In the mid-to-late 90s things weren't going great in many countries. Our two chief economic rivals, Germany and Japan, were both going through very hard times. Yet the US was soaring. Clinton didn't have to whine about how bad things were globally, because he ensured that things went well here at home. Clinton didn't need an army of servile apologists to make excuses for him, the way Bush does.

As for my salary, I actually earned more, in real terms, in 2000 than I do today. But even if that weren't true, it's a stupid comparison. The relevant comparison isn't a person with X years of experience in 2000 with a person with X+8 years of experience in 2008. Rather, the relevant comparison is between like-situated people in those two years. And the person with X years of experience in 2008 is worse off than the person with X years was in 2000, on average. Real income levels and real stock index levels have fallen over that time, while the poverty rate has risen, as you should well know.