Posted on 12/29/2001 12:12:34 AM PST by CT
HoustonChronicle.com -- http://www.HoustonChronicle.com | Section: Viewpoints, Outlook Dec. 27, 2001, 8:09PM
Clinton, leave well -- and bad -- enough alone
By ROSS K. BAKER
John Quincy Adams, upon retirement from the White House, ran for a seat in the House of Representatives. Ulysses S. Grant traveled extensively, dabbled unsuccessfully in the stock market and then sat down to write his memoirs because he needed the money.
Until now, however, only one president has set out on a methodical campaign to redeem his presidency in the eyes of historians.
That was Andrew Johnson, who announced on his return home to Tennessee after a calamitous administration that culminated in his impeachment, "I intend to appropriate the remainder of my life, short as it may be, in the vindication of my character."
Johnson's record now has been challenged by our only other impeached president, Bill Clinton, who has gathered a collection of political aestheticians to remove the unsightly pockmarks and blotches from his eight years in the White House.
It is an effort condemned to failure.
It was reported recently that the most legacy-minded of all U.S. presidents had convened a gathering in his New York offices of former White House staffers, ex-Cabinet officials and assorted Washington, D.C., hangers-on and courtiers to tell the story of his administration in a manner most flattering to Clinton. Although most of the dozen or so participants were tight-lipped about the meeting, enough information seeped out to suggest that the vaunted Clinton public relations operation will now be assigned to spin history.
If it were not so vainglorious an exercise it would be laughable. Rather than let the slow-grinding mills of history produce a balanced and fair picture of his incumbency, Clinton, like some ancient despot, has summoned his chamberlains and masters of the rolls to embellish the accomplishments of his reign.
There is something profoundly sad about this pitiable exertion to burnish an administration that accomplished a great deal and attempted but failed to achieve other worthwhile goals. The effort resembles that of the soldier who has served honorably but who adds to his résumé awards for valor that he has not earned, or the executive who puffs his credentials. When lesser figures apply cosmetics to their curriculum vitae and the puffery is exposed, it is profoundly embarrassing. When a former president becomes a revisionist of his history, the shame is greater.
Clinton always has been a reckless user of people. He lied to members of his Cabinet about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky and sent them out to deceive others, making them part-owners of his falsehoods. No great respecter of truth, Clinton now enjoins his flacks and fabulists to bowdlerize history.
It might be that other presidents were eager for later generations to see them as nobler than they were, but aside from the hapless Andrew Johnson, only Clinton has convened a task force to accomplish it.
If Clinton feels uneasy about how future generations will judge his administration, he can use his autobiography to set the record straight. Dispatching a crew of euphemists with whitewash brushes to spruce up his blemished incumbency is unseemly and will only cause him to suffer ridicule, which in light of his important achievements, is undeserved.
Baker is a political science professor at Rutgers University.
There is something profoundly sad about this pitiable exertion to burnish an administration that accomplished a great deal and attempted but failed to achieve other worthwhile goals.
This sounds like a liberal sycophant putting his toe in the water to see if it gets bitten off. The water is, of course, the very dim idea that Billy-boy was not (brace yourself!) perfect.
I would have to ask him to list the "great deal" that the administration accomplished. At that point he'd pop back into talking head mode and go back to spewing the party line as the cool-aid kicked back in.
g
Look at Enron, possibly the biggest example of the Clinton economy. Look at where we are now, as a result of the Clinton economy.
As far as Clinton using his famed propaganda machine to change history: we should be afraid he'll succeed. We should be VERY afraid.
9 times out of 10, I never saw the earlier post, and I would guess that 90 Freepers out of 100 never saw it either, so what's the problem?
That's a very interesting angle, and one that had not occurred to me.
Unless one sits at the computer for hours on end, reading every post, one will miss things.
If you go away from Free Republic for a couple of hours, the whole front page is gone, replaced by new and (mostly)interesting stuff. Who has time to go to the next page, and so on and so on.
I say three cheers to the double posters, and boo to the net nags who jump in to admonish them.
I could go on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on...but why bother?
Thats exactly what it is. I guess handing out the DNC talking points to the media and having them report it as fact is not as easy now that he is out of office. After all the ersatz veneer is stripped away history has already foudn Klinton to be person low on accomplishments, but high on propaganda proporting so.
I don't remember our last 5 presidents sending out their flying monkeys in an attempt to rehabilitate his legacy: which consists of Monica Lewinsky, impeachment, and the 9-11 attack on America.
True. I think I'll take a vacation in Arkansas when his "library" opens, take a tour of the propaganda, snort loudly and use considerable lung power to spout corrections to every piece of propaganda I spot...IF security lets me inside the door, that is.
This whole "library" thing could provide tons of material for political pundits for centuries to come.
I have two complaints about double posts.
1. It makes it harder to scroll through all the articles because of the increased number of articles.
2. One reason I frequent FR is for the replies, insights and comments of Freepers to the articles. I find this as valuable as the articles themselves. (The sensitivity of the collective Freeper BS meter is the best I know of.) With duplicate posts, much of this is lost. Links to previous posts help, but creat a more disjointed discussion.
I am more tolerant of duplicate posts that are >24 hours apart, but duplicate posts within 30 minutes are irritating.
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