Ahh....the rest of the story??? 
"Bill Clinton gave what was, by all accounts, a very good speech last night. It was persuasive, articulate and inspiring, but there was just one problem: almost the whole speech was based completely on distortions or one-sided portrayals. What follows are excerpted claims from the speech (Black) and some factual corrections, context and explanations that were missing (in Red):
So whos right? (Cheers.) Well, since 1961, for 52 years now, the Republicans have held the White House 28 years, the Democrats, 24. In those 52 years, our private economy has produced 66 million private sector jobs.
So whats the job score? Republicans, 24 million; Democrats, 42 (million). (Cheers, applause.)
(Some context: More than half of the Democrat total here came from Clintons Presidency. That presidency occurred during the innovative computer and internet boom that almost automatically produced jobs. Furthermore, this ignores that during 6 out of 8 years of the Clinton Presidency; Republicans controlled Congress and set many of the nations policies. In fact, it was the Republican Congress that essentially forced Clinton into balancing the budgets and creating a surplus.)
"It turns out that advancing equal opportunity and economic empowerment is both morally right and good economics, because discrimination, poverty and ignorance restrict growth, while investments in education, infrastructure and scientific and technological research increase it, creating more good jobs and new wealth for all of us.
(Clinton talks about investment, which a code word for spending, but the balanced budgets he signed had real cuts in such investment. Under Clinton, spending was near 18% of GDP, but it is currently over 24% of GDP.)
"One of the main reasons we ought to re-elect President Obama is that he is still committed to constructive cooperation.
(This statement requires a complete rejection of reality. Every major legislative initiative passed by President Obama was done so along party lines and with little input from Republicans. The stimulus received 3 total Republican votes in Congress and Arlen Specter is no longer a Republican. Obamacare did not receive one Republican vote in either the Senate or the House, and 34 Democrats voted against it in the House. Furthermore, Obama has made it clear from the start that he has no interest in real cooperation with Republicans, at one point exclaiming Republicans can come for the ride, but they gotta sit in back.)
"But it could have been because, as the Senate Republican leader said in a remarkable moment of candor two full years before the election, their number one priority was not to put America back to work; it was to put the president out of work.
(This point is a distortion because it ignores that Senator McConnell and most Republicans believe that the best way to get Americans back to work is to put Obama out of work. The two are not necessarily incompatible. Furthermore, Obama himself has quite a history of naming issues besides jobs as his top priority; does that mean he was ignoring jobs?)
Much more: Bill Clinton
"Bill Clinton gave what was, by all accounts, a very good speech last night. It was persuasive, articulate and inspiring, but there was just one problem: almost the whole speech was based completely on distortions or one-sided portrayals. What follows are excerpted claims from the speech (Black) and some factual corrections, context and explanations that were missing (in Red):
So whos right? (Cheers.) Well, since 1961, for 52 years now, the Republicans have held the White House 28 years, the Democrats, 24. In those 52 years, our private economy has produced 66 million private sector jobs.
So whats the job score? Republicans, 24 million; Democrats, 42 (million). (Cheers, applause.)
(Some context: More than half of the Democrat total here came from Clintons Presidency. That presidency occurred during the innovative computer and internet boom that almost automatically produced jobs. Furthermore, this ignores that during 6 out of 8 years of the Clinton Presidency; Republicans controlled Congress and set many of the nations policies. In fact, it was the Republican Congress that essentially forced Clinton into balancing the budgets and creating a surplus.)
"It turns out that advancing equal opportunity and economic empowerment is both morally right and good economics, because discrimination, poverty and ignorance restrict growth, while investments in education, infrastructure and scientific and technological research increase it, creating more good jobs and new wealth for all of us.
(Clinton talks about investment, which a code word for spending, but the balanced budgets he signed had real cuts in such investment. Under Clinton, spending was near 18% of GDP, but it is currently over 24% of GDP.)
"One of the main reasons we ought to re-elect President Obama is that he is still committed to constructive cooperation.
(This statement requires a complete rejection of reality. Every major legislative initiative passed by President Obama was done so along party lines and with little input from Republicans. The stimulus received 3 total Republican votes in Congress and Arlen Specter is no longer a Republican. Obamacare did not receive one Republican vote in either the Senate or the House, and 34 Democrats voted against it in the House. Furthermore, Obama has made it clear from the start that he has no interest in real cooperation with Republicans, at one point exclaiming Republicans can come for the ride, but they gotta sit in back.)
"But it could have been because, as the Senate Republican leader said in a remarkable moment of candor two full years before the election, their number one priority was not to put America back to work; it was to put the president out of work.
(This point is a distortion because it ignores that Senator McConnell and most Republicans believe that the best way to get Americans back to work is to put Obama out of work. The two are not necessarily incompatible. Furthermore, Obama himself has quite a history of naming issues besides jobs as his top priority; does that mean he was ignoring jobs?)
Much more: Bill Clinton
