Bill Clinton to Paul Ryan on Medicare Election: ‘Give me a Call’

[SCDeac]

He did no such thing. I'll make you a bet Clinton talks about the GOP plan to end Medicare during the 2012.

Medicare will end itself in about 10-12 years.

 

[RJKarl]

More Clinton, quoted in today's NYT:

Speaking at a budget forum in Washington on Tuesday, former President Bill Clinton told reporters that Democrats “are going to have to be willing to give up, maybe, some short-term political gain by whipping up fears on some of these things — if it’s a reasonable Social Security proposal, a reasonable Medicare proposal. We’ve got to deal with these things. You cannot have health care devour the economy.”

Ryan's plan is not reasonable.

 

[SCDeac]

Ryan's plan is not reasonable.

Okay...then where is the Dem's "reasonable" plan. It's easy to shit on someone else's ideas but the real test is to come up with something credible and realistic if you're going to do that.

Kind of like the GOP arguing against Obamacare...they never proposed a decent alternative.

 

[RJKarl]

Actually part of Obamacare did address some of the problems of Medicare. The Dems have made first step and implemented it.

As to Ryan's plan being "something" or a "starting point", it's as much a starting point as it would be for you to walk into an Astim Martin dealership with a budget of $15,000 for a new car.

 

[meandmyuncleDeac]

Al Gore won the election.

 

[SCDeac]

Actually part of Obamacare did address some of the problems of Medicare. The Dems have made first step and implemented it.

As to Ryan's plan being "something" or a "starting point", it's as much a starting point as it would be for you to walk into an Astim Martin dealership with a budget of $15,000 for a new car.

Cutting $500 billion from Medicare...real good plan there for making the program work.

 

[ArlingtonDeac]

I think Clinton is a politician that got things done, and sees some that same ideal in Paul. Doesn't mean he agrees with his policy, but both men seem to see an urgency to not be satisfied with an unsustainable status quo.

This is a great post.

 

[RJKarl]

Cutting $500 billion from Medicare...real good plan there for making the program work.

He didn't "cut" $500B from Medicare. The bill will make Medicare more effiicent (not efficient enough yet) and have a little less fraud.

Only to RWers is that "cutting".

 

[ArlingtonDeac]

That's what kept the race close.

If Clinton had come off the bench, Gore would've been president. I firmly believe that, mainly because Gore needed almost nothing more to win. Gore miscalculated that the Clinton fatigue was greater than Clinton's personal charisma in driving the base. Clinton could have delivered a critical state if he'd been unleashed, but he wasn't.

You really think Clinton couldn't have drummed up 1K more votes in FL?

 

[ArlingtonDeac]

Medicare will end itself in about 10-12 years.

Not likely. Other things will likely have to give way to pay for HC, which is how a properly calibrated government should operate anyway.

 

[RJKarl]

If Clinton had come off the bench, Gore would've been president. I firmly believe that, mainly because Gore needed almost nothing more to win. Gore miscalculated that the Clinton fatigue was greater than Clinton's personal charisma in driving the base. Clinton could have delivered a critical state if he'd been unleashed, but he wasn't.

You really think Clinton couldn't have drummed up 1K more votes in FL?

Or even WVA which LOVED Bill....

Gore wanting to be his own man cost him the race.

 

[ArlingtonDeac]

Or even WVA which LOVED Bill....

Gore wanting to be his own man cost him the race.

Exactly. I firmly believe that if Gore had sent Clinton to West Virginia in October 2000 he's a former two-term president. Or NH. Or Nevada. Or TN. Or FL. The margins were so small in those states-- Clinton likely could've tipped the balance.

 

[TheShot]

Or even WVA which LOVED Bill....

Gore wanting to be his own man cost him the race.

actually, while watching returns, Clinton remarked "that one is my fault" when the networks called WVA for Bush.

forget the specifics of the reg, but he supported something that was bad for coal not long before.

 

[TheShot]

I do think Gore probably should have better used Clinton, but it's also easy to say now.

they obviously had their own numbers that showed a wariness, and Gore was petty steadfast on this approach--recall his convention line "I stand here tonight as my own man."

even picking Lieberman was seen as a rebuke to Clinton.

 

[ArlingtonDeac]

I do think Gore probably should have better used Clinton, but it's also easy to say now.

they obviously had their own numbers that showed a wariness, and Gore was petty steadfast on this approach--recall his convention line "I stand here tonight as my own man."

even picking Lieberman was seen as a rebuke to Clinton.

Agreed that that was their strategy, and that it was an understandable strategy (they did get the most votes), but I think ultimately it was a bad strategy. Clinton was the most charismatic politician of the decade- they needed to harness that ability. Use him in one state.

That said, if 3K seniors in Dade County don't accidentally vote for freaking Buchanan by mistake, it doesn't matter. If politics hadn't invaded the FL counting/registration process, it doesn't matter. It was an incredible series of events that kept Gore out of office.

 

[TheShot]

Agreed that that was their strategy, and that it was an understandable strategy (they did get the most votes), but I think ultimately it was a bad strategy. Clinton was the most charismatic politician of the decade- they needed to harness that ability. Use him in one state.

That said, if 3K seniors in Dade County don't accidentally vote for freaking Buchanan by mistake, it doesn't matter. If politics hadn't invaded the FL counting/registration process, it doesn't matter. It was an incredible series of events that kept Gore out of office.

Yeah, it's interesting to look back on after a decade plus. The funny thing is that, late the previous week, the Bush camp was convinced it was headed for 300+ EVs. I always laugh when Rove is depicted as the super-genius behind the throne, because were it for the FL mess, he would go down as having directed one of the bigger blunders in presidential campaign history.

Look at Bush's travel schedule in the final days--there were stops that didn't make sense, like New Jersey. It was a campaign that thought it already had what it needed and was behaving indulgently.

The DUI hurt way more than was ever reported--because the post-Election coverage was obviously devoted entirely to Florida and the DUI didn't really show up in the numbers until the final weekend and into Monday. But the Bushies have always been convinced that it depressed a part of their base, to nearly fatal ends.