Constant stream of scandals kept president from fulfilling potential

Watson is a third-year student currently enrolled in classes at
UCLA’s extension program.

By Anthea Watson

Was President Clinton great? It’s a question that will be
debated often during the month and into the future. The country
will be divided, perhaps more divided over this issue than over who
to choose for President Clinton’s successor ““ if that
is possible. And I believe that divide will prove to be the heart
of Clinton’s legacy.

As a feminist who believes in the liberal causes of the left I
had so much hope for the Clinton administration. Clinton could have
been great, but his greatness was hampered by his scandals. He
disappointed me. Clinton could not lead as well as he should have
because of all his misdeeds.

From the balanced budget through the impeachment, Bosnia,
welfare reform, NATO expansion, Monicagate, NAFTA, Northern
Ireland, Kosovo, the saving of the forest, to the disintegrated
peace process in the Middle East, Clinton inspired love and hate,
utter devotion and disgust beyond measure.

President Clinton is an enigma of hope and despair. Throughout
his presidency there were highs and lows. There could have been
more highs, but the lows kept getting in the way. He lied to us
about his affairs, but he was the only president in history to make
us face racism and its effects. He made us fear the GOP ideas on
Social Security and Medicare, but he didn’t reform the
programs in time for the baby boomers.

He opposed China on the Taiwan independence issue with military
actions and then guided China into the WTO despite its human rights
record. He rented out the Lincoln Bedroom to major political
donors, yet he eliminated federal deficits and started paying down
the national debt. He publicly announced, with much fanfare, an end
to big government, then turned around and created hundreds of new
federal programs. He sat at the negotiation table with Milosevic in
Dayton, Ohio, and then bombed him in Belgrade.

He saved countries from financial ruin but left office with huge
legal debts. He supported NAFTA and the WTO but sympathized with
anti-trade protesters in Seattle. President Clinton was impeached,
tried, and held in contempt by a court and yet he still enjoyed
public approval ratings above 60 percent.

President Clinton’s leaving office is almost as momentous
as President- elect George W. Bush’s taking office. Without
Bill Clinton, the Democratic Party lacks a single powerful leader
to push the party to the middle against a conservative flood tide.
There is no one within the party who can articulate and drive an
agenda full of the pet issues from the left.

Suddenly the United States is without the leadership of a
statesman willing to join every international moral crusade or
free-trade agreement. And without President Clinton the White House
will lack the muck of constant scandals.

As every president does, Clinton leaves behind legacies. The GOP
propelled the most historic legislative package of his presidency
““ welfare reform ““ through the legislative process
without his support. As he came to office he inherited an expanding
economy that he allowed to develop quickly by balancing the budget,
thereby ending market-altering federal deficits.

But the economy was really affected little by the president; it
was affected more by the development in technological industries,
middle-age investment fervor and of course the only person
seemingly immune from being wrong ““ Greenspan and the Federal
Reserve.

President Clinton was one of the most skilled politicians of the
20th century, but also one of its most limited leaders. His skill
was curbed by his conduct as a president, a Republican-dominated
Congress and a time when the market caused Americans to look more
to financiers than to politicians for answers.

Clinton is a man of many gifts, yet it seems he never reached
his full potential. He failed to pass any major agenda and can only
really claim to have surfed the wave of the New Economy. Yet even
the New Economy seems to be a crashing wave as recession loomed in
the final days of his presidency.

Clinton’s greatest achievements may come after he has left
the Oval Office, as is the case with another recent president,
Jimmy Carter. Then he will be free of personal political goals and
the daily battles of Washington.

Clinton could have been a president to remember for all time
““ he had the charisma, drive, and ability to lead this nation
as few others have. He could have brought to this country all the
programs he believed in, the things that made me believe in him.
Instead, he will be remembered as the president who didn’t,
and in that way, he failed me and his country.