Ten years to the day, my live blog of the 1999 State of the Union speech by President Clinton, here. Putting aside some truly cringe-worthy language, it’s an interesting read for me. I’d say that some of politics have changed somewhat since then – I’m more skeptical about “free trade”, I’m less skeptical about Social Security. My values have remained pretty much the same, though there’s some development there, too (I now care deeply about universal healthcare).  Looking at the issue list, though, it’s surprising how little has changed, even when so much has.
(As the “archive” column on the right indicates, I’ve been at this for a while. When I started off, it was about 75% (too) personal, and the remainder was about the sort of stuff you’d imagine interested a law student in DC in the late 90s ( Clinton’s impeachment, the death of Jordan’s King Hussein, etc.). Around 2002/3, I joined up with a couple of other people on a site that focused entirely on policy and politics. That lasted for a bit, and then I turned back to writing mostly on my own.  My long term ambition is to restore most of the writing from those years to this site, filtering for the personal.  You know, right after I get my files organized.)
tx2vadem
Ah, memories… He was still talking about privacy of medical records? HIPAA was so three years ago (at the time).
1999 seems like a lifetime ago now. Only three months earlier, George W. Bush became the first governor in Texas history to win a consecutive term. And then a year later Texas regurgitated him on to the national stage.