THE POLITICAL ANIMAL

The historic (albeit unsuccessful) candidacy of Hillary Clinton and the closing of the Bush presidency offer a chance to reflect on another president – William Jefferson Clinton.
Most people remember the Clinton years as an era of great prosperity and titillating scandal. The stock market boomed, unemployment and poverty plummeted to record lows, and late-night comedians regaled audiences with irreverent takes on the president’s sexual misadventures.
The Clinton presidency was also an important transition period in American history. After all, Bubba entered office a year after the collapse of the Soviet Union and departed eight months prior to the terrorist attacks of September 11. This period served as an interlude between the two cataclysmic events. Most Americans spent this time immersed in a sea of material excess, blissfully unaware of the powerful currents gathering strength in the depths far below.
Like many leaders, Clinton was a complicated human being who suffered no deficit of weaknesses. For starters, the Man from Hope was a living monument to reckless appetites and impulses. His behavior toward women made fools of his feminist supporters and gave new meaning to the term “southern strategy.” Also, Clinton was a sucker for all manner of crooks and sycophants, giving away White House rooms and pardons like they were candies on Halloween. His concept of truth rested on a slippery foundation. Indeed, his words often reeked of dishonesty even when he wasn’t lying.
Yet, for all his faults, Clinton was far from being the worst person to ever occupy the Oval Office. A fair reading of his record shows that he was a skillful leader and a capable diplomat.
A common perception of Bubba was that he was a phony politician who constantly stuck his finger into the wind to see which way it was blowing. This view is not without merit. After all, polls were the only things he craved more than encounters with members of the opposite sex. Yet, to say that Clinton had no core principles is a misreading of this obsession. As a matter of fact, the president often went against the grain on issues of importance to him.
For instance, Clinton sent the military into the former Yugoslavia in an effort to stop the ethnic cleansing taking place there, despite the public’s disapproval of such an intervention. Early in his first term, Clinton came out in support of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Many in his party opposed this move – particularly those aligned with unions and environmentalist causes. Also, Clinton had little to gain politically, as the negotiations for the treaty had begun under his Republican predecessor, who would likely get most of the credit if it obtained Congressional approval. Nevertheless, Clinton stuck to his guns and NAFTA became law.
Clinton’s real strength, however, lay in his pragmatism. Compromise is an essential characteristic in any successful leader, especially in a liberal democracy.
Clinton displayed this characteristic on many occasions. An example will suffice. While campaigning for president, Candidate Clinton had promised to push for a tax cut while reducing the deficit. Once in office, however, President Clinton bumped against the wall of reality when he realized that he would have to raise taxes in order to convince the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates – an act deemed essential to economic growth. Clinton reluctantly did this while abandoning a cherished government “investment” project so that the deficit could be shrunk. Despite scolding and forecasts of doom from both sides of the aisle, Clinton’s economic measures produced a result that was beyond anyone’s expectations. The economy shot up at an unprecedented annual rate of 4 percent – much higher than the 2.8 percent growth rate during the reign of Clinton’s two Republican predecessors. Real wages and homeownership were similarly affected. Over 22 million jobs were created, the most for any administration, and inflation sank to its lowest level in three decades. Little wonder that Clinton left office with the highest approval rating of any president since the end of the Second World War.
In conclusion, Clinton was a short-term success and a long-term failure. Americans benefited from his strengths, but his party paid for his weaknesses. Clinton’s charisma and brilliance afforded him an opportunity to win back those voters who had abandoned the Democratic Party in favor of their competitors; alas, he squandered it with his rashness. In the end, the best that can be said of Clinton is that, while we could have done much better, we could have also done much worse, too.

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