Posted on 01/17/2003 4:12:40 AM PST by kattracks
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- Slick Willie doesn't fit.
Bill Clinton was more like Velcro, a president who couldn't escape controversy, said Margaret Scranton, a University of Arkansas at Little Rock political science professor teaching the state's first college course devoted to Clinton.
The class began Thursday evening at the university's administrative offices.
"When we thought of Reagan, we often thought of Teflon," Scranton told the class of 25 students.
"But I have often used the term Velcro to describe what happens to Bill Clinton," she said. "All of us know that Clinton is a controversial president. ... People have strong feelings. We often saw this with president Nixon."
Scranton said Clinton may have been a "slick" communicator, but he couldn't dodge controversy.
A slide presentation ended with a photo of Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, the intern whose affair with the president led to his impeachment.
"I selected this photo to make clear we're not going to ignore the controversies and investigations," Scranton said. "We have to confront the various controversies."
Thursday night's speakers included Hal Bass, a political science professor at Ouachita Baptist University, and David Alsobrook, director of the Clinton Presidential Materials Project, where the largest collection of U.S. presidential materials ever amassed is being stored and processed.
The items will eventually be moved into the Clinton Presidential Library slated to open at Little Rock in 2004.
Bianca Gatchell, 23, a senior and a staunch Republican, said she signed up for the class "to get past the tabloids and form more intelligent opinions."
She said although the controversies and investigations were intriguing -- and trashy -- "there's other things Clinton did that I disagree with."
The course, "The Clinton Presidency," offered in cooperation with the William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation, will serve as the prototype for the planned Clinton School of Public Service at the former president's library.
Individual classes will touch on the achievements and travails of Clinton's political life -- and the scandals and controversies that dogged his private life.
In addition to being the first of its kind offered in Arkansas, the course is also a first for the C-SPAN public affairs cable network, which will broadcast every class.
Network executives said the company has never covered an entire course from beginning to end.
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On the Net:
William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation: http://www.clintonpresidentialcenter.com/
University of Arkansas: http://www.uark.edu/
Drat! And here all of this time I was thinking that it was his perjury and obstruction of justice that led to his impeachment.
They misspelled "pubic."
I would go with, "Felt."
And here I always think of integrity, patriotism, & an uncanny prescience for domestic & world affairs.
Not only did this draft-dodging, womanizing, depraved egomaniac get himself elected--twice--somehow this lyin' S.O.B. made it through all eight years without getting his sorry ass booted out of office. That's pretty slick.
That might just have something to do with the legion of scandals associated with Clinton, as opposed to just one with Reagan...
Of course it does. He got away with EVERYTHING. He just seemed to alway be embroiled in contoversey because every week there was a new one.
That's easy....RAT political advisors.
How could you forget the cigar!
And even scarier than that is that at this very moment his evil queen is working to secure another 8 years in the white house....and I don't think it would be a stretch to think that THAT Clinton would find a way to abolish the 8 year term limit on the presidency AND the electoral college.
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