We didn't have a president during those years. We had an overgrown, aging '60's-era party boy. Someone who never developed past the "if it feels good, do it" mantra of the hippies. However, the party boy always was a cunning opportunist, who, himself, never had any true core ideology. But coming from a Dem-controlled state, he found a way to insinuate himself into that state's power structure, and the rest is sorry history.
If we make the monumental mistake of electing another overgrown, aging, '60's era Dem, this time we'll be getting one who really is driven by Leftist ideology. In terms of selling this country out to the international Left, Kerry would make Clinton look like a choir boy.