What a difference 14 years makes. Sen. Orrin Hatch says Bill Clinton’s time in the White House was remarkable, and could prove instructive for Barack Obama.
U.S. News and World Report’s Robert Schelsinger highlights Hatch’s speech at a “fiscal summit” where he heaped praise on Clinton, despite Hatch voting to remove Clinton from office and two government shutdowns.
Here’s Hatch’s quote:
I remember when Bill Clinton – his first two years were not very dramatic. But when the Republicans took over both houses, the House and the Senate, President Clinton was intelligent enough to say, ‘Well I better work with them.’ [It disconcerted] a lot of Democrats and in that process balanced the budget three years in a row, passed welfare reform. President Clinton now, if it hadn’t been for some other difficulties, would go down in history as a pretty darn fine president. I think he should anyway, because he was willing to work on these problems and to solve them.
I’m not sure the rest of Utah will remember “Slick Willie” as fondly.
