Politics After Clinton: Getting Serious Again.

• Author: BRESLER, ROBERT J.
• Position: Bill Clinton - Brief Article

EVENTUALLY, Bill Clinton will fade into the background. His legacy of scandals and the reckless abuse of the office of the president will linger, as will the damage he has done to our conception of political life. Clinton played politics as a game of gotcha--getting the drop on his opponent(s) as the end in itself. He outmaneuvered Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and kept the Republican Congress on the defensive even while he was being impeached. He glided from issue to issue--health care reform, school uniforms, prescription drugs for seniors, and HMO and campaign finance reform--gaining political points, but achieving little. With the Cold War over and the economy booming, the public made few demands on him. His scandals did not affect his approval ratings, and his opponents couldn't lay a glove on him. Politics in the Clinton years was about entertainment and good times, not substance.

Liberal columnist Richard Cohen has lamented the loss of the ever-entertaining Clinton, who was such good copy, and has called George W. Bush "the dullest president since Calvin Coolidge." In outward appearances, Bush may be a bit dull, but Cohen has his analogies confused. Clinton is the real Coolidge. Both of them presided over a boom economy without introducing any major policies, facing any major crisis, or making a serious mark on history. Personally, though, they couldn't have been less alike. Coolidge was honest.

History tells us that such joyrides do not last forever. Boom times fade, villains reappear, and neglected problems fester. Clinton did not invest his political capital or take advantage of the economic boom to address long-term problems. He avoided Social Security and Medicare reform; took no serious interest in the condition of the military forces, allowing the Gulf War coalition to deteriorate and Iraq's Sadaam Hussein to rebuild his forces; and never faced down the educational bureaucracy on deteriorating standards.

While Bush may be poor copy for the Cohens of the journalistic world, he shows every indication of being a serious president. He apparently understands that it is more important to gain results than to get attention. Bush can leave that to the talk show hosts, chattering classes, late-night comedians, and assorted political grandstanders. Should that not be enough, we can always count on the Clintons to furnish us with another chapter in their soap opera of scandal.

The country needs an anti-Clinton--a president not...