Brad DeLong opines that the recent apex of the American political system was . . . Bill Clinton:

Andrew Sullivan despairs when he contemplates the future of America:

www.AndrewSullivan.com - Daily Dish: I know I'm a broken record on this but we truly need some kind of third force again in American politics - fiscally conservative, socially inclusive, and vigilant against terror...

It was called the Clinton Administration, Mr. Sullivan.*

And you and your friends spent a decade trying (unsuccessfully) as hard as you could to wreck it.

*As Madeleine Albright has said, the lack of seriousness with which the incoming Bush administration took their briefings on terrorism in the winter of 2000-2001 was very disappointing.

As the Church Lady used to say, "Well isn't that special! Who gave you this deep insight? Could it be . . . Satan?!"

Remember when David Stockman, Reagan's OMB director, was predicting "$200 billion dollars deficits as far as the eye can see"? A little more than a decade later, he proved to be wrong, real wrong. I predict the critics who are now shouting "fiscal irresponsibility" will be in the same boat. And I further predict that if a Democrat is president then, he or she will take all the credit for it.

As for Madame Albright, she was quoted in a lot of newspapers--not that they get everything right--as asking, when she wanted us to get involved in the Balkans, "What's the good of having this huge military machine if we can't use it every once and a while?" But let a Republican president use it, with much better justification than we had in bombing Kosovo, and . . .

Never mind. It's almost Thanksgiving. One of the things I'm thankful for this year is that those people are not running our government now.

Comments

[Ross N.]

If I recall correctly, it was during the first few years of the Clinton administration that it was predicted we would have $250B deficits as far as the eye could see (I hadn't heard the Stockman quote) and that was WITH the Clinton tax increase. Why was that acceptable to Democrats given the smaller economy and why do the Clintonites get credit for balancing the budget by accident?