CLINTON'S PRESIDENCY: WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN

CLINTON'S PRESIDENCY: WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN
Sat Jun 26, 8:00 PM ET
By Cynthia Tucker

Bill Clinton hopes to be acquitted by history. Fortunately for him, though, no subject of history is ever around to hear its verdict.

Scholars will probably wonder what drove legions of conservatives to hate Clinton with such fury that they wasted years and spent a king's ransom trying to drive him from office. They will no doubt note that Clinton accomplished much despite the "vast right-wing conspiracy": He righted the nation's finances after decades of dangerous deficits. He drove the initiative that stopped a pogrom in Bosnia.

And, quite contrary to conventional wisdom, Clinton contained Saddam Hussein. After the U.S. invasion, President Bush sent weapons inspector David Kay to lead the search for weapons of mass destruction. When he found none, Kay credited the combination of hard-nosed U.N. inspections through the mid-1990s and Clinton's bombing campaign against Iraqi targets in 1998 with eliminating Saddam's stockpiles of WMDs and most of his capacity to produce chemical weapons.

Still, as these first drafts of history are written, it seems unlikely historians will tag Clinton with greatness. Perhaps history itself -- which did not call upon Clinton to found a new nation, or save the union, or confront global tyranny -- robbed the 42nd president of the opportunity for pre-eminence.

But historians may well find that Clinton robbed himself. The fallout from his sordid dalliance with Monica Lewinsky distracted the president from doing that which could have made him great and, in many ways, it reduced his presidency to a foolish caricature.

Clinton's hubris allowed his foes to overwhelm him and hijack the national agenda. His second term might have been devoted to profound problems -- the racial divide, the shrinking middle class, Islamic terrorists. But it was wasted on scandal.

Look at what Clinton might have accomplished. His instincts on race were just right, targeting both racism and black self-destruction. He protected affirmative action; but he also gave a brilliant speech at a black church in Memphis in 1993, challenging activists on black crime, family dissolution and academic failure. Ultimately, however, the racial initiative of his second term came to naught.

A decade of unparalleled prosperity, ushered in by his economic policies, gave him the political capital to tackle the growing divide between rich and poor. He might have dreamed up strategies that would have helped American workers withstand the tidal forces of globalization. He did not.

And then there is the matter of Osama bin Laden and his network of jihadists, al-Qaida. In his autobiography, "My Life," Clinton writes of a difficult period in 1998 when he was trying to salvage his marriage while also confronting al-Qaida attacks on U.S. embassies. On vacation with Hillary, he said, "I spent the first couple of days alternating between begging forgiveness and planning the strikes on al-Qaida."

That about says it all, doesn't it? Even Clinton, with his legendary ability to "compartmentalize," couldn't possibly have concentrated fully on the threat. He was not only distracted, but he was also boxed in by the scandal. Any attempt to deal more harshly with bin Laden would have been derided by political foes accusing him of trying to divert the public's attention.

In "My Life," Clinton owns up to his sins, admitting that "what I had done with Monica Lewinsky was immoral and foolish." But he also spends a vast treasury of words to prove that a cabal of ultraconservatives was determined to wreck his presidency. He's right. They were.

But they weren't elected president. He was. If he genuinely believed that they didn't have the best interests of the nation at heart, he had a moral responsibility to outmaneuver them. Instead, he gave them the ammunition they needed to impeach him.

This a really feeble attempt to try to find something he accomplished.

Let's make a comparison with this:

The Greatest
Self | 06/12/2004 | Chris Davis

Posted on 06/12/2004 8:16:06 PM PDT by writer33

The President of the United States is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States. The president is in charge of preserving, protecting, and defending the Constitution of the United States of America. It is the President of the United States’ job to dispatch soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines to resolve small conflicts in peacekeeping efforts. No one person is more important to the U.S. Military than the president. He will decide their fate in deployments throughout the world. The U.S. President must be strong, decisive, defiant, patriotic, and optimistic. He must exemplify the behavior for his very soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and coast guard members to have under his command. The Commander-in-Chief must represent America in the finest traditions of the Founding Fathers, as if they were looking down upon him from above.

On June 6, 2004, America lost President Ronald Reagan. There was no greater president in the twentieth century than Ronald Reagan. He personified patriotism and all that America stood for. He conquered the Soviet Union, crushing the “Evil Empire,” and loosening the communist jaws on the European continent without firing a single shot. He battled Russia, making critical strategic moves without launching a single missile or invading a single country. President Reagan’s policies allowed America to flourish while overcoming an enemy bent on taking over the world.

Liberals will argue that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the greatest president of the twentieth century. After all, he did when World War II, fighting in two theaters of war. In reminder, President Ronald Reagan won a thirty-year Cold War with minimal loss of life. He fought a seemingly endless battle with the liberal media against him, always remaining the optimist. He kept America safe with the looming threat of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles pointed at American citizens, while liberals chanted, “You can’t do that. You’re going to end the world.” He built the largest military in U.S. History and America stood strong against the ugly, Soviet Bear.

America thrived during President Reagan’s tenure. He brought prosperity to America not seen since after World War II. By cutting top marginal tax rate from 90%-28%, he allowed Americans to keep more of their own money, spending it and ushering in one of the longest economic booms in American history. Even in the 1990’s, before President Clinton raised taxes, growth continued, jobs flourished, and technology boomed. All of this prosperity came from President Reagan’s tax cuts despite the liberal embellishments of doom.

Cutting taxes enabled employers to hire more workers, invest more money in the Stock Market, and delve into future technologies. Men like Bill Gates could not have succeeded had it not been for President Reagan. These new computer programs ushered in a whole new technology sector, bringing more and more jobs to more and more Americans. Reagan was elected in an Electoral College landslide in 1980. It gave Americans the best chance for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Twenty years later that election marks one of the finest in America.

John Marshall once said, “The power to tax involves the power to destroy.” President Reagan understood this the minute he took office. This leveled the importance of implementing his tax cuts. When he took office in 1981, America was facing one of the worst economic periods since the Great Depression. Interest rates were at an all time high, there were gas lines, unemployment was at its highest in 50 years, and America’s morale was at rock bottom.

After congress passed the proposed tax cuts, liberals screamed, “This is gonna send us into the next depression.” They were wrong as usual. Had President Reagan raised taxes to increase revenue, we would’ve sunk into a deeper recession-a veritable “quagmire,” taking even longer to recover and limiting the military budget that was needed to fight the menacing Russian machine invading Afghanistan.

The world was in turmoil, America was suffering, and the liberals were happy, all the while blaming President Ronald Reagan. In 1981, the economy started to turn for the better. Six months later, unemployment began to decline, people started working, and the American machine, with all its mite, began the long, arduous journey out of a recession. With the hard work of the American people and President Reagan’s foresight, they had completely erased President Carter’s recession. Soon, Reagan would focus his crosshairs on OPEC and the Middle East.

President Reagan understood that less dependence on foreign oil would ensure lower gas prices for Americans, allowing them to spend their money elsewhere. Companies such as Halliburton, Brown and Root and others began more and more exploration. His policies made OPEC keep oil prices competitive, reducing the price of oil to Americans. This allowed for even more prosperity to America. After years and years, President Reagan had nearly broken OPEC’s back. This began an oil boom, explaining to OPEC that Americans would not sit idly by and take it in the rear end. After all, President Reagan understood America and Americans.

He took a similar stance with the Soviet Union. He defiantly faced, and in no uncertain terms, told them we would not be bullied, blackmailed, or extorted. We would fight them if it meant pushing the button and sending ICBM’s into Moscow. Boldly he touted the Star Wars program. Bravely, he built a strong, defiant U.S. Armed Forces, forcing the Soviet Union to spend the bulk of their budgeted dollars to defend a program that never left the ground. Facing Russia head on, something liberals decreed would never work, strengthened the morale of Americans, giving them pride in their country for the first time in years. President Reagan’s great service to his country-a country of misfits that kicked out tyranny-strengthened a sleeping giant and gave us the pride to wave the American flag.

President Ronald Wilson Reagan gained the respect and admiration of the soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and coast guard members serving under him. He gave them a sense of duty, purpose, and a drive for perfection. He elevated our military to an even higher level. This was the beginning of my trust in President Reagan. It was the beginning of my journey.

While President Reagan served his first four years in office, I walked to school from fifth to eighth grades. Proudly, I sent up the flag every morning as a young kid. I felt safe. I felt secure no matter what the nightly news said. In his second term, I attended grades nine through twelve and watched him build a strong, viable military. He strengthened my faith in our military, America, and the people that served Her so greatly.

In my four years of high school, my patriotism swelled inside of me. I wanted. No, I needed to serve my country. And I hold President Reagan responsible for my unyielding patriotism. That was his gift to me. His undying devotion to God and country trickled into my life as I watched television. All the while, an unsuspecting liberal media becoming his largest accomplice.

It is now in reflection of his death, that I realized just how lucky I was to have him as my president, as a guiding light of optimism, and to have him associated with the word, American. There aren’t many opportunities to say that you’ve brushed with greatness. But watching his demeanor, his purpose, his conviction and honor, have given me that opportunity. He is and will always be an example of what Americanism is. His life stood for so much to so many and I’m glad that I got a small chance to view history. President Reagan had inspired this poor old country boy. His actions with the Soviet Union told me that it was a God given gift to be an American, and that America wasn’t a dirty word. America was a state of mind, a prosperous country, and the hope of the entire world. On August 10, 1989, I enlisted into the U.S. Army, to fulfill that hope. That dream. My American destiny. And today, I will always be a soldier, forever serving in that greater cause of freedom and liberty for this comparably young nation.

I am proud to be an American and I think back to those wonderful days when America prospered. I can’t help but remember some of President Reagan’s addresses, giving me those words of encouragement and hope. His legacy continues on in me and in every American that wishes to participate in this great country of ours. For Reagan was the foundation upon which liberty lay. An extension of the very Founding Fathers that formed and instituted this great republic known as America. And for that, he’ll always be measured as a giant among men. It was those thoughts they lay heavy on my heart as the day to say goodbye drew near.

President Reagan’s funeral was one of the saddest moments of my life. And on June 11, 2004, they buried him before sunset. I wept. I bawled. I could barely perform my work. I asked myself why I was crying, why a grown man would shed tears for a former president. A man I only saw on television occasionally. I couldn’t stop crying. His death tore at me like I was a small child being ripped away from my mother. The loss of this great man had touched me. Even though I was a liberal in my teenage years, President Ronald Reagan’s death had gutted me. Why? Because he was there when I walked to school in my youth. He was there when I played with other children. And he was there when I entered my senior year in high school. President Reagan was telling me I could go to sleep safely at night. That no Russian missile would harm me on this day. I lived life normally during those eight years. I became a believer in America.

As a teen, I can remember hearing the clamoring from the news media that a Soviet nuclear strike could happen. Talk at the dinner table involved “mutually assured destruction” and bomb shelters. I never had to worry. Not as long as President Reagan was there. Not on his watch. He gave me that courage. That inspiration and hope that everything was under control. It was in that reflection, hitting me like a brick at how great the man was serving as President of the United States. He gave me meaning and purpose. He gave me faith and the belief that America was the greatest country in the world.

As they placed the casket on the stone, the tears stung my face rolling down my cheeks. It was the discovery of losing “The Greatest” and the indelible stamp he left on my life during my impressionable years, a time when the wind could have sent me in any direction. Fortunately, the wind blew me into the Army. I credit President Ronald Wilson Reagan for blowing that wind. For explaining to me what it was to be the Commander-in-Chief, and for what it meant to be American. That is why President Reagan is the greatest U.S. President in the twentieth century.

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