People should give Clinton more credit, in the middle of rapidly rising debt, his second term actually was in the black and didn't raise the deficit at all.
Go to treasurydirect.gov and view the "Debt to the Penny" data series. Look at the column called "Total Public Debt Outstanding" and see what actually happened to the debt. You can even plot it in Excel if you want, it will help make what actually happened a lot more clear.