Sidney Blumenthal

“What happened to the Bush Administration regarding terrorism is that they regarded it as a secondary issue, and associated with Clinton. One of those Clinton issues.”

“Clinton was a president who used his office, in creative ways, to try to reinvigorate the federal government to benefit the majority.”

“Even on education, his one accomplishment, the Leave No Child Behind Act, and he has left it unfunded.”

“Clinton took very tough decisions on the economy.”

“The attack on Clinton on terrorism is entirely politically inspired by the right-wing of the Republicans, and has no basis in fact whatsoever.”

“The biggest mistakes, early on, involved foreign policy and involved the strategy for health care.”

“As I said, if you don't stand up for yourself, people aren't going to think that you can stand up for them.”

“Every decision that they take has enormous consequences, and ripple out from the White House.”

“On the contrary, it might even be a projection of what the truth is of the Bush Administration's complacency and ineptitude on the terrorism in its first 9 months in office.”

“The Democrats need to remind people of where were, in terms of our progress, as markers against where we are, and where we've fallen, and how we've declined under Bush.”

“22 million new jobs under President Clinton. 3 million lost under Bush.”

“On health care, virtually every political error that could be made was made.”

“It's absolutely crucial for the Democrats to have a sense of their history, of who they are, in order to be able to project their values and stand up for them.”

“The book shows Clinton in the presidency as a profile in growth.”

“Bill Clinton was in the line of great progressive presidents who faced the realities in his own time and applied innovative solutions to problems.”

“At the same time, Clinton was doing a lot things right, like the economy.”

“And Louis Freeh was a completely dysfunctional FBI Director, who was actually waging his own private war against the Clinton Administration.”

“It was an absurd theory that by cutting taxes you would increase government revenues, because the growth of the economy would create an overflow of taxes that would fall into the government coffers.”

“Dick Clarke, who was head of counter-terrorism in the National Security Council, pushed constantly for the Principals Committee, which is the key national security group of top officials to take up the issue of terrorism.”

“But presidents matter. That's one of the biggest lessons I learned being in the White House.”