I guess you missed this part: "the republicans forced him to balance the budget." Why would I or anyone else give slick willie credit for that?
I'm against many of those like you are bud, but this isn't about that. This has always been going on and it always will, don't kid yourself thinking otherwise. No matter who is president he will get information that he has to act on and doing that will push the limits of his power, no president will be immune to this. With the 9-11 attacks the gov. greatly expand their powers with the approval of the people, what can I say, not good but it isn't going to change with a new election. This isn't an Obama vs republican issue. The guy you want to be president isn't out there. Human nature remains the same, always.
the question you Hillary people should be asking... is not whether hillary can win but whether the fed can hold this bullshit economy together that long. The longer we hold off the reckoning... the worse it seems like it is going to get. We seem to be eroding the skills of the labor market every year. Soon we have what a bunch of service/knowledge workers and digital traders of some sort or another constituting the entire private sector? How is that going to support a govt this size? It will be interesting to see if we get 20 years of Japan or someone has the brains to let economy reset and less this house of cards really unwind.