The Washington Times reports that President Bush has sought former President Clinton's advice on foreign policy and reforming social security. In the article, Bush apparently confirms that he is seeking Clintonian input, and thinks his proposed social security reform is close to what Clinton proposed in the late 90s.
If President Bush (43) thinks that this will cause Democrats to support his proposal, he is sadly mistaken. Recall that Clinton gave up on his proposal, opposed by liberal Democrats, when he needed their support on the impeachment issue. Now, with opposition to reform generating dollops of cash from liberal special interest groups, liberals are even less inclined to get behind Bush's proposal.
And if Bush thinks that President Hillary will seek his advice once he leaves office, let's just say that he is "misguided."
Replies: 2 Comments
Posted by:
Prado
On Monday, April 11th
"The Washington Times reports that President Bush has sought former President Clinton's advice on foreign policy and reforming social security." Actually, the article does not say that Bush sought Clinton's advice on reforming social security. It says Bush "liked his approach to reforming Social Security" and liked the way Clinton presented his arguments. It is not even really clear how Bush "get[ting] their points of view about their experiences in particular countries" translates to seeking Clinton's advice.
Posted by:
Nathan Smith
On Sunday, April 10th
Point taken, but I don't see the harm in trying. Clinton has such a huge ego that there's an outside chance that this compliment could tip him towards supporting Bush.
Then again, Clinton might do it for the good of his party. The Democrats may be conducting a pretty successful resistance to partial privatization of Social Security, but they're not making themselves popular in the process. The Democrats need to be centrist in order to get back into power, and Clinton is the symbol of that fact. If Clinton gave centrist Democrats courage to stand up to their party leadership and look for compromises with the Bush administration, he could help his party back to power. This possibility is less likely because Clinton is not one to take risks for the greater good. But he might do it for the sake of his ego.
