"The hard truth is that many Americans are not merely tolerating Mr. Clinton; they are embracing him. The president has higher approval ratings and is more admired today than before the Lewinsky scandal broke. He has the highest public approval rating ever recorded for a second term president, even though 84% of the public believe the president committed perjury and obstructed justice. In one recent poll, Mr. Clinton ranked first among the men Americans admire most in the world, easily outdistancing the second-place finisher, Pope John Paul II.
"At every critical juncture during the scandal, when it seemed as if some damaging new revelation would lead to the downfall of the president, public opinion rescued him. Immediately following his State of the Union address -- when he was on trial in the Senate -- the impeached president traveled to Buffalo, NY, where he was treated like a hero. According to press accounts, people stood around in 30-degree weather and bought tickets from scalpers to hear Mr. Clinton, who called it 'one of the great days of my presidency.' It gets worse: Four out of 10 Americans say they approve of Larry Flynt's digging up dirt on Republicans, making him a good deal more popular than Mr. Starr.
"It is not a polling trick, or a healthy or a conservative sign, when the majority of the public, confronted with overwhelming evidence of presidential wrongdoing and squalor, perjury and obstruction of justice, rally to his side. When they think Mr. Clinton's character is bad but no longer believe character matters. When they hold a president to a lower standard of behavior than they hold people in virtually any other profession. When they refuse to hold a president accountable for lawlessness. Or when Mr. Clinton is in many ways, for many people, the representative man of our time. These are unpleasant things to realize. But it is the way things are, and it is always better to accept reality than merely wish it away." [end of excerpt]
In policy terms, Clinton is certainly a putz (the mot juste for this man, IMHO), but I stand in awe of his amazing ability to bludgeon Republicans to death, a terrific public service on its own.
Carl Remick