None of it was real, and the wealthy know it and admit. Wages increased modestly. Credit access increased incredibly. Housing (education, all the important stuff) prices went through the roof--but Clinton and Greenspan made sure the credit went along with it.

No one profited from the Clinton years.

Except Clinton. And his class.

And he and Hillary damn near bought the Presidency with those foreign payoffs. Remember how Hillary "forgave" that "personal" loan to her campaign? Where did that money come from?

No matter--she still bought the Secretary of State position. Kinda ironic, ain't it, considering where the Clinton's wealth comes from?

Anybody else out there given a speech for a million bucks lately?

I rest my case.

Will Salon?

Even the (semi-justifiably) sainted Glenn Greenwald thinks the payoffs to the Clintons were no big deal.

But the anti-American actions the payoffs bought were, in fact, a big deal to Americans who were neither wealthy nor lawyers living with os afluente in Brazil.

And the world turns.

Dreams of my father? Dreams of my ass.

I call upon, oh hell, I call upon Crossroads Robert Leroy Johnson.

Clinton lied to us. HILLARY Clinton lied to us. Barrack AICH Obama lied to us.

When, oh when, will we retake (remake, reclaim) America?

As usual, Robert Reich is years behind the curve, and, as grandma would say, he wouldn't say shit if his mouth was full of it. Look at how Reich redefines Obama's total capitulation to the wealthy corporate elite as "compromise." This ain't compromise folks. Compromise implies something between this and that. There is absolutely nothing in this administration's policies for regular Americans. Obama stands for the wealthy alone.

We lost, folks. We were had. The course of most presidencies is set in the first six, at most twelve, months and this one is over as far as "change." Never mind the corrupt Obamacrats who claim that Obama is just getting started. No doubt he's just getting started--but his start predicts only that we will only feel even more like fools three and a half years from now. And seven and a half.

I imagine Obama got plenty of tips from the Clintons today on how to trade his decision to sell out American health for cash. They are the experts on that underhanded trade, after all.

There will be no health care reform. There was never going to be health care reform. Obama will take the money and run. He always planned to do as much. And average Americans will be left holding the bag. Just like in the 90s.

The only question remaining is whether democracy is thoroughly and completely trashed.

Make sure to enclose a $500,000 check to the Obama Presidential Library, the Obama Family Charitable Foundation, or Obama Speeches Incorporated.

If you can't afford to pay, don't expect to play.

Just ask the Clintons.

Madden is a good, dense writer but veils the truth behind a screen of words.

The Me Generation of politicians doesn't give a damn about anything but themselves, about their personal wealth and power.

If providing health care could make them look Kennedyesque (Jack, not Edward) they'd be all over it. It'd be kinda cool. They could trade that hip prestige for all kinds of votes and favors and cash. Y'know, strike a pose and shit.

But, it's obvious now that these selfish cowards see no prestige-power while once-Kennedyesque Obama himself morphs into a self-interested dork just like Clinton, just like the senators' inner selves.

Given those facts, the Obamacrats will opt for future cash payoffs from industry, thank you very much.

Leadership.

Vacuum.

Hillary Clinton should be "leading" on the health care issue?

Now that made me laugh out loud.

Didn't Clinton enrich herself enough during the last go around, while doing enough harm to the rest of us?

Can't we come up with a healthcare plan that doesn't require paying off politicians just so us regular folks can see a doctor without going broke?

There are several fallacies in Walsh's synopsis of the Clinton years, but notice for now just where she chooses to end her history:

"...mired Bill Clinton in political paralysis, strangled his healthcare reform proposal, and ultimately led to his impeachment."

No mention of the massive payoffs Bill and Hillary got for their presidential policies. What was failure to us, was a enormous financial success, and political spending money, for them.

The impeachment, of course, was about sex, not money. But if Monica Lewinsky did nothing else for Bill Clinton, she permanently veiled the Clintons' financial improprieties from scrutiny by Walsh and the entire media. In puritanical America, sex dwarfs greed as a sin. But it's not sex that killed healthcare reform the first time around--it was the Clintons' decision to come up secretive plan effectively written by insurers that was never meant to become law.

Unless we see the role that big money has played in this debate, and in influencing Obama's and the Obamacrats personal, corrupt behavior, there is no chance for reform.

Look at who benefits from the promises Obama is breaking. Unlike he promised, we MUST now participate in a health plan--whether we have money or not. Unlike he promised, that coerced money MUST now go to private insurance companies, perhaps thinly disguised as "cooperatives." These companies are some of the wealthiest and most corrupt corporations on the planet, and the biggest financial donors.

This is the toxic assets cheap-loan-to-the-rich program all over again. It's the bailout-the-rich all over again. It's the bogus stimulus package all over again.

Follow the money, yes, particularly in the congress. But follow the Clinton money, since the payoffs for the President will occur AFTER his term in office.