Honolulu Lite
ONLY 10 months ago the television talking heads were predicting that the first line of Bill Clinton's obituary would contain the word "impeached." Clinton’s future is
just peachyThey were premature. No, not premature. They were just plain wrong. You see, I'm becoming a believer.
When Clinton told interviewers that his impeachment would be viewed by history as just a negative blip on an otherwise outstanding career, I scoffed. No president can get past being impeached with a positive record. Just like no president can survive being unmasked as a cheating husband or a grand jury prevaricator. But Bill continues to confuse and amaze his detractors.
With the war in Yugoslavia apparently at an end, Clinton can justly point out he was right and the pointy-headed military strategists were wrong: You can win a war from the air.
The smugness of his opponents, all the has-been generals-turned CNN expert analysts; the Republican hawks-turned-doves; and the hard-core left-wingers who had been waiting for years for a good old war they could oppose ... Clinton beat them all.
Sure, it took billions of dollars of missiles and bombs and we will be paying for the damage we caused for years to come. But check the box scores, pal. Only two Americans killed. And that was because of helicopter accidents. Only three Americans taken prisoner, but released unharmed. It almost makes you wonder what would have happened in Vietnam if Clinton not only had not dodged the draft but actually had run the war. I'm beginning to think he would have won that, too.
IT'S stunning, really. The first time Richard Nixon faced a little unpleasantness, he weenied out and quit. Lyndon Johnson weenied out, too, announcing he would not run for re-election right when we were up to our eyeballs in eyeballs in Vietnam in 1968. George Bush won his Middle East battle but lost his re-election war. And he lost it against some nobody from Arkansas.
There are two main reasons for Clinton's success: He has the capacity not to worry about anything, no matter how bad it might look at the moment, and he knows positively that the public has a short memory.
Anyone remember a guy named Saddam Hussein? What was he was doing that bothered us so much way back when? Making weapons of mass destruction? And didn't we tell him to stop it or we'd ventilate his palaces with cruise missiles? Wasn't he supposed to be the biggest baddest villain in the world? Didn't he successfully chase us out of his country so he could be free to do his dirty deeds? Now, nobody cares. Clinton knew we wouldn't care. As long as he gave us something else to worry about.
That's the way it works: We worry, Clinton bombs and weaves. But we worry about what Bill wants us to worry about. Now that the Yugoslavia war is over, the talking heads will revisit some of the old controversies, kick them around, see if there's any life in them. But by then, Clinton will be on to something else. And before we know it, he'll be out of office.
People have made a career out of writing Clinton's political obituary. They are so anxious for history to harshly rule on the Clinton presidency that they can't wait for history to happen. After what Clinton pulled off in the Balkans, I'm beginning to believe that history will treat Bill Clinton just fine. In fact, it probably will give him a big, wet kiss.
Charles Memminger, winner of
National Society of Newspaper Columnists
awards in 1994 and 1992, writes "Honolulu Lite"
Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Write to him at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin,
P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu, 96802
or send E-mail to charley@nomayo.com or
71224.113@compuserve.com.
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