By Brad Friedman on 6/28/2004, 10:05pm PT  

I never voted for him. But in retrospect, if I had to chose between Bill Clinton and George W. Bush today it would be like choosing for dinner between a nice piece of medium-rare prime rib and a big hot steaming plate of poo. But maybe that's just me.

Nonetheless, while the Clinton detractors have come out from under their rocks as the ex-Prez barnstorms the country on his book tour, Ron Brownstein took a look in today's LA Times at a few of the items that Bubba's detractors seem to be conveniently over-looking.

As Brownstein says, in a piece that doesn't give Clinton a completely free ride, the critics who would dismiss so many of his accomplishments as "'trivial' says more about the critics than about Clinton."

The most notable of accomplishments, obviously, were on the economy. Read the full article for his thoughts on Foreign Policy and Domestic Politics, etc. But here's some of Clinton's notable numbers (all according to Census Bureau figures):

During Clinton's two terms, the median income for American families increased by 15% after inflation.
It rose even faster for African Americans (33%) and Hispanics (24%) than it did for whites (14%).
The growth was so widely shared that from 1993 through 1999, families in the bottom fifth of the income distribution saw their incomes increase faster than those in the top 5%.
By comparison, under President Reagan in the 1980s, those in the top 5% increased their income more than five times faster than the bottom 20%.
The poverty rate under Clinton fell 25%, the biggest eight-year decline since the 1960s. (It fell even faster for blacks, Hispanics and children.)
In two terms, the number of Americans in poverty fell by...
77,000 under Reagan.
8.1 million under Clinton!
In two terms, the number of children in poverty fell by...
50,000 under Reagan.
4.1 million under Clinton! (a ratio of 80 to 1!)

That's just a few of things that a Democrat in the White House has recently given to America. Ponder it.

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