Clinton Had a Rough Time, Too
Bill Clinton doesn't get enough credit for what he achieved as president in spite of his fierce right-wing opposition. Just ask him.
Charlie Rose on PBS asked him last month what the single biggest misconception about his presidency was. The former president responded like a lot of poverty snobs I have known, eager to tell you how much they had to overcome in order to get what they have achieved:
"I think that most people under-appreciate the level of extreme partisanship that took hold in '94."
Indeed. Clinton's remarks may sound more than a lee-tle bit self-serving, especially with his wife poised to make what I am certain will be a run for the presidency.
But he raises an important point that I, too, have often raised whenever I hear someone complain that President Barack Obama has had to put up with more abuse from his opponents than any other president. Hey, I point out, remember the Clinton years?
Or as Clinton said to Rose, "Nobody's accused him of murder yet, as far as I know."
True that. Bill and Hillary Clinton, by contrast, were accused by their political enemies inside and outside of government with a breathtaking variety of offenses and conspiracy theories, often inflamed by such rising media as talk radio, cable television news and the Internet.
Ridiculous birther skepticism about Obama's birth certificate pales on the scandal scale next to various attempts to link the Clintons to the death of their long-time friend, Vincent W. "Vince" Foster Jr., a deputy White House counsel, even after multiple investigations ruled it to be a suicide.
Even more public dollars and work hours were devoted to the Whitewater investigation, the Monica Lewinsky scandal and -- lest we forget -- Bill Clinton's impeachment, which failed in the Senate.
Yet, after his acquittal in the Senate, his job approval rating went up. Helped by a booming economy, his party gained seats in the 1998 midterm elections, a first for the party of a sitting president in decades.
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