chapter 24 notes

Brian House

July 31, 2009

“The Clinton Presidency” notes

Zinn’s thesis: Zinn believes that Bill Clinton was not the president that he should have been. He feels that Clinton did not accomplish what he said that he would and therefore is not in favor of the Clinton administration.

I. Clinton barely won both of his elections.
A. He obtained 45% of the vote in 1992 to Bush’s 38%.
B. In 1996 the Republican candidate was “lackluster”, which enabled Clinton to win the election according to Zinn.
-There was a lack of enthusiasm among voters in both elections. Only around half of the possible voters voted.

II. Clinton, along with Janet Reno made bad decisions at Waco according to Zinn.
A. Zinn didn’t mention the murders of federal agents.
B. There was speculation of child molestation.

III. Clinton passed the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act.
A. Zinn says, “Allows the deportation of any immigrant ever convicted of a crime, no matter how long ago or how serious”.
B. The Nation was shocked with the Oklahoma City bombing.
C. Clinton said that he would do what he could about Timothy McVeigh, this was it.
D. Mainly used for prisoners facing the Death Penalty.

IV. Zinn said that Clinton did not create government programs to create jobs.
A. This does not mean that he did not create jobs.
B. He created 6 million jobs in his first two years of office.

V. Zinn associates monetary deficits with Bill Clinton.
A. According to an online account entitled The Clinton Record, “President Clinton signed into law the largest deficit reduction plan in history, resulting in over $600 billion in deficit reduction. The deficit is going down for 3 years in a row for the first time since Harry Truman was president.”