EmailBill Clinton had some advice for President Obama and the Democrats: Tell voters "It's okay to be mad."
The former president can relate to Obama’s situation — but Clinton said the president needs to tell November voters to make their choice on who is more likely to get things done and ask the American people to give the Democrats another term.
"[Tell them] ‘Give us two more years. Don't go back to the policies that dug the hole…If we don't do better, you can vote against us all, and I'll be on the ballot, too. Vote against us all if it's not better,’” Clinton said.
People feel disempowered, angry and frustrated right now, Clinton said – something that Obama experienced yesterday first hand. The president faced a tough crowd of voters at a town hall meeting, including a woman who told the president “I’m exhausted of defending you.”
How would Clinton respond to that?
“I would say, ‘I know a lot of people are mad, and a lot of people are tired. Apathetic. And I respect that. Because we're not yet out of the hole we've got in,’” Clinton said.
“[Republicans] had eight years to dig the hole. They say we have 21 months, throw us out, put them back in,” Clinton told me. “I just want you to understand that every election is a choice, not a referendum. It's a choice here.”
The two presidents have been portrayed as polar opposites – Clinton feels too much and Obama not enough. But Clinton said it is actually the similarities between the two men that’s getting Obama into trouble.
“I knew I'd done the right things in '94…I'd like to see him do something I didn't do. I'd like to see him say, ‘Here's what I think this election's about. The only thing that matters is what we're going to do now,” the former president said. “Here are the three things I think we ought to do now. Here's why I think our side's more likely to do it. And let me tell you something, we couldn't get out of this $3 trillion hole in 21 months.”
Watch my interview with Clinton here and then weigh in below.
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