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Subscribe to RSSPreviewing his primetime speech tonight at the Democratic convention, former President Bill Clinton tells NBC's Brian Williams that he will explain why President Obama's economic approach "is right" and will "pay off" if he's re-elected.
Clinton also says in the interview that no president, in four years, could have restored the current economy "to full health" after the financial collapse of 2008.
Former President Bill Clinton, who will address the Democratic National Convention tonight, told NBC's Brian Williams why he feels President Obama needs to be reelected.
BRIAN WILLIAMS: Cover of Newsweek, "Why Barack needs Bill." Why do you think Barack needs Bill? What do you have to offer?
BILL CLINTON: I really don't know. I've always been mystified by that. I was honored when he asked me to nominate him. I hope what I can do, because we did have a good economy, because we did have the longest expansion in history, is explain why I think his approach is right and it'll pay off if we renew his contract. Explain why the economy he faced was much weaker and different than the one I faced, so that there's no way any president, no president could have restored it to full health in just four years.
The rest of Brian Williams' interview with Clinton will appear on NBC "Nightly News" beginning at 6:30 pm ET.
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there would be one good thing about a Mitt Romney presidency -- the entertainment value
lyin, tax cheatin, draft dodgin, bribe takin, ROMNEY will be in office less than a year before he is impeached. and
the tea party will probably vote for impeachment so they can get romney out and get lyin ryan in
Enjoyed President Clinton's speech. Compared to Obama, Clinton accomplished more. In saying Obama faced greater problems, I think Clinton was being magnanimous. I was longing for Clinton to be nominated by Obama than the reverse. Can't hide a failed presidency with generosity by a successful president.
83% of Americans say they are worst off today than they were 4 years ago.
at least democrats can still get it up without VIAGARA
there is not enough old rich white men at the country club to get MUTT RUMNEY elected
I was watching the DNC convention and the biggest thing I noticed while the cameras were panning the audience was the "trance like" look in everyones eyes.
This is scary.
The top 3 gave wonderful moving speeches that I would rate as a 9 or 10.
However, I am results oriented and can see through that crap and I'm sure the majority of American Citizens can as well.
How many of you have worked at a company where management blows smoke up your ass all day long but the truth is quite different?
Politics is unique because speech writers and the speech givers find a way with words to twist negaitves into positives and vice versa.
I would challenge each and every American Citizen, before the punch that card, or pull that lever, to do some research on their own and pay close attention to the results and not the speeches.
Bill Clinton spoke of "fact checkers", well just wait till these same people analyze his speech.
It all sounded good and got plenty of cheers and emotion.
But again that is what the current Obama admin speechwriters (who are very good), prey upon.
You are very weak if you fall for this. Don't feel bad you are surrounded by lemmings and it makes you feel part of something good, which the speeches are designed to do.
I beg you to fight this hypnotic exercise and search the truth and look at the results.
The truth and results of 4 years are very dismal indeed.
Do you really think that all of a sudden if you get what you hope for and re-elect Obama that all of a sudden what he has tried the last 4 years will magically work?
I feel sorry for you if that is your thought process and be careful what you wish for.
President Obama has created a divisive environment, or maybe the RNC created it, it doesn't matter who to blame, either way nothing will get done and it will get worse.
Obama has done Zero to lead and try to build a team, his "team building" skills are .5 on a 10 point scale.
There is a reason Mitch Mcconnell said we will do everything in our power to make this man a one-term President. We have all worked for bosses like that before.
All of us have worked jobs where it was miserable just to go to work everyday and it was all the cause of the leadership and management.
With the current environment in Washington, this is exactly the case, the CEO has created an adverse climate. So he needs to go.
Enough said.
They should broadcast the DNC on the OWN network......where failure lives on.....
are we better off than we were 4 years ago ???
4 years ago we were LOSING 750,000 jobs a month
NOW WE ARE ADDING 150,000 JOBS A MONTH
hey stupid, do the arithmetic
Were still losing jobs every month numbnuts and those "created jobs" are mainly low paying, low skilled jobs.
nd you can push your 50% righteous liberal views, but remember there are another 50% that don't think like you and we need to work together.
President Obama has succeeded in creating a climate of division to where zero will ever get accomplished despite all the rosy speeches.
We need a real leader in office.
republicans are bad at math and don't have a firm grip on reality. thats why their party is in trouble.
30 years of VOO-DOO ECONOMICS and 30 years of listening to sleazy
tv preachers and idiots like rush limbaugh.
Whats wrong with your math??? 30 years??? So I guess you are blaming the GOP for clinton and odumbo....
chuck roast,
Obviously you failed math.
you left out an entire side of the equation.
plus use your mush brain, if we were gaining that many jobs how does the unemployment rate stay above 8 % for 32 straight months?
nice try
heres a clue, factor in the jobs lost with the jobs gained then get back to all of us
we anxiously await your biased research from google
Thats right Bill... why did Obama lie 4 years ago...even you admit that....
THE problem with Obama is empty promises and somebody that was over his head.
obama deserves to go....he even said so himself four years ago.....
heres another newsflash about the "bush years"
we had total prosperity from 2000-2007 in every metric despite the valley of 9-11.
what happened in 2007-2008 when the economy tanked?
barney frank and the housing bubble and most notably,
the 110th congress was sworn in with your criminal leaders pelosi and harry reid were put in power along with a filibuster proof majority.
american citizens with an IQ above 10 can smell the bush blame game for what it is
Nice try buddy, that dog won't hunt. Now here's a newsflassh for you. That's like saying the captain of the Titanic was great, until he ran his ship into an iceberg.
"Despite 9-11". What you mean is Bush did not keep us safe, he failed us on 9-11. And don't tell me you wouldn't blame Obama had it happened on his watch.
Lastly, this tired, worn out excuse the Right keeps puking up, that all was well until Democrats took control of Congress. It takes YEARS for legislation to be drafted, voted on, signed by the President, goes into effect and then many months before it's effects are felt. Please list for me what legislation Democrats passed that tanked a supposedly healthy economy in a year.
FUDOG, BTW, how many jobs did Dubya create in his 8 years in office???
Intrepid.....Dont follow legislation much... What really good ones did the Dems bring up and how many jobs did it produce..(i really do not know )....Bottom line .. Dems were Majority the last two years of the Bush Presidency... You guys are complaining about the Repubs being Minority... 6 YEARS!!!! When do the Dems stand up and take responsibility?
Exactly how many people slept through Obama's acceptance speech when he was voted President-Elect? Too many people are re-imagining his promises to the American public by saying that he promised to fix the economy when, in fact, he said nothing like that.
From the start Obama came right out and told everyone that there's no way the economy was going to be fixed in one term. He also said that he would do things people would not agree with.
For the guy to come right out and say those things, only to be misquoted in many comment sections around the web tells me there were a lot of selective listeners that day who decided that Obama was going to be the magicman who would wave his wand and fix everything.
One guy to fix it all. Yeah right. Part of his speech was also telling the American public to start taking responsibility for what they do. I believe cleaning your ears and training your memory to be better should be part of that. Too many "well Regan fixed it in X years with a ball of string" is going around, yet doesn't accomplish much when faced with people who lived through those days and on the receiving end of those initiatives.
Not sure who painted your shades, but I suggest getting a new pair and stop wearing them at night. This "short-term memory re-make" is embarrassing. Re-imaging the past to suit your point only makes you look bad. Seriously.
Realistically, no this problem the country faced could not have been fixed in one term. When you have lobbyists on both sides of the coin wanting to profit or receive concessions for passing policies working for a guy who, at first, did not want a part in the hand-in-pocket game....you get bombarded with stalemate after stalemate. Absolutely no movement, thus no improvement. Nothing gets approved or passed and so America is simply left in the same hole it's been since the problem began.
Yes, I do blame Congress. More so, I blame Lobbyists. The people who have the endorsements of those from the US Chamber of Commerce. It's nothing more than a numbers game to them that results in a bigger bank account because, let's face it, that chamber is bigger than our president.
Here's to an honest effort.
you can not blame congress
I don't blame Congress. I blame the Republicans who are in Congress. They have fought against Obama at every turn. They chose politics over country. If the Democrats had done the same the Republicans would be screaming like banshees that it was treason.
It shows you have no clue how our government works. If Congress acted responsibly since 2009, we would have had at least 3 million more jobs and an unemployment rate at about 7%. The founding fathers didn't give the president full power to fix anything, it was ALWAYS about CONGRESS!
Obama shouldn't have promised what he couldn't deliver. And we are letting him do it again now!
Yes, he had both houses as well as the White House. But the Republicans made it clear that their number 1 priority wasn't to work with him but to work against him and make him the most miserable man in the world. They've done nothing but throw him curve balls at every juncture. And what really angers the Republicans is a healthcare plan has been passed and upheld by the Courts. How dare He! Who does Barack Obama think he is! He also gave the order to take out Bin Laden! Where does this guy get off! President Barack Obama never said he was going to be the second coming of whoever some people wanted. President Obama didn't promise to make all of our dreams come true. I don't agree with all of his decisions and the health care plan needs a lot of work. I have stage 4 colon cancer and I had chemo yesterday while I watched the convention. I have health insurance that pays for everything, thank God. One chemo treatment alone is $6,000.00 for I say is glorified rat poison. I'm blessed, I'm covered. But what about everybody else? I believe that health care is a right, not a privilege for a few. It's my intention to support him in his second term, and he will be re-elected, to help in any way that I can to make health care a workable reality for all.
By the way, I got all of these ideas from the Catholic Schools I attended.
Peace and God's blessing to all this day.
Obama is full of it. He had the House and the Senate and did not want to do anything for the people. 4 more years of what? more vacations. The armed forces has to escort the POTUS missions everytime he takes a vacation, well lets just say its 5 times a year that he takes vacations. The tax payers re paying for that, I wish america would wake up.
Hey Rev,
Look up the facts. Bush took many times more vacation days than Obama. Obama didn't do anything for the people? Take your own advice and wake up dude. Ever hear of the stimulus that kept us out of a depression? Hear of that did you? What about the Affordable Care Act? Here of that? Also, Obama never had a filibuster proof Senate. And the Republicans abused the filibuster like no other session of Congress ever.
You're a joke Rev. Ought to be ashamed of yourself but I'm sure you aren't.
Have you heard how many people are on Welfare or Snap? More than in any other time in history. Have you heard about how much the Affordable Care Act is going to cost? And the Taxes on things like walkers and wheelchairs to help with the costs of the ACA? Do you realize how many people are unemployed - under emplooyed or quit looking? And Obama had the House and Senate, never made a difference. Oh what about Gitmo? Afghanistan? I could go on but he shouldn't have made promises he couldn't keep.
TROLL ALERT ! this one is a Troll please ignore !
REVEREND 021
Well he worked a lot more than GW ever did, it seemed like GW was ALWAYS on vacation or cutting brush on his ranch or something so get a life,
OBAMA 2012
Someone has to be the blame for putting america in so much debt. If not Obama who?
How about trying the RICH republicans, where do you think that money went to anyway!
Throw all the Republicans Theives in JAIL where they belong !
Where do you think all the money for these Republican attack adds come from.
Steal from the poor and attack the PONTUS with the proceeds. Now that's a republican plan!
And where are those TAX RETURNS Mitt? did you steal our money in 2008? Why won't you release the RETURNS?
Send these bums home !
Obama 2012
You can not blame Bush anymore. Lets start with the head. He did not do anything with having the senate and the house. You should be able to do some good there. But did nothing. Lets get some new blood in the white house.
Are you freaking kidding me? Most Americans still blame Bush for the mess we're in. Please don't behave like that guy never happened because truth be told, he left the country in a TOTAL MESS! I'm yet to hear what John McCain would have done differently if he got elected in 2008 to fix it besides the Republican magic wand of tax cuts.
Let's see, Reagan, Bush Sr., Bush Jr., left office in the RED, Clinton left office in the Black. Translation, Reagan, Bush Sr., Bush Jr., left their the country with a debt, Clinton left country with a surplus of money.
Obama will definitely head the economy in the right direction when he is reelected.. the tea party minority are the snakes head of the GOP, and it's up to the OLD GOP to cut it off..then and only will there be any semblance of a balanced government..wallstreet and banks should never run the country..and that's who the teaparty serves..what a crying shame.
By the way, I said on my comments months if not more than a year and a half ago or more, quote, "no president could turn the economy around in four years", and I said it numerous other times in conversation and in writing. Thanks Bill for quoting me...sure I'm delusional, but I did say the same thing. my page was erased on this site or I could prove it..
But Mr Clinton... he promised... he blamed (and blamed and blamed and blamed and blamed) Bush for our troubles.....and insisted he could get it done!
Matt Lauer had "tingles" running down his leg and supporters didn't "have to worry about paying my house payment or car payment."
We had "Hope and Change" and "open doors" and transparency (we have to pass the bill to find out what is in it) while the Repubs had to go to "the back of the bus" while he and his cronies passed business stifling regulations and bills..... (all you have to do is look at job growth to realize THAT is true)...... all while wanting to tax the crap out of the rich..... who will no longer be rich after his "reign."
Sad thing is the middle class is being blasted while he is trying to help the "poor" (read lazy, mooching, not working and taking my tax dollars) while I struggle to pay the note on my house... you know the LEGAL document I signed 6 years ago..... while he tries to "save" the houses for the idiots who thought that 2% mortgage would last forever and a zero downpayment was good and a 50% debt to income ratio is OK......OH yeah... that's right sir... you insisted that EVERYONE should have access to a house...... and passed (read rammed) legislation helping the "disadvantaged" get the "American Dream" without having to struggle and WORK for it......
So........... Mr. Clinton... where are you putting your dollars? You know.. the millions you make from speaking..... the thousands from "appearances" and "consulting?" Or will you try to convince me that you are a "99 percenter?" What loopholes are YOU taking advantage of... other than having the Secret Service that protects you pay rent??????
All politicians are hypocrites.... you included.....the shrub.....Obummer..... Pelosi....ALL......
Obama can lose North Carolina and Florida and still win. Romney HAS TO win Ohio to win. I hardly see how that can happen.
Couldn't restore the economy to full health in 4 years??? He hasn't even tried! Too busy with passing Obamacare over the objections of the majority of voters and too busy blocking new oil exploration and development and too busy telling the Justice Dept. not to uphold laws that were passed by Congress and too busy promoting homosexual marriage and too busy forcing the closure of coal plants which ensures higher power bills to consumers and too busy blocking pipelines and too busy golfing and shooting hoops.
No, he hasn't restored the economy. It is worse since he took office. There are fewer people employed now than 4 years ago, the National Debt is over 5 trillion dollars higher and growing, 1 of 7 Americans is receiving food stamps. Yeah...............let's have 4 more years of THAT!
Bean-head;
You are an absolute idiot! To believe as you do is One Foolish Idea!
Don't forget that many of us got into the financial straights we're in by our own making. We didn't help ourselves when we bought houses we couldn't afford or worse used them like ATMs when we wanted money. How many credit cards does a person need? Certainly not the dozen and a half a few people I know do. I think before anybody blames the President for anything, they would do well to look to themselves, first.
TEApublicans are DESPERATE because they nominated a LOSER in Mitt (dog-on-the-car-roof) Romney. He lost to Kennedy, lost in 2008 to McCain and in November he'll lose to President Obama.
Given the TEApublican obstructionism at every turn its a welcome surprise our properly elected, Hawaii-born POTUS got ANYTHING done. OBL is DEAD and GM is ALIVE! The ACA is enacted and passed muster through the Supremes.
It is One Foolish Idea to support the GREEDY TOP 1%. The very people that caused the economy to collapse. We cannot allow the Koch Brothers and their cohorts to BUY the White House.
Vote OBAMA/BIDEN 2012 and ANY non GOP candidates down the ballot. He deserves to have a LOYAL minority party who will work WITH him and not say H*LL NO when he wants to help Americans.
I'll just wait for some GOP TROLL to LIE, DISTORT, and INSULT. They do it so well!
I have noticed that the Democrats', Obama's, and all the Clinton apologia only makes sense in reference to bizarre Republican charges.
The points Obama makes in his own defense, and that Clinton makes of Obama, such as they are, are fiendishly weak to the slightest breeze of liberal criticism.
No president could have restored the country to the best of health in four years, but President Obama and the Democrats didn't even try.
Together with Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, President Obama has wasted nearly four years in an ill conceived nonsensical and fruitless quest to find common ground with people who want to run this country into the ground, in a mad quest for "compromise" with traitors.
And, in the end, the people who were telling him before he ever took office in 2009 that this was a fool's errand, 3 years have been wasted on weak-kneed and ineffective policies predicated on the idea of getting non-gettable support, instead of running over and running against the Republicans like they deserved after their catastrophic failures of the Bush years.
A perfect set of examples is the coporatist health care act, and the jobs bill that's designed to save 2.3 million jobs OUT OF 23 MILLION. Along with jobs destroying free trade sellouts.
3 1/2 years wasted allowing Republican obstruction while whining about Republican obstruction, failure in all respects, and empowering Republicans instead of cowing them and we get a health care plan that was designed by the Heritage foundation.
But the biggest failure of all is that the lesson still has not been learned. How is the Obama administration, how are the Democrats going to fix everything in the NEXT 4 years?
By continuing this nonsense of laying down for people who will never agree unless they are driven into the ground, public opinion wise? Is that how they're going to create this magnificent future?
No one or a very few expected the President to have the economy completly back to pre-collaspe condition at the end of his first term but we DID expect him not to have made it worse and dig us so much deeper in debt. Take over health care, take over student loans, buying GM to keep it from closing, try to raise taxes on the ones who are already paying they highest percentage of their income in taxes and who just so happen are also the ones who are the employers, over regulation of business to the point they are not expanding, over regulation of the oil industry cutting off almost all drilling off shore and on federal land, Fast and Furious scandal need we say more....
So no we didn't expect the economy to be 100% healed....