after that, i think there are more similarities than differences on their economics. the context is totally different. bill clinton actually benefitted from a bubble, the dot-com bubble that drove the economy in the latter 90s. president obama took office after the collapse of the worst bubble since the great depression. let s face it, i can t remember a president who s faced a worse congress than obama. i m not saying it was an easy ride for clinton, but he certainly faced a much more facile congress. alex, the question to richard s first point, which was the road ahead here and where bill clinton sort of must the thin line, the thin red line, if you will, he must tread between at once aligning himself with the best of the obama presidency, which is to say, i think, building a grassroots network at this point, potentially health care, depending on what happens and anything else the president may get done, and that is a big anything else question mark, and then also distancing him
human. they do have problems. the question is whether you have any compassion to voters before you admit your problems. i don t know about the mayor of toronto, but this tea party crowd has not shown any compassion to anyone gaining government benefits. if you re going to get your freedom fries in the congressional cafeteria, you, too, maybe should be drug tested. in florida, they wanted to drug test state workers because they dislike them almost as much as the poor. and to be clear, this is a guy who has the resources to deal with this versus exactly. the people that need the most compassion and need the actual resources are the people precisely they re trying to strip. all right. on that note of indignation, we re going to leave it there. thank you to alex, jared, joy, and richard. that s all for now. see you back here tomorrow at noon eastern. andrea mitchell reports is coming up next.
truly bothered clinton more than anything else was a remark that can datd obama made during a 2008 interview that the former president could not abide. i think ronald reagan changed the trajectory of america in a way that, you know, richard nixon did not. and in a way that bill clinton did not. burn. that comment reportedly irked clinton so much that he returned obsessively to the slight throughout the 2008 campaign. whether or not it still bothers clinton to this day remains unknown. this afternoon, both presidents will visit john f. kennedy s grave site at arlington national cemetery, providing yet another opportunity to watch their complicated relationship unfold. joining me today, political reporter for the national journal, alex wald, senior fellow at the center for budget priorities, jared burnsteen, and executive editor of msnbc.com,
reception. you know, i hope we carry away from this a reminder of what jfk understood to be the essence of the american spirit, that it s represented here and some of us may be less talented, but we all have the opportunity to serve and to open people s hearts and minds, you know, in our smaller orbits. so i hope everybody s been inspired as i have been participating and being with these people here today. thank you very much, everybody. [ applause ] the presidential medal of freedom ceremony has just wrapped up at the white house. among the 16 recipients this year, oprah winfrey, loretta lynn, and the last democrat to occupy the oval office, former president bill clinton. given that last week president obama might have preferred to bestow on mr. clinton the medal of freedom of opinion. i m grateful, bill, as well, for the advice and counsel you ve offered me on and off the golf course. and most importantly for your life-saving work around the world. by all accounts, 42
0 people who were likely to get sick. those kind of people are essentially all of these programs are to some degree economic redistribution programs. that s the core fight. all the people you mentioned have members of their family living on either medicare or social security. there s a rank hypocrisy in this opposition. not only that, but if you talk about the opposition of business, the core irony is that the supposed representatives of business in the large term, things like the chamber of commerce, the sort of wall street lobby, they are arguing not to tie that question that peter just brought up to the continuing resolution. they are not supposed to be coupled together at this time. but that argument is falling on completely deaf ears but the ideological opposition to the affordable care act is so strong. that s right. you have all the biggest industry groups in the country saying, you know, don t shut down the government, don t worry about the debt ceiling, which is just a