Bill Clinton Says Obama Faces Same Challenges as in 1992

Bill Clinton traveled to Little Rock, Arkansas to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the start of his first presidential campaign, and noted during a speech that he supports President Obama and believes he will prevail in the 2012 election for president. He also noted that Obama now faces the same type of anti-government rhetoric that he himself faced when he first began running for president in 1991. About 5,000 people gathered outside the Old State House Museum in downtown Little Rock to hear Clinton speak.

Said Clinton, "Underlying those challenges is the same old debate about whether government is the problem or whether we need smart government and a changing economy working together to create the opportunities of tomorrow." Clinton went on to discuss the similarities between what Obama now faces and what he had to overcome 20 years ago.

Noted Clinton, "There's not a single example on our planet, not one, where an anti-government strategy has produced a vibrant economy with strong and broad-based growth and prosperity." Clinton also spent time celebrating his own past, of course, and arrived with his wife, Hillary Rodham-Clinton, to the sounds of "Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow," by Fleetwood Mac. It was the same song that became the anthem of his 1992 presidential bid, when he was the first member of the baby boomer generation to run for president. No longer a mere whipper snapper, Clinton noted that it’s time to support Obama that and it’s time for Congress "to act on those plans, and if they don’t like them, then come up with better ideas."