Obama needs to draw the right lesson from Clinton's battles with the GOP

Greg Sargent writes:

With Obama set to give a major speech on deficit reduction in response to Paul Ryan’s Medicare proposals, we keep hearing comparisons between the current historical moment and Bill Clinton’s mid-1990s standoff with Newt.

So maybe we should recall the forgotten lesson of Clinton’s victory: He won in no small part because he drew a very hard line against Medicare cuts, and used that battle to articulate an expansive vision of Democratic governance, which he contrasted with the GOP’s vision of a “winner-take-all society.”

I just got off the phone with Michael Waldman, who was Clinton’s chief speechwriter throughout much of that battle, and he told me that a crucial piece of the historical record is being lost. While Clinton, a New Democrat, did push for welfare reform and call for a balanced budget to restore his fiscal credibility, the former president pivoted from there to a major, protracted public fight over Medicare — and an unabashed defense of a liberal role for government — that was crucial in restoring his public standing.