Bill Clinton Weighs in on His Wife Being Secretary of State

Let me see how this works, Cheney works for Halliburton for 5 years and gets a $20 million 'retirement package' and goes immediately from there to the White House.

While Cheney is in the White House, Halliburton receives single source contracts totalling billions or dollars to aid the 'war effort' in Iraq.

Hmmm . . . all the time the economy is corroding at the roots as the rich get richer and richer. Then the big sell-off happens and all the little people lose half their retirement savings, while those who sell early make their killing.

God bless America.

Do you actually think John Lott is respected by anyone beyond freepers?

"During the 2000 election, with Bill Clinton as president, the economy was viewed through rose-colored glasses. "According to polls, voters didn’t realize that the country was in a recession. Although the economy started shrinking in July 2000, most Americans through the entire year thought that the economy was fine.

But over the last half-year, the media and politicians have said we were in a recession even while the economy was still growing."

ROFLMAO.

So according to the right wing,

Economic growth slowing under Clinton (towards the end of his 2nd terms as the Bush campaign constantly spoke of a coming recession) but never going negative even for a quarter, why that was a recession!

Record joblessness, debt and puny growth for years followed by the worst economic meltdown possibly in history? Why that is the Bush economic miracle!

Yes dave, you and the Republicans are right, "the fundamentals of the economy are strong" . .. hahaha . .. dream on spin machine. It was a robbery by Bush, Cheney and their pals.

Ryan C, people like you are the reason liberal-media bias has a choke hold on this country.......

During the 2000 election, with Bill Clinton as president, the economy was viewed through rose-colored glasses. According to polls, voters didn’t realize that the country was in a recession. Although the economy started shrinking in July 2000, most Americans through the entire year thought that the economy was fine.

But over the last half-year, the media and politicians have said we were in a recession even while the economy was still growing.

Gas prices are going up. The economy is slowing. Talk of recession is seemingly everywhere. While the majority of people rate their personal finances positively, consumer confidence in the economy has plunged to a 16-year low, well below what it was during the last year of the Clinton administration when we were in a recession.

A Nexis search on news stories during the three-month period from July 2000 through September 2000 using the keywords “economy recession US” produces 1,388. By contrast, the same search over just the last month finds 3,166. Or, even more telling, take the three months from July through September last year, when the GDP was growing at a phenomenal 4.9 percent. The same type of Google search shows 2,475 news stories.

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A little perspective on the economy would be helpful. The average unemployment rate during President Clinton was 5.2 percent. The average under President George W. Bush is just slightly below 5.2. The current unemployment rate is4.8 percent, almost half a percentage point lower than these averages.

The average inflation rate under Clinton was 2.6 percent, under Bush it is 2.7 percent. Indeed, one has to go back to the Kennedy administration to find a lower average rate. True the inflation rate over the last year has gone up to 4 percent, but that is still lower than the average inflation rate under all the presidents from Nixon through Bush’s father.

Gas prices are indeed up 33 percent over the last year, but to get an average of 4 percent means that lots of other prices must have stayed the same or gone down. On other fronts, seasonally adjusted civilian employment is 650,000 people greater than it was a year ago. Personal income grew at a strong half of one percent in just February.

Despite all that, this last week, Barack Obama proclaimed “As most experts know, our economy is in a recession.” Hillary Clinton made similar staements last fall. Yet, as any economist knows, a recession is two consecutive quarters of negative growth, and we haven’t even had one single quarter of negative growth reported. The economy slowed down significantly during the end of last year, but that was after a sizzling annual GDP growth rate of 4.9 percent in the third quarter.

Housing has obviously been a big drag on the economy, but many other sectors of the economy, such as exports, have been doing well, some extremely well. For example, aerospace exports increased by over 13 percent last year.

The media’s focus on the negative side of everything surely helps explain people’s pessimism. In a recent interview Fox’s Neil Cavuto claimed this bias “is all part of the media’s plan to get a Democrat in the White House.”

Indeed, research has indicated that media bias is real. Kevin Hassett and I looked at 12,620 newspaper and wire service headlines from 1985 through 2004 for stories on the release of official government releasing numbers on the unemployment rate, number of people employed, gross domestic product (GDP), retail sales, and durable goods.

Even after accounting for how well the economy was doing (e.g., what the unemployment rate was and whether it was going up or down), there was still a big difference in how positive or negative the headlines were. Democratic presidents got about 15 percent more positive headlines than Republicans for the same economic news.

Yet, the hysteria created by this coverage can have another cost. It creates pressure for government to “do something,” even if that rush to do something actually ends up hurting the economy. For example, Obama's promises last week “to amend our bankruptcy laws so families aren't forced to stick to the terms of a home loan” will only further drive down the value of mortgage-backed securities, making any unstable financial institutions that hold them even more likely to fail. In the long term, who is going to want to loan money when the contract can be rewritten at a later date?

The news media have generated a lot of fear. Ben Stein has a point when he says “The actual economic conditions are not that bad. I think if we have a recession, if we have a serious recession, a great deal will lie at the media’s feet.” Hopefully a little perspective will enter the picture before even more harm is done.

John Lott is the author of Freedomnomics and a senior research scientist at the University of Maryland.

"Low approval ratings have become routine for Bush. He has not had an approval rating above 40% for over two years, and only a handful of ratings at or above 50% his entire second term in office. The low ratings throughout much of his second term have arguably been because of the unpopular war in Iraq. But as conditions for the United States in Iraq have improved in the past year, the economy has gotten much worse and has served as an anchor on Bush's ratings.

Bush has registered 28% approval ratings several times this year, in the spring and summer months as gas prices rose. His high rating for the year is only 34%.

The all-time low rating for any president is 22%, for Harry Truman in February 1952. Bush now joins Truman and Richard Nixon as the only presidents who have had approval ratings of 27% or lower in Gallup Polls."

"his vindication will come with the arrest of barney frank, chris dodd, chuck schumer, all the leaders of ACORN and any other democrats who tried to play robin hood with the housing market."

ROFLMAO.

This is the problem with swallowing right wing propaganda whole.

You simply have no idea what you are talking about.

I find it ironic that you would use education to make a point. Where McCain graduated at the bottom of his class and Bush was a C student, who’s only saving grace from academic probation, was that he was a Bush. Obama graduated at the top of his class! Although your fears (which I hope is all they are) may be legitimate to you, they are slanted IMO. Like many have said today and a majority of the American public, Obama is change. War is not the answer. Tell me this… how do you go to war with an idea? You can’t, you can go over there with all the big guns and intimidation you want and it will never change the ideology of the people. Just like all the Democrats and “liberals” come on here and prove you wrong all day but we will not change the way you think and vice versa. I’m sorry but just us being over there does not make me feel safe. Why, because the threat isn’t a people… it’s an idea. And that idea can infect anyone. The fact that Obama wants to sit and talk with our enemies is not a bad thing but should be looked at as a chance for peace. Only a war monger would want oppose such a meeting. So please Dave… really what change have you contributed to… how have you changed your community. How many letters have you written to your congress person or senator? It’s so easy to Monday morning quarterback when you’ve never been a quarterback. You fail to remember, that there were many that said Bush would run this country into the ground. Hmmm… the irony!

As an American born and bread in the USA, I find looking to this man who was voted hands down to be the "One" to make change..Former President Clinton is astounding...There is no man alive who has not had some form of fall...whether it be sexual, racial or stupidity...Why is that! Men will always rise to the occassion because of powers known only under God..and with that, the news will stand for or against...Healing one's wounds is hard to do...but when people pull together to give reverance to mercy and Hop..this is something "all" should do...Its about Honor...and fidelity of what is true! Hope! The key ingrediant to helping America work towards improvement! It is not always fashioned in those who have faced the tyranny of peace...there has never been Peace! Contempt for those who are different and bring something to the table have always been washed out by money and greed...Why! I am thankful for "a new relief that comes" time is what brought us to this revelation, and it will take time to change the derelictions! Clinton did not add to the wrongs, the wrongs were already in place because Men reach a power status and are inclined to forget the right side of purpose and bearing what is for the good of all...None have been without self...none have been for giving all the time...But I would rather be on the side of the giver not the taker! OBAMA...A New Face and New Generation! Apachecheynne

ryan c
-his vindication will come with the arrest of barney frank, chris dodd, chuck schumer, all the leaders of ACORN and any other democrats who tried to play robin hood with the housing market. They tried to inject socialism into capitalism and it failed miserably.
If you can't afford a house, here's a groundbreaking idea, RENT! But no, the dems want everything to be fair just like in stalin's, mao's, pol pot's fair worlds of communism.

"He did what he thought was right to keep this country safe and looking back at the past 8 years without a terrorist attack on the homeland-"

9/11 happened 7 years ago.

And if you think a President who presided when we had our worst terrorist and the perhaps the largest economic meltdown in history will be vindicated by history, I have a bridge to nowhere to s4ell you.

To Dave
Yes, call me crazy but I don't think Bush is a moron (he got higher grades then Kerry at Yale and he didn't flunk out of law school like Gore) and I don't think he is evil. History will vindicate him. He did what he thought was right to keep this country safe and looking back at the past 8 years without a terrorist attack on the homeland- I think he did an execellent job!

Let me get this right... and you beleive McCain and Bush were sincere?!!!! WOW... like I said... your just searching for attention! Your just mad that the children got more of it than you. To Dave signing out!

I can live with that!

To Dave
I don't think obama is evil, i think he is fake.

Richard Nixon in 1968 was elected by an overwhelming majority on a 2 prong campaign promise, his pledge for law and order and his secret plan to end the Vietnam war.

Like I said, BASIC history.

"Now with the media in his pocket he could very easily silence talk radio just like Chavez did"

Yes what would Bund leader Hannity do without radio?

How would Rush be able to afford his Oxycontin?

"but they get endoctrinated from an early age"

The word in indoctrinated.

Jesus Camp is a documentary about the "Kids On Fire School of Ministry," a charismatic Christian summer camp located just outside Devils Lake, North Dakota and run by Becky Fischer and her ministry, Kids in Ministry International. The film focuses on three children who attended the camp in the summer of 2005—Levi, Rachael, and Tory (Victoria). The film cuts between footage of the camp and a children's prayer conference held just prior to the camp at Christ Triumphant Church, a large charismatic church in Lee's Summit, Missouri, a suburb of Kansas City.

All three children are very devout Christians. Levi, who has ambitions of being a pastor, has already preached several sermons at his father's church, Rock of Ages Church in St. Robert, Missouri. He is homeschooled (as are many of the campers), and learns physical science from a book that reconciles creationism with scientific principles. He is also taught that global warming is a hoax and that the Earth's temperature has a history of natural fluctuation not caused by humankind (e.g., the Ice Age was not due to any industry or pollution by mankind). Levi preaches a sermon at the camp in which he declares that his generation is key to Jesus's return. Rachael, who also attends Levi's church (her father is assistant pastor), is seen praying over a bowling ball during a game early in the film, and frequently passes Christian tracts (including some by Jack Chick) to people she meets. She does not think highly of non-charismatic churches (or "dead churches," as she calls them), feeling they aren't "churches that God likes to go to". Tory is a member of the children's praise dance team at Christ Triumphant Church. She frequently dances to Christian heavy metal music, and feels uncomfortable about "dancing for the flesh". She also does not think highly of Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan.

At the camp, Fischer stresses the need for children to purify themselves in order to be part of the "army of God". She strongly believes that children need to be in the forefront of turning America toward conservative Christian values. She also feels that Christians need to focus on training kids since "the enemy" are focused on training theirs.

All too often, people misundestand what Bill Clinton really cares about. He was prepared to do all of this if she became President and he will do it now. He will not stand in the way if his wife wants this job.

"Bottom line Hillary loves this country and BO does not."

Bottom line they both love their country.

Also bottom line, dave needs to learn basic history.