This has nothing to do with whether Clinton was tougher than Bush I. It has everything to do with Clinton trying to get elected. If Bush had, in fact, gone after Saddam, Clinton (and the rest of the Democrats) would have been criticizing him for that. If Clinton had been president when Saddam went into Kuwait, Saddam would still be in power, and Kuwait would still be a province of Iraq.
I think they meant to say that Clinton was "tougher in rhetoric".