Which man was the more skilled politician?

[JRP1994]

Vote!

[Cory]

Probably Bill.

[Oswald Acted Alone, You Kook]

Reagan, he didn't get impeached and is the patron saint of his party.

[Yank2133]

Reagan was able to sell trickle down economics to the general public......that alone puts him above Clinton.

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

Reagan.  Cruised to landslide victories as he ran the country into the ground in almost every aspect, and created the blueprint for every Republican for the next 30 years. 

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Reagan actually changed the direction the country was headed.
Clinton licked his finger and stuck it up in the air to decide his current views.

[Mister Mets]

Arguments for Reagan...
- His wins were bigger.
- He changed the course of the country in more significant ways.
- His Veep was elected President.

Arguments for Clinton...
- No one else has ever gone from small-state Governor to President. The path from big-state Governor to President is well-traveled (Monroe, Van Buren, Tyler, Hayes, Cleveland, FDR, Carter, George W Bush, etc.)
- He did not have the resources and connections Reagan did.
- He has a strong chance of getting a member of his family into the White House.

I'll go with Clinton.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Clinton

[GOON]

The answer is always Ronald Reagan.

[TDAS04]

Reagan

[Grumpier Than Thou]

Bill Clinton was a master of coercion.

[Vosem]

In terms of getting their beliefs ahead? Reagan.

In terms of getting themselves ahead? Clinton.

Went with Reagan.

[tpfkaw]

Quick, think of a famous zinger with which Bill Clinton humiliated his debate opponent.

For that matter, think of any famous Bill Clinton quote other than "I didn't inhale," "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky," or "It depends upon what the meaning of the word 'is' is."

No cheating.

....

Ronald Reagan is objectively the superior politician of the two. Moving past notable and quotable moments, Reagan won two of the largest landslides in American history while moving his party away from the center, while Clinton won two slightly-above-average victories while moving his party toward the center. He also for a time governed in so tone-deaf a manner that his party lost huge majorities in both houses of Congress for the first time in 42 years, and never regained them both until 6 years after his presidency ended. It's hard to imagine a hypothetical Democratic Reagan making such a mistake.

Reagan got his transformative tax cuts and military buildup through Tip O'Neill's House, while conceding little other than not cutting spending as deeply as he wanted, while Clinton got no significant left-wing legislation past Newt Gingrich's much smaller majority that I can think of, and everything that did go through was legislation on which his administration agreed with the GOP, and/or compromised with or made concessions to them.

Also, not to state the obvious, but Reagan was faithful to his wife and never sexually harassed anyone.

This is not to say Clinton is a poor politician. Nobody becomes President who is a poor politician, and Clinton is well above-average even by Presidential standards. It's just that Reagan was one of the most skillful and natural politicians who has ever lived, and so virtually anyone would come up short compared to him. To say otherwise is to either be pretty hackish or to betray your second-half-of-the-1990s birthdate.

[Oswald Acted Alone, You Kook]

Don't forget that Reagan managed to get away with worse crimes than lying under oath about a sexual relationship.

[Vega]

Probably Bill.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Both where mediocre at best.

[Mechaman]

LOL @ Clinton winning.  The only reason why his moderate heroic "New Democrat" brand existed in the first place was as a surrender to the austerity politics that have been so easy to push. . . . thanks to Reagan.

You geniuses might as well argue that Eisenhower was a more "skilled" politician than FDR.

Seriously, this is one of the moments where the haskishness of the forum far outweighs it's logical thinking abilities.

Clinton was a socially moderate Ronald Reagan.

[tpfkaw]

Quick, think of a famous zinger with which Bill Clinton humiliated his debate opponent.

He humiliated Jerry Brown in the '92 debates just off the top of my head.

By saying what?

Reagan has

"I am paying for this microphone!" (Bush)

"There you go again." (Carter)

"Are you better off now than you were four years ago?" (Carter)

"I want you to know that also I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience." (Mondale)

[nolesfan2011]

Reagan was able to sell trickle down economics to the general public......that alone puts him above Clinton.

Reagan comfortably won 2 nationwide elections and his mojo carried on to his running mate in the next election, and he won the Governorship in California. Clinton won a close first election, and a comfortable second term, and Arkansas was easier to win than CA in my opinion.. so yes I'm going with Reagan.

The great communicator>slick willy

The affair situation still damaged Clinton, far more than Contra and such did for Reagan, even though that was arguably worse. Clinton is still living so he's popular now, but Reagan is an icon for the GOP in a way Clinton isn't and never will (notice Democrats never say "we're the party of Bill Clinton" or "I have the values of Bill Clinton" the way most every big time GOP candidate says "We're the party of Reagan" or "I share Ronald Reagan's values".

Clinton is skilled but Reagan is up there with LBJ, FDR and JFK

[Mr. Morden]

Quick, think of a famous zinger with which Bill Clinton humiliated his debate opponent.

He humiliated Jerry Brown in the '92 debates just off the top of my head. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNl_dMVmuZQ

Will Jerry and Hillary make up when he's governor of California while she's POTUS?

[Oswald Acted Alone, You Kook]

Blame Ross Perot for Clinton's elections being close. If Perot were less prominant Clinton would have done better.

[Mordecai]

Both were pretty skilled, but Reagan has the edge over Clinton.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Clinton, but Reagan had a far greater impact.

[Bacon King]

The answer to this depends on what is meant by "politician"

Reagan was far superior to Clinton in the performance aspect of politics, with famous debate victories and speeches that were strong, memorable, and persuasive. This strength allowed him to define the country's political discourse on his own terms.

Where Clinton really excelled was strategy and intuition. Clinton was excellent at negotiating with the Republican Congress, triangulating so deftly that even when he was literally just passing their agenda he was able to steal the credit and claim it as his own. In 1995 he put a stop to Republican shutdown tactics by masterminding a plan where he goaded Speaker Gingrich into initiating and maintaining a shutdown on unfavorable terms just by treating Gingrich disrespectfully on an airplane trip - he knew the man's personality and could tell where all the pieces would fall from there.

[krazen1211]

Slick Willy of course.