# Did Bill Clinton lean libertarian? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 17, 2007, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bill-clinton-lean-libertarian/388292 "2007-01-17T03:00:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2007, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bill-clinton-lean-libertarian/388292/21 "2007-01-18T16:40:32Z")
Yep… centrist driven by political expediency and pragmatism. Not that there’s anything wrong with it. But no libertarian. He might “lean” libertarian relative to the late Paul Wellstone, but that is pretty meaningless. ---
**Author:** ![whole\_bean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/96bed5/32.png) [@whole\_bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whole_bean)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2007, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bill-clinton-lean-libertarian/388292/22 "2007-01-18T18:13:48Z")
[QUOTE=Renob] The same could be said, in reverse, about George W. Bush. He’s done a lot that should make liberals quite happy – more federal involvement in education, expanding the Medicare entitlement, huge increases in funding for education, etc. However, because he’s a Republican, he gets no credit for liberals for these things. It’s the same thing that happened with Clinton. [/QUOTE] I just can’t let this go without comment. I am only familiar with W’s medicare prescription drug plan, and then only peripherially, but I perceive the criticisms of it to be that it is a boon to big Pharma – not the little guy. Now, as the son of a left leaning college educator with a lot at stake in the NCLB debate, I can say that, although federal funds for education are appreciated, W’s proposed method of doling them out is widely panned as faulty and poorly conceived. If a liberal president were to increase the defense budget for the armed service by pinning the amount of funds recevied for each platoon on performance in PT tests, it wouldn’t be fitting to call his defense spending somtething that should make conservatives “quite happy.” What of this and Clinton? Only to point out that Clinton probably offered a lot more to Republicans and conservatives than W offers to liberals and Democrats. ---
**Author:** ![Renob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8c91f0/32.png) [@Renob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renob)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2007, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bill-clinton-lean-libertarian/388292/23 "2007-01-18T19:05:20Z")
[QUOTE=whole bean] I just can’t let this go without comment. I am only familiar with W’s medicare prescription drug plan, and then only peripherially, but I perceive the criticisms of it to be that it is a boon to big Pharma – not the little guy. [/quote] No, it’s a massive expansion of an entitlement program. That’s something straight out of the Democratic playbook. > [@](#): > > Now, as the son of a left leaning college educator with a lot at stake in the NCLB debate, I can say that, although federal funds for education are appreciated, W’s proposed method of doling them out is widely panned as faulty and poorly conceived. The NCLB Act was mainly written by Ted Kennedy, so I don’t think you can accuraely say it’s “W’s proposed method.” If anything, it’s “W and Ted Kennedy’s proposed method.” > [@](#): > > What of this and Clinton? Only to point out that Clinton probably offered a lot more to Republicans and conservatives than W offers to liberals and Democrats. Perhaps, but this may have more to do with the fact that Clinton was dealing with a Congress controlled by the opposition party. Up until earlier this month, Bush was not. However, the things he has done in education, Medicare, and government spending were much more liberal than conservative. The only other major thing he has done (cut taxes) was conservative, I’ll grant you. ---
**Author:** ![jshore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5e925/32.png) [@jshore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jshore)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2007, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bill-clinton-lean-libertarian/388292/24 "2007-01-19T02:17:45Z")
Despite **Renob** ’s response (which wasn’t much of one, frankly), I think **whole bean** got it exactly right. Bush’s policies are more of a caricature of liberal programs than actual ones. The new Medicare drug entitlement was just a giveaway to Big Pharma…poorly conceived and essentially designed to aid in the general plan to try to force senior citizens off of the public part of Medicare into the private insurance plans (which, by the way, are apparently considerably less efficient). See [here](http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewPrint&articleId=12309). (Disclaimer: the author is a 2nd cousin…or something like that…of mine.) ---
**Author:** ![Gadarene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Gadarene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadarene)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2007, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bill-clinton-lean-libertarian/388292/25 "2007-01-19T02:21:17Z")
**Shagnasty:** > [@](#): > > Hillary as co-president wasn’t a joke. There was very real talk and marketing of that around the time. I would dearly love to see what kind of cite you can pull out for this ridiculous assertion. ---
**Author:** ![Renob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8c91f0/32.png) [@Renob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renob)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2007, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bill-clinton-lean-libertarian/388292/26 "2007-01-19T02:42:33Z")
[QUOTE=jshore] Despite **Renob** ’s response (which wasn’t much of one, frankly), I think **whole bean** got it exactly right. [/quote] Yes, because **whole bean** gave so much more analysis than I did. :rolleyes: > [@](#): > > Bush’s policies are more of a caricature of liberal programs than actual ones. I’ll admit they are a hybrid of liberal ideas and some conservative ones. However, the idea of expanding an entitlement program is certainly not conservative. The idea that the federal government would take on yet another obligation to our seniors is not conservative. Liberals may quibble with how it was designed, but the idea behind it is a liberal one, not conservative. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2007, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bill-clinton-lean-libertarian/388292/27 "2007-01-19T02:47:10Z")
[QUOTE=Gadarene] **Shagnasty:** I would dearly love to see what kind of cite you can pull out for this ridiculous assertion. [/QUOTE] Was I the only one lucid in the early 1990’s? I was in college but I was neutral on Clinton even though I got to meet him at a speech twice in a few hours. Hillary was promoted for a time as Bill’s co-president. It wasn’t a one-time or subtle thing so I feel a little odd digging up a cite on demand for someone who somehow missed the whole phenomenon. Nevertheless, here is an article about Hillary in Mother Jones that has such a quote. You can google the rest for yourself because this is silly. > **[Harpy, Hero, Heretic: Hillary](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2007/01/harpy-hero-heretic-hillary/)** > > Why she stokes our deepest fears and darkest hatreds _“The source of the strong feelings goes all the way back to when we were introduced to her as Bill Clinton’s copresident,” says Nora Bredes, director of the Susan B. Anthony Center for Women’s Leadership in Rochester, New York._ ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2007, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bill-clinton-lean-libertarian/388292/28 "2007-01-19T02:52:57Z")
[QUOTE=Gadarene] I would dearly love to see what kind of cite you can pull out for this ridiculous assertion. [/QUOTE] It was mentioned, although I think not “heavily”. [Link](http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061221/pl_nm/usa_politics_clinton_dc) > [@](#): > > It would be less likely for Hillary Clinton to stress their partnership. During his first campaign in 1992, Bill Clinton briefly told voters they would be getting “two for one” by putting them both in the White House – a claim that was quickly dropped when it proved unpopular. ---
**Author:** ![Gadarene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Gadarene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadarene)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2007, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bill-clinton-lean-libertarian/388292/29 "2007-01-19T02:55:30Z")
I guess it was the “when he first got into office” that I was really skeptical about. I can see him saying something along those lines early on the campaign trial to demonstrate, I dunno, how strong he was on women’s issues. But there’s no way he said anything remotely like that while he was President…or at least I’d be shocked if he did. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bill-clinton-lean-libertarian/388292.md?page=1)