This questionable quality replaces power in their eyes. Exercising power would be too suspect in terms of coolness. This is why they were quite happy with his ineffectual tenure in office, and wished it could go on forever, in neverland, a suspension of the real world as the market went up and nothing happened--or so they continually told themselves.
I actually believe that Clinton's response to 9/11 WTC would have not been retaliation, but a way to show that he was still cool. The model would have been the Oklahoma Federal Building bombing--which more than anything saved him from being a one termer. He showed he was cool and the Gingrich and Limbaughs were not. All BS of course, but that's how it went. WJC would have said his menacing "we will hunt you down" one more time, but it would have been the supposed criminal facilitators of the twin towers and not the axis of evil that he would have been after. There never would have been an invasion of Afghanistan, let alone Iraq. We forget so easily, but the NPR types were not on board with going after the Taliban, in a land that supposedly eats up western powers. That's all forgotten now. That Bush actually had opposition [albeit muted in the immediate post 9/11 atmosphere] to that move. But this should be brought back to memory now by paid pundits like Peggy ---instead of her "inside Media" and "inside Politics" columns.