It's obvious that Bill Clinton divides American opinion. Some who post on AP seem to hold the opinion that Clinton is a byword for evil

From over here, far away from American domestic politics, this seems extraordinary. President Clinton is universally revered over here. Here he is easily the most popular President since Kennedy. So much is this so that the BBC is running adverts for itself as an international service of stature in which a couple of their correspondents cite the 'greatest two individuals they have ever met' and one cites Clinton. The media coverage he gets is now invariably positive both from left and right.
Well , memories may be short but nothing he did in office seems to have turned the British media or public against him either then or now.

This is all pretty neat for a man who was both disbarred and impeached

So what did he do that was harmful to America? Did he ruin the economy or run an incompetent administration? Was his foreign policy disastrous ? What was it that he did to the country ? Was he financially corrupt in office ?

It looks, to this outsider, as though his worst crime was the sexual shenanigans about which he lied. JFK (we imagine) was far worse but somehow never got challenged.By comparison with the sex, what serious play was made of any alleged financial or property misdealings involving Clinton. Were they a makeweight? ? The French, incidentally, find this utterly incomprehensible: they can't see what adultery has to do with fitness for government but if it is this incomprehensible, irrelevant but career- threatening error then the man has no real choice but to lie about it.One recent French president adulterously fathered a daughter, so perhaps they are far different from Anglo Saxons )

So what's the answer?

Since there was talk of impeachment even before he took office, no one can honestly say that it was his sexual activities that drove, and still drives, the hatred for him.

It's not the adultery that he's vilified for, though some would have you believe that. It's his lying and obstructing justice that got him in hot water.

Personally, I think if he'd not have all the legal problems to concentrate on, he'd have made a better President than he was. I haven't been around all that long to remember many Presidential administrations, but on the whole of it, there have been much worse administrations, legal problems not withstanding, than his.

Here's what this website says about him and what his possible legacy will be.

quote:

Originally posted by FredPuli:
Here he is easily the most popular President since Kennedy.

Believe it or not, he's up there over here, too. In a recent poll, Reagan was ranked best in the last 61 years, but he was only ahead of Clinton by the margin of error. Among young (18-29) voters, Clinton left the rest of the pack well behind. Kennedy came in second with only half as many votes.

However, Clinton also came in 3rd for worst president in the same time period, behind Nixon by less than the margin of error. GWB easily came in first there, though, with twice as many votes as even Nixon.

Looking deeper into the results, you notice that the Democratic "best president" votes are split between Kennedy (26%) and Clinton (48%) (with a handful spread elsewhere), while no one comes close to Reagan's 56% among Republicans.

Detailed results

I think a large part of it is that we've entered a particularly divisive era. Certainly, the adultry and ensuing fiasco further hurt him, but Clinton was villified well before that.

Clinton is among the best orators of our presidents, and would seem to be among the most intelligent. To hear him speak spontaneously, and to compare it to Bush's spontaneous utterances, is to weep.

In this country there are those at the extremes that will villify any president of the opposite party, no matter what. Clinton made the country flourish, yet he's hated by some. Bush is taking the country to legal, financial, and military ruin, but he's still loved, at least by a few. Which shows that much of politics is beyond explanation.

I really think that what galls so many republicans about Clinton is that he showed that their most oft-repeated mantra (that only by tax-cuts could we succed) is false. He actually did what they've always said they'd do: he balanced a budget, and it didn't ruin us. Quite the opposite.

It is true, however, that there were missteps when he first took office: starting with gays in the military -- while clearly a reasonable idea -- was ill-timed and mishandled, and got the christian right riled to a point from which they never settled down. On the other hand, it showed them how good a tool gay-bashing is: it has worked for Bush to a degree that defies understanding. Until one considers the power of misguided religious thought to pervert our ability to think and find solutions. Sorry. I can't get out more than a couple of words nowadays without ranting. It's what happens when everything one believes in gets turned on its head.

Clinton was doomed by the Republicans as soon as he won the first election, before he even had a chance to prove himself good or bad. They were ready to act like a pit bull and 'attack' at anything they could. They took that little episode of the sex thing and blew it way out of proportion.

Now the Republicans are helping to keep Clinton popular because they can't quit making references about him. A person can be popular with negativity as well as positiveness.

Clinton didn't harm America...he just harmed egos.