Link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123690358175013837.html

If you oppose Obama’s domestic agenda and want some company, this polling data is good news … of course, saying so may get you branded as someone who “wants Obama to fail” … but if you want our country to succeed, you must want him to fail … our fortunes are not tied to his … quite the opposite.

Link: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/mar/13/sparking-fond-thoughts-of-bill/

I was thinking along these lines two days ago. I mostly disliked Bill Clinton because he was insincere and dishonest, especially about policy and his political opponents. But on policy itself, while I disagreed with him in contrast to the alternative (Republican positions on domestic economic policy especially), he was closer to the middle than the Democratic Party as a whole (I would NOT say he was centrist). On free trade especially, he moved the goalposts in favor of less government intervention and more freedom.

This is far different than what we have today. I think President Obama is less crafty and dishonest on policy, mostly because he doesn’t need to be. But on policy he is within the left-most 20% of his party, which means the left-most 5-10% of the country. And this is even more pronounced in his economic policy.

Every conservative thought that Bill Clinton was so much of a threat because, unlike Jimmy Carter, he was seen as being politically effective. Obama is an even greater threat than Clinton because of his agenda. I think it remains to be seen whether he will be effective at implementing it, but for now I certainly wish Bill Clinton were in office over this guy.