if there's one thing an intelligent person knows about the presidency is that it's a magnificent pedestal for accomplishing One Big Thing. Ronald Reagan knew this: His epitaph reads, "The Man Who Beat Communism." Clinton, by contrast, did not know this, which is to say he didn't even know what his job was actually about.
Epitaphs are often wrong. Reagan didn't beat communism, communism sank under the weight of its own inadequacy. Reagan was sitting in the chair when it happened, and might arguably have added the final pebble to the load that sank the ship.
Strange how so many people who hated communists seemed convinced that without a champion to overthrow it, communism would have lasted forever.
Clinton's greatest achievement was probably NAFTA, which is something a Republican probably couldn't have gotten away with. It's underrated, because free trade as a cause is so neglected, but it may someday be seen as a very large step indeed, both for what it accomplished and for the direction it pointed out.
I'm not a huge Clinton fan, but I can't hate him, any more than I can hate Bush. Maybe I'm just not much good at hating. There were good things and bad things that happened during those years, and at this point the extent to which his policies were responsible for either is not entirely clear. |
