Boston Globe: Clinton scandals' effects still unfolding
By Peter S. Canellos
Globe Staff / December 4, 2007
WASHINGTON - The death last week of former Illinois representative Henry Hyde, the patriarchal Republican who led the impeachment of President Clinton, brought back memories of what Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama calls "the battles of the '90s." Those battles are at the heart of today's political dialogue, as Obama and former North Carolina senator John Edwards argue that electing Hillary Clinton as president would revive the resentments of the '90s.
But it's far from clear what people think of those battles in hindsight. In a decade marked by weightier concerns - and weightier battles - the so-called "Clinton scandals" can seem trivial. And while the Clintons were the focus of the battles, they were not the instigators: The question for the current campaign is whether they nonetheless deserve some blame because of their behavior or their style of politics. It's an open question, and how it gets answered could be the key to Hillary Clinton's fate.
Strictly by the poll numbers, none of the alleged scandals - from the Whitewater land deal to the travel office firings to the fund-raising in the Lincoln bedroom to the perjury claim at the heart of the Monica Lewinsky business - succeeded in the turning the public against the Clintons. Bill Clinton's favorability ratings were high during his impeachment and stayed high for the remainder of his presidency. Nor were the scandals an impediment to Hillary's ability to pull off the difficult political maneuver of winning a Senate seat in a place where she hadn't previously lived....
The second President Bush defined himself as the anti-Clinton, a straight-talker, a leader guided by values more than political instincts, a CEO-type decision-maker who didn't sweat the details. It was refreshing for a while, but soon enough the Iraq war exposed weaknesses in Bush's style that cast the Clinton years in a more favorable light. Moreover, on substance, many Americans yearned for the centrist politics of the Clinton years, attributing Bush's flaws to an excess of ideology and an unwillingness to meet his opponents halfway. Bush is likely to end his presidency with far lower approval ratings than his predecessor....
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/12/04/clinton_scandals_effects_still_unfolding/