15 Ways Bill Clinton’s White House Failed America and the World

[merrily]

79. A few things:

Bill Clinton AND his apologists often cite a veto-proof majority.

If you look below the surface, however, you will usually find that the Clinton White House lobbied very hard on those bills to ensure a veto proof majority that Clinton could cite if and when the legislation hit the fan, as did repeal of Glass Steagall in 2008.

An allegedly veto proof majority vote does not require a President to sign a bill. He was still free to veto bills he did not wish to give his imprimatur.

There is no way of knowing if a veto proof majority will turn into an override vote if a President actually does veto. Usually, at least some votes will flip after an actual Presidential veto, especially votes of members of his own Party and especially if the President lobbies as hard against an override as the Clinton White House lobbied for these bills.

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/data/vetoes.php

http://www.senate.gov/reference/Legislation/Vetoes/vetoCounts.htm

To me, this is one more way in which the Teflon President tries to have it every which way and to shun responsibility for the foreseeable consequences of his actions, like lobbying Democrats until he did get so-called veto proof majority. If he really disapproved of bills he signed, he should not have signed them. Conversely, if he signed them, he is responsible for having signed them.