Ranking the Presidents #22

BILL CLINTON (D) - 1993-2001

Fewer presidents have been more deft at being all things to all people. He inspired the youth of the country to "rock the vote", his affairs were addressed and then dismissed by a forgiving media, and thanks to a third-party candidacy by Ross Perot, he was able to become the 42nd President with only 43% of the popular vote.

The economy was on an upswing when he took office thanks to Bush 41's candidacy-killing compromise on deficit reduction, which included tax increases. Clinton raised taxes again, but only on the wealthy. In his first few months, he was damaged by overzealous federal agents botching stand-offs at Waco and Rudy Ridge domestically, and US troops getting killed in Somalia. The Don't Ask Don't Tell compromise on the military made neither side happy, and 1994 saw a dramatic swing toward the Republicans. From there, Clinton triangulated and became more moderate in his approaches.

A 1995 government shutdown swung the momentum back to Clinton, and with 49% of the vote, he was re-elected over Bob Dole and again, Ross Perot. He maintained positive foreign relations with US allies but was bogged down back home by personal scandals, women accusing him of sexual assault and harrassment, and being caught lying about his "sexual relations" with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. He became the second president to be impeached, but the Republicans could not garner the votes in the Senate to have him removed.

The longer Clinton's impeachment trial went on, the more his popularity rose, and the more petty the Congressional Republicans looked. A final blot on his resume were his last-day pardons of questionable people like Marc Rich, lending speculations Rich "bought" his pardon.

I've read complaints that Clinton's policies were as much to blame as Dubya's on the economic collapse in 2008. There may be something to that, but the country stayed relatively peaceful and prosperous on his watch. With his honesty problem and wandering eye, he may have been his own worst enemy, but anyone who took him on, lost.