I did have more money when Clinton was in office for some reason. It may have been a economic anomaly of some sort.

I hated being broke and living in a mobile home just trying to get by in that bad economy he caused by bad policy. His international policy was also, well, not so good. He will, in history, go down as a bottom 10 president. Right there with FDR, Carter, and Pierce. However, he did keep us all safer by his invasion on the Branch Davidian Compound and killing all inside.

Within thirty seconds of the news announcing that Bill Clinton had won the 1992 Presidential election, my roommate ran inside, soaking wet, panting that it had just started *pouring* outside. That pretty sums up my feelings about him, and eight years of his post-Presidential buffoonery hasn’t made me feel any better about him. Bill Clinton got elected by doing two things: first, appealing to young voters (which is certainly a good thing); and second, painting George H. W. Bush’s focus on family values as naïve and overly simplistic (which wasn’t so good). Then, in his first inaugural address, he did a complete 180Ëš: he adopted Bush’s own focus as his own, emphasizing the nation’s need for family values. Flip-flopper or not, this is the same kind of dirty pool the Clintons have always been known for. His biggest legacy, however, has got to be him perjuring himself before a federal grand jury—and as usual, getting away with it. Not only did he teach the nation that marital infidelity is no big deal, but he also taught us that all you have to do to get away with criminal activity is convince the public that that’s not the issue. Yes, the economy was on a pretty big upswing, during the last couple years of his presidency, but I don’t think any President has anywhere *near* as much to do with the economy as the American public pretends he (or she, as the case may be) does. Furthermore, I do give him kudos for encouraging Congress to balancing the federal budget, something I wish the current administration would find some way to do (although admittedly, it’s *much* harder in wartime). But overall, I think the legacy of any leader is primarily whether or not he helps those s/he presides over to be better people, and in this vein, Bill Clinton was—and is—an abysmal failure. Just my 2¢.

It has never changed for me, he was one of the best presidents of my life and I had some real spendable income. The baboon in now SUCKS and should be killed!

It is funny as I read this comments that not a person mentions that under the Clinton administration, our countries deficit was wiped away and the dollar was strong. Today, the dollar is weak and we owe everyone and their mother. 8 years ago, things were different. There were better by far that where we are today.

Actually the thought that the dollar was strong during the Clinton years is completely untrue. The fact is the Clinton dollar was never higher then the highest point the dollar was at during the Carter Administration and it was lower than the lowest point of the Carter Admin several times in that 8 years. There are several reasons why the Clinton years "seemed" better. Number one the Kondratieff Economic cycle along with technology boon that helped but also a good cooking of the books will do wonders for the American perception.. just enough so The Clinton Administraion could change core numbers.., Examples of changes on how they are read follow: (Consumer Price Index & Unemployment Numbers) Unemployment used to be calculated as people who are unemployed and people who are considered discouraged workers. Kennedy, created and called discouraged workers, people who were still actively seeking jobs after their unemployement was over. Clinton changed this the following way. UNEMPLOYMENT: If a worker was unemployed after his unemployment funding was over he was no longer considered unemployed. He used to be called a discouraged worker and part of the unemployemtn number but now he is no longer considered unemployed. If we examine the numbers today as they actually should be counted we are around 13% unemployemnt not the current 5% to 6% the government claims. CPI: CPI is calculated as what the the costs of goods are from year to year. A simplified example is: What does a loaf of bread, gasoline or steak cost one year from now. The Clinton Admin changed this in the following way. He said that if the price of steak went down 1% that, that portion of the CPI calculation would go down by 1%.. Makes Sense... But if the price of Steak went UP, he said that less people would eat Steak and would eat hamburger instead which is 15% less than steak so actually the standard of living of people would go UP! how convoluted is that? SO in essence whether prices go UP or DOWN people would have a better life! To be fair this was something Greenspan was working on in the early 80's but Clinton took full advantage of this. While Clinton implemented this Bush took full advantage of it.. So in essence our government has really did exactly what ENRON did and this is why the country is in trouble now. These are not the only things Clinton did but I was just giving an example so we can see thru the Halo over his head. As I said, Bush is no angel either. We have created this together. If you think the situation is bad now, wait til the DOW really starts to accelerate downward. We will get a small rally over the next few weeks to a month and then hold on everyone. I dont even know how many people realize that the IRA's or money they "invested" in the market in late 1999 is basically at a net of Zero, today. The people that are counting on their IRA's for retirement could be in serious trouble. Who do you think is going to bail out Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae? The government? Of course via tax payers dollars to the tune for several trillion dollars the same way we the tax payers paid for the Bear Stearns disaster, by paying the extra so JP Morgan could pick them up for 2 bucks a share... Oh and why was that? Because JP was holding a number of bad loans thru Bear Stearns and if they went down JP would fall as well or at least be seriously damaged and that would have been too much to take at once. SO.. we ate it. This country is a serious need of leadership which have been lacking since the Reagan years (who I personally despised but he was a leader I will give him that). Can the next president lead us... Its doubtful because there is so much muck we are tied into and so much we have been doing wrong for so long. The only hope is by raising interest rates to double digits but that will kill the little guy but may be the only thing to save our dollar Anyway enough doom and gloom.. we will eventually pull ourselves out of this but it could take awhile. If somehow the dow can pull itself our of this by getting a close above 13,200, all we again be good in the world but if not... look for hard times and dont count on that IRA for help unless you are looking 8 years down the road. Personally I hope I am wrong.