On one hand, it’s understandable how the Democratic faithful still get rapturously nostalgic over the return of Bill Clinton to presidential politics. He is this generation’s most gifted retail politician, a wonkish sort who towers intellectually over his successor, and an avatar of better economic times.
But it’s that other hand.
The country was two quarters out of a recession when he took office. Neither the irrationally exuberant dotcom bubble nor the peace dividend from the demise of the Soviet Union were his doing.
Commander-in-chief was not his forte. Alas, he remained “unavailable” and missed a golden opportunity to take out Osama bin Laden long before Sept. 11, 2001.
And he was impeached. Not because of a peccadillo. Not because of right-wing conspirators. Not because he was a victim of high-handed, moral judgments.
But because he was a perjurer, a national security time bomb and an on-the-job philanderer who disgraced his office and country.
But then again, nostalgia isn’t supposed to be logical.