“I played golf with Bill Clinton today.” said President Obama, dropping the former president’s name at a Congressional Black Caucus dinner Saturday night.
After the casual afternoon of golf, a joint statement from both Clinton and Obama read, “Periodically, over the last two and a half years, they’ve gotten together to discuss the unique honor and extraordinary opportunity to lead this country.”
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Perhaps Obama wants to be seen as the second coming of Bill Clinton, not the return of Jimmy Carter.
At the Congressional Black Caucus dinner, Obama reminded Democrats that he wanted 90’s era tax rates for the wealthy. Those, tax rates, Obama argued, were responsible for the booming economy during the Clinton years.
“Well, it turns out we had a lot of jobs. The well-to-do, they did even better. So did the middle class. We lifted millions out of poverty.” Obama said. “And then we cut taxes for folks like me, and we went through a decade of zero job growth. . . We tried their theory; didn’t work. Tried our theory; it worked.”
This isn’t the first time Obama cozied up to the former president. Back in December, Obama invited Clinton to defend his deal to extend the Bush tax-cuts. Clinton obliged, and spent 30 minutes behind the presidential podium speaking to the press.
Once sneering at Obama’s “fairy-tale” rise to power, Clinton appears willing to support the struggling young president as he searches for traction amid his fading popularity.
During the Clinton Global Initiative Summit last week, the former president trumpeted investments in green energy and “green make-overs” for existing buildings. That topic is off-limits for Obama for now, as the messy Solyndra scandal plauges his administration.
Through his philanthropy organization, Clinton recently closed a deal with the AFL-CIO and the American Federation of Teachers to reinvest $10 billion over the next five years in energy-efficient infrastructure.
At the same time, news broke that Clinton is publishing a new book: “Back to Work: Why We Need Smart Government for a Strong Economy.” The book reportedly offers “blunter prescriptions than a sitting president would be able to advocate.”
“There is no evidence that we can succeed in the twenty-first century with an anti-government strategy, with a philosophy grounded in ‘You’re on your own’ rather than ‘We’re all in this together.'” writes Clinton.
