Presidential Legacies

It’s been awhile since I blogged anything political. There has been no shortage of things I could be writing about: The role of the new Pope in the international world, and a nomination of Pope Bono I, the Republican Senate invoking the “nuclear option” on fillibuster rules to allow Bush’s judicial apointees to get a confirmation vote, Hillary’s move to the middle, Sen. Frist’s alignment with the religious right in preparation for an ‘08 Presidential run, or Ambassador-nominee John Bolton’s controversial appointment as Ambassador to the UN.

However, I want to go back to an old debate about Presidential legacies, particularly addressing the myth that President Clinton was a great president. I know, I know – that debate has been hammered to death. But I feel a need to go back to it.

Now let me set the record straight from the start. Clinton wasn’t a bad President either. He had some moral problems, and yes they can be excused to a degree, but moreso he had legal problems (lying under oath is a federal offense). But set all that aside too and you have neither a good, nor a bad President.

He had his good qualities. For instance, during his Administration, we were not actively engaged in war – well, unless you consider Kosovo, a couple empty warehouse bombings in the middle east and the war on drugs actual wars. There was a prolonged “peacetime”. He did manage a surplus, but let me steal a little of my thunder from later – he did not createthis.

However, there were serious flaws about this presidency – serious misonceptions. For instance – he was not the first black president…I don’t care what the NAACP tells you. Toni Morrison of University of Buffalo has this to say:

African-American men seemed to understand it right away. Years ago, in the middle of the Whitewater investigation, one heard the first murmurs: white skin notwithstanding, this is our first black President. Blacker than any actual black person who could ever be elected in our children’s lifetime. After all, Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald’s-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas. And when virtually all the African-American Clinton appointees began, one by one, to disappear, when the President’s body, his privacy, his unpoliced sexuality became the focus of the persecution, when he was metaphorically seized and bodysearched, who could gainsay these black men who knew whereof they spoke?

Secondly, the idea that Clinton was responsible for the economic boom of the late 90s is ridiculous. If he can take any credit for the economic boom, he can rest on his laurels knowing that he took a laissez-faire approach to the economy of the time. If he would have involved his government in the managing of the economy, there would not have been a tech boom. After all, can you name one time in history, just once time, when government involvement in the private sector has ever led to strong economic times? Just once. And back it up. Clinton’s good move was not getting involved in the economy of the time.

There’s more but that’s it for now.

Tagged as: election_2008, politics