Things were good under Clinton. You can't deny it. The Repubs were actually Repubs back then. They forced Clinton to change welfare, forced him into a balanced budget by keeping the spending rules that were agreed upon by HW and a democratic congress and stopped him from setting up a more socialist medical system than we already have. Also, in the long democratic tradition he resisted the Unions and was a free trader. Granted he did hand W a recession it is neither here nor there. The length and strength of the expansion was impressive by any standard.