Clinton's Advice for Obama

What would Bubba do? Former President Bill Clinton urges his party to "don't even worry about the Republicans" in his first in-depth interview since Barack Obama took office. On health care reform, Clinton says that Democrats must deliver and that key lessons from his 1993 plan's defeat have been forgotten because "the victors get to write history." The conventional wisdom, for example, that Clinton's White House lost key Congressional allies' support by giving them a complete bill is wrong because the House Ways and Means Committee—the most important committee in the House—had asked for a finished bill. But despite a rough August, the former president thinks Obama is doing the right thing. "[T]here's a lot that's like my first year, but it's going to have a different ending—he's going to get health-care reform." Clinton also discusses the Supreme Court's decision in the 2000 presidential election and the 2010 midterms.