Clintonostalgia.

• Author: Suderman, Peter
• Position: Follow-Up - Speech of Bill Clinton on Barack Obama's re-election

In a widely lauded speech at the Democratic National Convention in September, former President Bill Clinton made the case for re-electing Barack Obama. The speech was a reminder of the prosperity that marked the Clinton years.

Vote Obama, Clinton said, "if you think the president was right to open the doors of American opportunity to all those young immigrants brought here when they were young so they can serve in the military or go to college." Vote Obama "if you want a future of shared prosperity, where the middle class is growing and poverty is declining, where the American dream is really alive and well again and where the United States maintains its leadership as a force for peace and justice and prosperity in this highly competitive world." Vote Obama, in other words, if you want to live in Bill Clinton's America.

But Bill Clinton's federal government was substantially different from Barack Obama's government. In "Clintonomicus," an article for the December 1994 issue of reason, Thomas W. Hazlett praised Bill Clinton's economic team, which pushed back against the president's political team--and Clinton himself--on issues such as health care price controls and expanding the deficit. Clinton's economic advisers didn't always win, but at least they stated their case.

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