from the Bill Clinton of the last 12 years, shall we? No, not completely, because isn’t it significant that what he tried to do before Newt Gingrich replaced Tom Foley as Speaker? Yes, because, as history records, the Man from Hope’s major initiatives after his 1993 Inauguration were a tax increase and Hillarycare; which, also immediately preceded the return of the Party of Lincoln to power in the People’s House, after a 40-year hiatus, and to the U.S. Senate after a nine-year absence . Coincidence? As if!

The Reaganesque policies of the Gingrich Republican congressional majorities, that Dick Morris triangulated Bill into signing, immediately preceded the boom years of the Late 1990s that are the basis for fond memories of most Americans. Naming the prosperous years of 1995-2000 for Bill Clinton would be akin to re-naming the “Ruthian” homers after The Babe’s bat boy.

Bill Clinton is simply the best Democratic “winker”, and this is not a compliment. They play “conservatives” on TV for the great unwashed, i.e. Food Stamp nation. Until they didn’t. Don’t you actually respect President Obama more (or at least disrespect him less) for his increasing honesty, ala “You didn’t build that?” I do. I’m also thinking that Bill doesn’t tout his Reno Justice Department’s requirement that banks make sub-prime loans nor his last minute lobbying effort for Obamacare as part of his bona fides as a Presidential Plan Evaluator” tonight, do you? Didn’t think so.

The bottom line: This is not the late 90s. Smooth talk won’t assuage the sting of unemployment, food inflation, nor $3-4/gallon gas. Obama’s “plan” is more of the same.

The other bottom line, and you can look it up: When Bill is brought in at the last moment to campaign for someone, they lose.

And by the way, where is algore and h/t to Andrew Ferguson for the creepy moniker.

Mike DeVine