The State of the Union

by Christian Grantham - 7:59 pm January 28, 2008

President Bill Clinton’s last State of the Union address to Congress on January 27, 2000 was the best report card to the American people in U.S. history. It was a record of historic successes that marked a decade of unprecedented economic prosperity under the first two-term Democratic president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. They won campaigns. They drove the national agenda through fierce opposition, and they got results.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, honored guests, my fellow Americans: We are fortunate to be alive at this moment in history. Never before has our Nation enjoyed, at once, so much prosperity and social progress with so little internal crisis and so few external threats. Never before have we had such a blessed opportunity and, therefore, such a profound obligation to build the more perfect Union of our Founders’ dreams.

We begin the new century with over 20 million new jobs; the fastest economic growth in more than 30 years; the lowest unemployment rates in 30 years; the lowest poverty rates in 20 years; the lowest African- American and Hispanic unemployment rates on record; the first back-to- back surpluses in 42 years; and next month, America will achieve the longest period of economic growth in our entire history. We have built a new economy.

And our economic revolution has been matched by a revival of the American spirit: crime down by 20 percent, to its lowest level in 25 years; teen births down 7 years in a row; adoptions up by 30 percent; welfare rolls cut in half to their lowest levels in 30 years. My fellow Americans, the state of our Union is the strongest it has ever been.

Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

| related: 2008 Presidential

7 Comments » | RSS for these comments TrackBack URL

1. Comment by Rob — January 28, 2008 @ 10:16 pm

   And if Bill Clinton said so, it must be true.

   
   
   

2. Comment by Christian — January 29, 2008 @ 6:11 am

   You aren’t inferring the record above is a fairy tale, are you?

   
   
   

3. Comment by Rob — January 29, 2008 @ 11:28 am

   I’m suggesting the record as stated by Clinton is highly selective and omits or misrepresents important information about the state of the union.

   Clinton touted the “new economy” but failed to note that the new economy was built on sand, that tech stocks were in a bubble that would soon burst and the country would head into a recession.

   Clinton said the country faced “few external threats.” If only that had been true. In fact, under his ineptness and failure to give the matter priority, al Qaeda was gaining strength and planning the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. I’d call that an external threat.

   There was also the threat of Iraq; Saddam Hussein himself acknowledged (according to last week’s “60 Minutes”)that Clinton’s ineffectual 4-day bombing campaign in 1998 convinced him that the U.S. would never carry through on announced intention to remove him from office. Saddam also said he intended to rebuild his WMD’s. Why did the Iraq War happen in 2003? Because Bill Clinton emboldened the Iraqis in 1998.

   In touting how few external threats there were, Bill Clinton also neglected to acknowledge that North Korea was developing nuclear weapons, in defiance of the simple-minded agreement negotiated for the Clinton Adminstration by none other than the addled Jimmy Carter.

   So the state of the union as Bill Clinton stood before Congress was perilous, but all we heard from him was his usual narcissistic self-congratulation. By all means let’s sign up for eight more years of this.

   
   
   

4. Comment by Rob — January 29, 2008 @ 2:52 pm

   BTW, we should give some thought to why it is that Christian is so committed to the Clintons. Christian, when you were working for the Administration, did you ever find yourself alone at the office late at night? In the morning, did you ever notice any bite marks on your neck? And did you ever see this?

   
   
   

5. Comment by Christian — January 29, 2008 @ 8:49 pm

   Rob, when you were at school with Hillary, did you ever think she would evoke so much of your hate in 2008?

   
   
   

6. Comment by Rob — January 29, 2008 @ 10:01 pm

   I got along fine with Hillary, but truth to tell, no one thought of her as being particularly consequential. And when she moved to Arkansas and her husband was elected Governor, it provoked gales of laughter–our own Hillary Rodham had become First Lady of a bunch of toothless pig farmers. Gollee! Little did any of us suspect she would wipe the pigshit off her shoes and walk her way to Glory.

   
   
   

7. Comment by Christian — January 29, 2008 @ 10:37 pm

   And she ain’t no ways tired, either, Rob.

   
   
   

Leave a comment