Why was this modded insightful? Did you even follow the votes in the 90s or are you just making assumptions based on purported party ideology (which I must add is entirely false: Republicans have done a terrible job balancing the budget since Reagan)? The Republicans were firmly against Clinton balancing the budget (it was done by tax increases): it was very similar to the passing of Obama's stimulus plan. This was Clinton's primary goal, to the chagrin of Republicans. The 90s were a combination of very wise coordination of both fiscal and monetary policy, not at all "let's sit back and let the good times roll." That attitude would've at once contracted our economy while raising our debt. The dot-com bubble was no more helpful than the housing bubble was for our economy, and I hardly see those years anywhere near as prosperous as Clinton's years, the first time in decades that the income gap decreased with a booming economy and rising income across the board. Clinton and Greenspan took innovative economic initiatives against the will Republican party and it paid off greatly for the entire nation. This is simply indisputable.

Why would you decide a console is better because of it's potential? I don't care what games "could" be on the Xbox 360: I care what games are on it, and the games that exist are simply not as entertaining to me as games from the SNES era. The "all other things equal" argument doesn't work: things aren't equal; video games today are made with a vastly different style than games from the SNES. Almost all games have shifted, especially on the 360 and PS3, to a more cinematic presentation. Some think that adds to the gameplay, I think it takes away. I'd rather those resources be put to use on improving the gameplay. Not even the genres are the same: the platformer ruled back then, and the FPS rules today. It's not the same market, even if Halo 3 were 16-bit. I'm obviously not alone believing in the superiority of prior games, since many others have defended consoles such as the Commodore 64 and the NES. You can argue for a definitive best console based on what could be, I suppose, but if that's the case, I wonder how many people would declare the PS3 the best video game console ever made. All I'm saying is it should be clear why anyone could prefer any console: the games are different.