Clinton's first 2 years were pretty bad...border line disastrous. It was the balance budget act that he signed that was the big touchdown for Clinton.
Does anyone remember who drew that bill up? Gingrich...did Clinton want to sign it? No of course not, it took a lot of ass kicking to get it through but it worked, it helped the economy out more then anything in history and now Clinton can take the credit.
Clinton's first two years were only considered disastrous by the Rrght because he attempted to get a lot of left leaning stuff done. In general, these years were considered pretty good. Job creation sky rocketed, inflation dropped, unemployment was down and the deficit was shrinking already.
The balanced budget act has never been considered a "touchdown" for Clinton. It's always been attributed to republicans, and most analysts say that its benefits have been exaggerated since the economy had already been moving in a positive direction before it was passed.
And it didn't get through because of "ass kicking" ... it got through because of compromise. Clinton had made balancing the budget part of his campaign platform so basically it came down to the two parties seeing eye to eye on specifics.
