Archive [February 1999]

What has been the greatest success of Bill Clinton’s presidency?

No, it wasn’t the government shutdown, which he implemented and then blamed on Republicans. It wasn’t demonizing Republicans, charging them with wanting to starve children and throw old people into the street. It wasn’t his 1996 reelection. It wasn’t winning the 1998 budget battle, nor was it his party’s Congressional electoral upset.

The greatest success of Bill Clinton’s presidency was the stained blue dress.

This is unarguable. Bill Clinton’s approval ratings have gone up 20 points — from the mid-50s in January 1998 when the Monica Lewinsky story broke, to what they are now, a year later: the mid-70s. This is a level of popular support only rarely seen in an American presidency.

And now, according to Gallup, Americans admire Bill and Hillary Clinton more than anyone else in the world.

But even more than they love Bill Clinton, my friends, the truth is, the American people have been persuaded to loathe and fear us — the right. In the Jan. 18 issue of The New Republic, Senior Editor Dana Milbank puts it directly: “The Republicans, with their harsh rhetoric about morality, rule of law and military conduct, have raised the stakes, forcing us to choose. Do we want the puritanical ‘Christian country’ that the Republicans praise? Or do we prefer a more secular (and perhaps more permissive) society, which our flawed President represents? The GOP has framed the choice in those terms and, in doing so, has driven the public into Clinton’s arms.”

How dare conservatives try to uphold high standards of morality, rule of law and military conduct! And how lucky for one-armed Bill that Monica snapped her thong underwear at him.