Former President Bill Clinton acknowledged on Wednesday that an anti-crime crackdown he pushed in 1994 went too far, and said he now supports his wife Hillary’s plans to reverse some of those justice policies.
Bill Clinton signed into law a crime bill that imposed tougher sentences, put thousands of more police on the streets and helped fund the building of extra prisons.
But the era of mass incarceration is now being questioned because of the continuing high proportion of Americans – especially black males – who are in prison.
The anti-crime legislation was known for its federal “three strikes” provision that sent violent offenders to prison for life. The bill was backed by congressional Republicans and hailed at the time as a success for Clinton.
But the former president told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that it was imperfect.
With Bernie Sanders in the race and Martin O’Malley likely to jump in, Mrs. Bill will be forced to make sure she’s a progressive champion, at least until she is nominated or one of these scandals causes her concussion symptoms to come back and forces her to drop out. As most of her husband’s successes were things he did in concert with, or stole from, Republicans, she is going to find herself at odds with much of his legacy.
Hillary is not a very savvy campaigner, so she may not even have been aware that she was condemning her husband’s policies when she came down on the side of the rioters in Baltimore. That fact was quickly pointed out all over the place, creating the need for another round of damage control.
Enter Bubba.
The strongest, smartest, most accomplished feminine icon in the world needed her philandering husband to enter the brouhaha and kneecap one of his own successes just so wifey could continue her little hobby.
Trust me, in the end, the only thing about the Bill Clinton era that Hillary Clinton will cling to for campaign purposes is his economic record, which was almost all a product of the Internet dot com boom and had precious little, if anything, to do with his policies.
And Bill will do anything to make sure she has a job that keeps her busy.
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