Obama was wrong on this: Even the longest economic expansion in American history under Bill Clinton could not ensure that everyone would prosper. That is just the way it is, but the country as a whole did do very well, having replaced a sea of red ink left by the Reagan/Bush-Bush/Qayle years with a budget surplus that none other than the current Village Idiot quickly squandered in senseless tax cuts for the very rich, followed by an equally stupid war of choice. For Obama to lump that in the same category as  Bill's achievements was definitely beyond the pale. He was wrong and must be flagellated for it!

Ryan Lizza's reporting has gone into a tailspin since he left TNR and picked up Tiger Bea-- I mean the Obama beat. When he was skewering Allen, deflating Bill Richardson's buffoonery, Lizaa was sharp, fresh, fun to read. Ever since he joined the New Yorker, his stuff has become preachy, clueless and deadly boring. His piece on Mexican immigration was a joke. His stuff on Obama is tedious and unoriginal. A pity.

No offense, Chotiner, but I don't remember you labeling Gore et al. racists for alleging W's cocaine proclivities.  You're reaching.  

Obama is right on this. The Clinton policies of deregulated trade through NAFTA and GATT were the final blow to American manufacturing jobs. Clinton cannot now go through Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana and claim to be champion of working people after supporting policies that effectively moved them from workers with jobs and benefits and a living wage to low-wage part-time service workers without health insurance or benefits. That is no friend to working people. It would be foolish to vote for more of the same.

Obama's stretching here. NAFTA didn't take away any US manufacturing jobs: Asian competition did that. Asian competition has even taken away lots of Mexican manufacturing jobs.

Obama needs to souljah Wright, pronto. Wright is taunting him, doing a Maureen Dowd and a half on him.  He has to kneecap this little sh*t, but do it with an uplifting speech that pits Wright vs America, with Obama on the side of America. Obama's rhetorical brilliance will serve him well here. This will be a lot easier than anyone thinks.

Assuming Obama has th guts and savvy to start spending some of his political capital with afr-amers. He doesn't need 90% of that vote. He can afford to lose 10, 20, even 30 points of it-- those folks aren't going over to HRC or McCain, and they don't swing any major states.

I really wonder how many of you all actually experienced Billary's reign.  There was even a major media flap about an unelected second lady having an office and real power in the White House, so I've got to include both of them as being in charge.  They brought us a failed health care plan, the end of welfare (in the Arkansas tradition), NAFTA, and other 'open the borders' trade actions.  Yes, we were loosing heavy industry and manufacturing jobs before Billary, but the rate increased during that time. (It's become an avalanche under George W.)  Our economic 'growth' during these eight years was not due to anything the Clinton's did.  I believe it was in spite of them.  The areas that prospered offset the areas that Barak was talking about, and these areas are still hurting.  Our domestic auto industry is beginning another round of right-sizing (and that includes foreign brands assembled here), and we'll have more bitter people yet.  Neither party has done anything for the people from this part of our economy in over twenty years, but pat them on the back.  It's about time someone at least acknowledges the situation they're in.

WaltB -- if you think that the historic 1993 budget had nothing to do with the economic growth of the 1990's, you're wrong. The Obama wing of the party did not put deficit reduction ahead of social spending -- if anything, you can blame the Clintons for bait-and-switch.  I dare Obama to run against welfare reform, which if it had happened in, say, 2002  would have been far different/more inequitable.   And the reason the domestic auto industry has failed is because of mismanagement -- I wish that the government had stopped them tying their fate to the SUV/large car market, lagging in quality, etc.

Obama's statement was absolutely accurate, and not in the slightest bit coy.  He did not disparage the Clinton administration at all.  He did not claim that the nation as a whole did not enjoy economic growth during the Clinton administration.  He stated, absolutely correctly, that the economic changes of the past 25 years and more have brought decline and little relief to the industrial heartland of the country.

It is also objectively ridiculous, not that it matters, for Hillary to portray either herself or Bill Clinton as the champions of this group of workers.  Bill may have felt their pain, but he never did anything to solve their particular economic problems either.  In this country, we have never to date had any economic policy that has effectively addressed the issue of re-deployment of workers, a few useless and half-hearted training programs, and that's it.

lymon, you are overestimation just how much impact Clinton had, at most Clinton wisely went after deficit reduction which helped Greenspan, who in turn managed the fed quite well, but it was also a host of other things that had nothing to do with him. The economy was out of recession when he came to office, the peace dividend helped facilitate deficit reduction.etc.

We can go on this forever what is indisputable is we can not go back to the early 90's. Hillary would be inheriting a country going into a recession, a failing war in Iraq and an uncertain one in Afghanistan, far more debt now than 16 years ago, and a Republican party that will simply do everything they can to stop her, America is heading into a true shitstorm and their is very little we can do about it, at most the President can exude confidence (like Reagan) but can Hillary? She is a deeply insecure woman whose pride is all wrapped in her intellect. Her administration will be a disaster. I am not saying it will be her fault, as I said I see precious little anyone can do now except ride out the storm. When she doesn't get Bill's results all faith in her will drop away.

In the midst of George W. Bush's failed presidency, many have longed for the days of peace and prosperity, and yes, even the sexy distractions, that we enjoyed during the Clinton administration.