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Originally posted by Dave:
As for Clinton's security record, here is a post from someone else, elsewhere:

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The following is from a Washington Post article, written by staff writer, Barton Gellman, December 20, 2001:

"President Bill Clinton and his advisers reached a pivot point in their grasp of the terrorist threat by the end of 1995. In his second term, the president reshaped his government in response. By degrees the national security establishment shifted its view of terrorism from tactical nuisance to strategic challenge, sharpening its focus on bin Laden after the 1998 embassy bombings in East Africa.

"By any measure available, Clinton left office having given greater priority to terrorism than any president before him. His government doubled counterterrorist spending across 40 departments and agencies. The FBI and CIA allocated still larger increases in their budgets and personnel assignments. Clinton devoted some of his highest-profile foreign policy speeches to terrorism, including two at the U.N. General Assembly. An interagency panel, the Counterterrorism Strategy Group, took on new weight in policy disputes from the Justice Department to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And the foreign policy cabinet, by the time it left office, had been convening every two to three weeks to shape a covert and overt campaign against al Qaeda."

I have a lengthy timeline of the terrorist attacks and Clinton's response - too long for this forum. To very briefly summarize: the first attack on the World Trade Center occurred on Feb. 23, 1993 (6 killed) - hard to blame Clinton on this one since he had been in office for a month. A subsequent attack occurred in Saudi Arabia in 1996 (19 US soldiers killed); US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed in 1998 (223 killed); and the USS Cole was bombed in October 12, 2000 (17 soldiers were killed).

In the 80s - terrorist attacks included the Lebanon Marine barracks, the Lebanon embassy, hijackings, the Achille Lauro and Pan Am 103.
Clinton may have put more money to anti-terrorism, but his own staff will tell you that he tied the intelligence community's hands for dealing with it. Clinton refused to allow CIA operatives to pay informants who have criminal records or may be involved in criminal activities. Now, who's better at gathering inside intel on terrorist organisations. Could it be terrorists? And since they are obviously involved in criminal acts, under Billy's law agents would not be allowed to pay them without going through paperwork so extensive that the informants usually back off before it is done because of being afraid that they've been exposed.

As for the economy, Clinton, of course, isn't 100% responsible. But his raising of the minimum wage didn't hurt inflation. Nor did it help the working class since he had already raised taxes. Nor did it help those who were making over minimum wage because companies couldn't afford to raise everyone's wages & salaries. Nor did it help the companies because they couldn't immediately raise prices to help pay for the immediate raise in their employees' wages.

Saddam is very much like Hitler. You can't make a full comparison of the size of army and so forth. But they were both power hungry and mad, and they're both fucking nutters.