Clinton at crossroads, Bush heads for House

Clinton at crossroads, Bush heads for House
REUTERS

JAN 18: Bill Clinton leaves behind a mixed legacy in eight years as president, getting solid credit for the country's longest economic expansion but linked forever with the sex scandal that nearly brought him down.

While his allies and opponents debate the final Clinton record, all of them agree he has been the most gifted politician of his generation, a master communicator who used opinion polls relentlessly to see how Americans feel about issues and adjust his message accordingly.

And unlike many of his 41 predecessors, Clinton leaves the White House not embittered by his experience even though he has plenty of reasons to feel bitter. A 65 percent job approval rating is a balm to his spirit.

"Right now I just feel very at peace, and very grateful, and I'm going to start thinking about the rest of my life," Clinton said in a farewell interview.

This sentiment comes despite the historic taint offered by the Monica Lewinsky scandal which resulted in his impeachment by the House of Representatives and, although subsequently acquitted by the Senate, left him open to a possible indictment on perjury charges once he leaves office.

"He's got to live with the fact that he let some intern into the White House and subsequently was impeached," said presidential scholar Stephen Hess.

"The encyclopedia entries will all read something like 'William Jefferson Clinton, the 42nd president who was the first elected president to have been impeached,'" he said.

Stanley Renshon, political science professor at City University of New York Graduate Center and a psychoanalyst, attributed the tightness of the 2000 electoral race between Democratic Vice President Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush in part to "Clinton fatigue" and said it should have an impact on the president's legacy.

"The fact that (Gore) had to distance himself is the fact that matters," he said. "For Clinton ... it was much more important for his legacy for Gore to win."

One aspect of Clinton's survival through repeated personal and political storms was how he managed to get through them time after time.

He credits his "indomitable" mother for teaching him the edict to "never quit," and a high capacity to endure pain.

"I remember once I was in an accident in a car in high school, and my jaw hit the steering wheel real hard, and it was the steering wheel that broke, not my jaw. I have a high pain threshold," Clinton told CBS Radio in a farewell interview.

As evidenced by the Lewinsky drama and other personal scandals, Clinton's presidency was a topsy-turvy one marked by tremendous highs and lows.

His focus on deficit reduction in a closely fought 1993 vote in Congress early in his first term raised taxes and is credited by many for helping form the basis of the economic boom that lasted throughout his two four-year terms.

The economy's strong performance, and subsequent drops in the jobless rate and crime rates and a balanced federal budget with soaring tax revenue surpluses provide the foundation of the positive part of the Clinton legacy.

He joined with Republicans on changing the US welfare system with a focus of getting more people in jobs. With the economic boom, welfare rolls have sharply declined.

But his attempt for a dramatic health care plan was a monumental defeat, contributing to the Republicans' seizure of both houses of Congress from Clinton's Democrats in 1994 elections.

The Republican takeover, however, helped Clinton define himself, and his refusal to buckle under to budget demands by then House Speaker Newt Gingrich caused two government shutdowns that the public blamed on the Republicans and allowed Clinton to be relevant again. It was one of many instances where Clinton outflanked Republicans on Capitol Hill.

Abroad, Clinton signed the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada and a separate deal with China. His crowning foreign policy achievement may well have been leading NATO in an 11-week air war to drive Yugoslav troops out of Kosovo.

And Clinton advanced the cause of peace wherever he could, falling short in the Middle East and Northern Ireland but making progress in what otherwise were intractable problems.

The tall, white-haired Clinton in many ways seemed apresident out of Hollywood central casting, always there to provide solace to tornado or flooding victims, always seeming to Express the right mix of sympathy and encouragement, comfortable talking to rich movie stars or the disadvantaged, from whose ranks he came as a boy from Hope, Ark.

He was a loquacious man with a tendency toward blarney.People who came away from a chat with him would feel they had the president's complete attention only to recall later they had barely been able to get a word in edgewise.

"They may find somebody who can do this job better than me-- they will never find anybody that had any more fun doing it than I had," he said. "I have had a great time."

While it usually takes a generation or two for an objectivestudy of a president, the immediate take on Clinton is that he does not appear to have the heft to heave him into the top ranks of U.S. Presidents.

Douglas Brinkley is a presidential scholar who helpeddevise a survey published last year that ranked Clinton's presidency as average and his moral authority the lowest among U.S. Presidents.

Brinkley said although Clinton would be remembered forpresiding over the long economic expansion, this does not match up with successes of other presidents like Franklin Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, Harry Truman or Theodore Roosevelt.

"Bill Clinton has no great legacy, unlike many otherpresidents," said Brinkley.