# How will Bill Clinton be judged as a President by history? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 23, 2002, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-bill-clinton-be-judged-as-a-president-by-history/138349 "2002-11-23T16:19:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2002, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-bill-clinton-be-judged-as-a-president-by-history/138349/41 "2002-11-25T20:02:13Z")
(IOW, Clinton was the victim of a smear campaign of historic proportions.) ---
**Author:** ![december](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/838e76/32.png) [@december](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/december)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2002, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-bill-clinton-be-judged-as-a-president-by-history/138349/42 "2002-11-25T20:23:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by spoke- \* > \*\*Clinton will be remembered as the target and victim of a rabidly partisan Republican Party. \*\* For a complete list of those Presidents who will be remembered the target and victim of a rabidly partisan opposition party, [see](http://www.dropbears.com/b/broughsbooks/history/us_presidents.htm). ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2002, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-bill-clinton-be-judged-as-a-president-by-history/138349/43 "2002-11-25T20:26:12Z")
> [@](#): > > Ike still seems to have done little except sit on his ass when it came to Civil rights. **WSLer** , nothing could be farther from the truth. To be sure, Ike was not about to take a strong liberal position on civil rights issues – he considered himself a conservative Republican, which nobody else in public life found out until 1952, and actually ended up as a moderate. But when the SCOTUS issued _Brown v. Board of Education_ and the ensuing cases, he stood by the law of the land as pronounced by its highest court based on its constitution and statute law, and backed it 100%. Search for Orval Faubus +Little Rock for one major pro-civil-rights item. **Sleestak** , while I don’t have strong evidence, Andrew Tobias gives some accounts of pre-incumbency stances taken (though not in public, political venues) by Clinton that he did indeed try to follow up on while in office. I think he shaped his policy by public opinion polls, as has every president since Elmo Roper was just a little piece of twine, and was probably more influenced by them than most, but it’s a misjudgment to say that he acted solely in response to the polls. As for my assessment, I can recall a Democratic president faced by overseas terrorism who agreed to some limited acts of intervention but was fairly steadfast about not wanting to get into a major war (and was criticized for it), who had some liberal ideas far ahead of his time which were defeated by staunch Republican opposition, and whose legacy is somewhat paltry in terms of accomplishments as a result – but who has a very high reputation. In addition, this president was accused of having his wife set a great deal of policy in his name. I believe all these points are criticisms raised about WJC. Of course, I’m speaking of Woodrow Wilson. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2002, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-bill-clinton-be-judged-as-a-president-by-history/138349/44 "2002-11-25T20:51:16Z")
Cute, december. Of course, slightly inaccurate - there was no opposition party for Washington. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2002, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-bill-clinton-be-judged-as-a-president-by-history/138349/45 "2002-11-25T21:08:55Z")
And what about Monroe? (Unless you count that one ticked-off elector a “rabidly partisan opposition party,” of course.) ---
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2002, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-bill-clinton-be-judged-as-a-president-by-history/138349/46 "2002-11-25T22:51:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by sleestak \* > \*\*For example: Clinton wanted to create a National Health Care System. The polls were against Clinton so he bailed on the idea. He never brought the idea up again. \*\* sleestak, you make it sound like Clinton looked at a couple polls and went “pfft. forget it” when what really happened was that it wasn’t just the polls that were against Clinton’s health care reform, _Everybody_ was against Clinton’s health care reform. Good or bad he fought for it and ended up going down with the ship. The clip below is but a month in a year and a half long struggle. And this was with Democrat majorities in the House _and_ Senate: > [@](#): > > Late August 1994 - Democrats begin preparing for the November elections by distancing themselves from their President – and from the reform he has attempted. > > Early September 1994 - Top aides to Kennedy, Mitchell, and Chafee, in round-theclock sessions, prepare a final compromise bill that will be ready when Congress returns on September 19. > > September 19, 1994 - The New York Times reports remarks – never subsequently denied – that Bob Packwood made to his Republican senatorial colleagues during closed-door strategy sessions while he was managing the Republican attack during the summer. “We’ve killed health care reform,” Packwood told his fellow Republican senators. “Now we’ve got to make sure our fingerprints are not on it.” For many this is the “smoking gun”: proof of a carefully plotted, and secret, Republican strategy. > > Congress reconvenes. Mitchell hopes to set aside four days for Senate debate on the new Mainstream bill and then schedule a straight up-or-down vote. Republicans begin mobilizing for a filibuster to keep the bill from reaching the floor. Supporters realize they don’t have enough votes to break the filibuster. > > September 20, 1994 - Newt Gingrich privately warns Bill Clinton in the White House that if he continues to push for health reform in the closing days of the session, he will lose the Republican support needed to pass GATT, which the President believes is critical to the U.S. economic position as the leader of the Western alliance. George Mitchell, repeating this Gingrich threat to colleagues privately immediately after, describes it as “an atomic bomb blast.” > > September 26, 1994 - At a news conference in the Capitol, George Mitchell pulls the plug on health care reform. from: [http://www.pbs.org/newshour/forum/may96/background/health\_debate\_page1.html](http://www.pbs.org/newshour/forum/may96/background/health_debate_page1.html) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-bill-clinton-be-judged-as-a-president-by-history/138349.md?page=2)