In 1988 a young Arkansas governor that was an up and comer in the Democratic Party gave a speech on opening night for over 30 minutes and was ridiculed for it even by his own party. Did anyone remember that 4 years later when he ran for president?
Clinton was “Slick Willie” while running for President and was already undergoing a sexual harrassment investigation. Then a few years later, he gets caught having “sex” with an intern. What a shocker!
In 1989, Judge Nixon is impeached for perjury before a grand jury. His defense is that perjury is not an impeachable offence. The Senate disagrees and he is convicted. Nine years later, President Clinton is impeached on similar charges. 27 Democratic senators that voted to convict Nixon apparently have a different view on perjury now and vote for acquittal.
During the early days of his presidency, Clinton put his wife in charge of passing a comprehensive health-care package. This failed spectacularly but seems to be a non-issue, even today as Ms. Rodham is running for the presidency.
In 1994, Republicans take control of Congress for the first time in 40 years. Are the Republicans led by a brilliant politician and strategist who could take the mandate they were given and destroy any hope of Clinton getting a second term? Nope - we get Newt Gingrich and a movement away from mainstream America towards the religious right.
In short, Clinton is a lucky son-of-a-bitch owing to the short memory of most Americans. Even now, most people remember the impeachment for getting a blowjob (it wasn’t) which make Henry Hyde and the rest of the Reps look like idiots. That will be the legacy of Clinton and he will be remembered as a pretty good president when in fact, he was pretty mediocre.
If that. Paula Jones may have been sexually harassed by Bubba, but nothing that came out in the investigation suggests Lewinsky was, AFAIK. More likely she was simply dazzled by the honor, if you can call it that, of attracting inappropriate attention from the POTUS. And he is a very charming, charismatic fellow – most of his many women were probably more than willing. Sex between boss and subordinate does not always involve harassment, though it is automatic grounds for suspicion of such.
“Pretty Mediocre” sounds like a comparative measure. Compared to Washington and Lincoln and what they accomplished for the country, he was downright terrible. Compared to the current nimrod at the helm, he looks like a paragon of restraint and frugality. It’s all relative.
Naw, we like a fighter, everybody knows that. (Assuming they’re not frigging incompetent; note how the current war president is not exactly coming off smelling of roses.)
As a two-time Clinton voter, and staunch advocate of equal rights for gays, I’ve never understood gays right advocates who excoriate Clinton for DADT.
Anyone who thinks a more progressive policy would have been achievable at the time is underestimating the homophobia of the military culture and the unified conservative oppostion to allowing gays to serve openly.
The progress evident in the fact that most mainstream conservatives in 2007 support DADT convinces me that it was a much wiser strategic move than it would have been to push further in 1990s America.
IMO, Clinton’s signing of the DOMA was a lot more reprehensible pandering than DADT. Politics is the art of the possible.
When the other side of the political equation is jumping up and down trying to land on you with both feet it’s easy to see why homosexuals cling to the Democrats.
Impeachment is and is intended to be a political process, not a judicial one. Precedents are not binding, consistency is not required, and an “impeachable offense” is whatever Congress wants it to be in that particular instance.
You’re not completely off base, just missing the context. It isn’t really about Clinton at all, it’s about that old chestnut of political discourse, exposing hypocrisy. Its use derives from the intensity with which a large portion (but substantially in the minority) devoted their energies to denouncing Clinton’s human failings, declaring him unfit for the Presidency, and supporting the hijacking of democracy that his impeachment represented on the basis of supporting some “principle” that was, ya know, never clearly articulated in a form that could withstand even moderate scrutiny.
That same faction has somehow *not * been morally exercised to the point of demanding impeachment, or even not re-electing, a successor who has lied us into war, cost thousands of soldiers’ lives, engaged in torture, and generally refused to follow laws he didn’t want to. They have, however, been quite energetic and ingenious about finding or manufacturing ways in which they could say “But Clinton did it too!”.
So when you hear “But Clinton got a blowjob!”, it’s really sarcasm, targeted at someone who had previously denounced that action but won’t denounce warmongering and torture. The hope, usually forlorn but sometimes realized, is that it exposes the “principle” they have stood for as being merely partisanship.
Any President who keeps us out of wars gets marked down for it; this country idolizes war-time Presidents, perhaps because it’s an area the US has done well in over the years.
But I wouldn’t be so quick to say Clinton kept us out of major wars: the US military was fairly involved in Iraq, Haiti, Liberia, Somalia, Yugoslavia (twice? Thrice?) throughout his administration. While none of those really match the scale of the current Iraq conflict, all together it meant that our military was deployed overseas in huge numbers for most of the decade.
He, however, won’t really be remembered for any of that. Nor the fact that he was impeached for perjury. Nor the economic boom or the balanced budgets or his failed attempts at peace talks in Israel…
Interesting how rarely this comes up when people leap to defend the US military as a politically neutral body. Why you’d think if the C in C decides gays should serve ‘openly’ in the military then his subordinates would afford that preference some respect. But no, apparently the neutrality and professionalism of the military is best seen when the C in C has some policies favoured by conservatives.
Don’t forget, too, that members of his own party in Congress were deadset against the change. Sam Nunn was the Democratic chairman of the Armed Forces Committee at the time and I distinctly remember that the rancor between Clinton and him on this was absolutely deadly.
Also, the armed forces, as a body, are officially politically neutral (well, were politically neutral). But because the military is a self-selecting cohort since the ending of the draft, and rural areas (which are generally more conservative) have contributed by far the largest percentage of volunteers, the individual members have skewed right-wing. This has recently begun to change, but it’s still nowhere near parity.
You know, I just don’t think that’s true. Amongst the punditry it all seemed a big deal, but the way I remember it is as a time of peace and prosperity with some background noise coming out of DC.
And I think most people do too. Wasn’t it the case that popular support for Clinton remained fairly even and not much touched by the whole BJ story? From the little interest I took in it at the time, it looked like he was cornered into weaseling about his sex life. Over time that still seems true. I don’t care about a president’s consensual sex life and consider him entitled to lie and evade if asked about it. No trickery turns his sex life into a legitimate public concern.
But what you said allows or permits that the C in C isn’t entitled to expect the military to follow his orders if the policies aren’t ‘conservative’. I’m not buying that.
Interviewer: And next the men of the Second Armoured Division regale us with their famous close order swanning about.
(Cut to sergeant with eight soldiers.)
Sergeant: Squad. Camp it … up!
Soldiers: (mincing in unison) Oooh get her! Whoops! I’ve got your number ducky. You couldn’t afford me, dear. Two three. I’d scratch your eyes out. Don’t come the brigadier bit with us, dear, we all know where you’ve been, you military fairy. Whoops, don’t look now girls the major’s just minced in with that dolly colour sergeant, two, 'three, ooh-ho!
