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Clinton applies shine to Kerry sneaker
`Tis the season for surrogates, and yesterday the Kerry campaign rolled out the best it's got in Bill Clinton. Voters will see Republican stars Rudy Giuliani and Arnold Schwarzenegger stumping for President Bush [related, bio] this week, too.
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WSJ: The Second Coming
The good news this week for Democrats is that Bill Clinton has recovered sufficiently from his coronary bypass operation to begin stumping for the junior Senator from Massachusetts, beginning with a joint appearance yesterday in Philadelphia. The idea that John Kerry is the Second Coming of Bill is no small part of what drives the challenger's campaign, not least with the promise of a return to the Clinton tax rates on rich people who don't happen to be Mr. Kerry's wife.
But hang on: What was Mr. Clinton's verdict on his own tax hikes? Speaking at a Houston fundraiser for wealthy investors in October 1995, the then-President partially recanted his 1993 $240 billion tax hike, observing: "You think I raised your taxes too much. It might surprise you to know that I think I raised them too much, too."
As we recall it, Mr. Clinton's reasoning was that he would have preferred to cut spending more and raise taxes less, but he was constrained from doing so by tax-and-spend legislators in his own party. That, of course, raised the question of whether there wasn't a virtue in dis-electing some of those Congress-folk, which is precisely what the electorate did by historical margins in 1994, and why Mr. Clinton spent 1995 trying to walk the tax cat back.
Coming back to Mr. Kerry, you might think this little piece of history would serve as a cautionary tale. But no: Mr. Clinton recanted his remarks in Houston the very day after he made them. When it comes to flip-flopping -- in those days, we called it waffling -- Mr. Kerry may very well be the Second Coming of Bill.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ... |
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The man from hope.
