Whenever I start reading US politics threads, it seems that eventually someone will bring this up in comparision to something that Bush has done.
At what point will other aspects of the Clinton presidency be more remembered than the blowjob?
Or am I completely off-base with this as a Canadian who is spending too much time in The Pit (and to a lesser extent GD)?
Never.
The scandals always stick in the memory longer than the successes. Eventually history books will start presenting a balanced view, but the blowjob will always be there, just like Teapot Dome.
And the cherry tree, which may not have even existed in real life.
I think the impeachment is (or will be) remembered more than the blow job, really. Clinton supporters tend to remember the fairly good economy and balanced budget sort of stuff. And frankly, more and more former Bushies are remembering it too.
I think “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” as a joke will come close. As for substantial accomplishments, perhaps welfare reform & almost getting the budget under control will be remembered.
And I say this as a Clinton opponent who has to admit that he didn’t do too bad a job.
The bad thing about DADT — aside from its utter ineffectiveness — is that it was a direct breach of his repeated campaign promises with respect to gays in the military. I’ve always been surprised about how gays cling to the Democrats who, quite honestly, have been embarassingly blatant about the lukewarmness of their support for gays. It’s like Seinfeld at the rental car counter: anyone can say “Go gay rights!”. But where the hell is the legislation?
And yeah, I’m familiar with the argument that Republicans are even worse and so gays must choose the lesser of two evils. But that’s just more snow-jobbery from the Big Two. There really ARE alternatives out there, and so long as they have you convinced that no one but them stands a chance, they have you exactly where they want you — voting for them.
Didn’t Clinton also sign the Defense of Marriage Act?
I like (and miss!!! ;)) Bill, but his gay rights record sucks ass, and I don’t excuse or forgive him for it.
Well…Bush got a DUI! 
The evil that men do lives after them;
the good is oft interred with their bones.
Yes. I was too young to vote at the time, but that was where he lost me; I had the feeling he’d just stabbed a lot of people in the back.
Only two U.S. Presidents have ever been impeached, so from that standpoint, that may be the most unusual (and therefore memorable) part of Bill Clinton’s tenure. There’s a caveat here: if Hillary becomes President, a lot of people will remember his term partly in context of hers.
“The scandals always stick in the memory longer than the successes.”
I thought I was the poster boy for short term memory loss,but it seems everyone has forgotten Iran-Contra and instead placed #40 to the right of God.
Have to give it a while for Bill.Death boosts approval ratings.
Good god, yes! Look what it did for Nixon. Of course, having an even worse person in the Oval Office at the time of his death helped him out there, too…
It seems like the 1990s were when the Republicans got WHINY. Reagan was gone, Bush had sunk without a trace despite being a wartime president (“It’s the economy, stupid!”), and those Evil Gays were using the Intarweb to make some serious noise about Civil Rights. Rush could whine and bitch and moan about how the Liberals were Ruining America and Clinton’s hummer just put the cherry on top of the shit sundae he was feeding the Dittoheads. It was a sad, sad day for the GOP when Rush Limbaugh became its official spokesman. It was even sadder when Limbaugh ceded his crown to O’Reilly.
To be fair, the GOP really didn’t have anything serious to whine about: Clinton’s presidency was remarkably quiet compared to what came before and after. The biggest stories were from the Crazed Hick Contingent: Ruby Ridge, Waco, and Oklahoma City. Those were all terrible and OKC in particular was troubling, but ultimately nothing went anywhere and by the late 1990s everything had blown over. The economy was a bigger deal, and would have a much more lasting influence.
Outside America things were even quieter, with Iraq acting like a punching bag and Other People taking care of the Balkans as opposed to us taking a leadership role as we had in Gulf War I. People were making noise about China but there was nothing like the focus of attention these days. NAFTA got some little press but it, too, didn’t blow up as planned. (The “giant sucking sound” was, in fact, Monica.) The GOP might as well add a few dozen names to the Clinton Death List and get Rush to mainline some more hillbilly heroin, seeing as how the biggest threats were jokes like North Korea. That pervert Ken Starr gave the GOP the only semi-legitimate bitch it had for eight years.
I never thought the BJ was worth mentioning, even in the late 1990s. To me it was about sexual harrassment and lying under oath. At the time I was involved in an insane lawsuit and it was scary to think that the other side could just lie in court and nothing would happen. It all worked out OK for me in the end, thanks to my lawyer.
BTW, it’s always been my impression that the Dems are more likely to try to distract with attacks on GWB’s intelligence, which is funny considering that he’s the only POTUS to earn degrees from both Harvard and Yale.
And don’t forget “Read my lips…”.
Not after Clinton in any case.
I was not aware of that. What are they?
Moving thread from IMHO to Great Debates.
George W. Bush was a self-described “C student” (and his transcript seems to support that assessment) at Yale, earning a BA in History there in 1968. He earned an MBA from the two-year program at Harvard Business School in 1975.
This isn’t a particularly spectacular record in terms of academic achievement, especially since Bush, as a Yale “legacy brat” from a famous family, had advantages in the admissions process that ordinary C students couldn’t aspire to. Still, I completely agree that there’s no reason at all to think that Bush is dumb or unintelligent.
Clinton sold out. I’m sure there are excuses, such as the impossibility of real change, fear of mutiny in the military, or political pressure, but, to me, he sold out. Of course he’s a politician, but I will forever dislike him for not living up to his promises and betraying people with the DADT and, even worse, his signing of DOMA.