I did not like a number of things he did, but he doesn't scare me nearly as much as Barack Obama does. One South American country did award Clinton the title "Most Macho" President after the Lewinsky debacle. Clinton was underestimated by many Northerners just because he came from the South and that is not good, since we have had many dumb candidates from Northern States too. Clinton is much much more shrewd than many smug, arrogant New England politicians give him credit for. He's far more intelligent than Kennedy, Dodd,Leahy and several other New England Senators that want to look down on non New England areas of the country.

Bill Clinton likes to wear pierrot outfits (ala Bowie's Ashes to Ashes) while eating Cheetos. But he does know Cheetos, so I guess that's three stars.

BILL CLINTON IS THE CAUSE OF THE MESS WE ARE IN NOW,HE PRESSURED FANNIE MAE TO START THE IGNORANT LENDING PRACTICES THAT GOT US HERE.

I did not agree on every detail of his administration, but for the most part he ran this country very efficiently.

Bill Clinton is the one to blame for all the mess in the world now not Bush. It took the 8 years Clinton was in office to get us to the 9/11 attack and thereafter. Bush is reaping what Clinton sewed which is not good for any of us. Bush has been trying to clean up Clinton mess for 8 years and run the country. We were doomed the second term of Clinton , actually we were doomed when Clinton beat George Bush Sr. lets call the kettle black where it is due. Bush couldn't fix the country in 4, 8 but maybe 12 if that was an option. As i have always said 4 years is not enough for a president to get things done it should be 5 year term. I'm surprised things aren't worse than they are. Bush you sure wasn't given much to work with. I hold you and your father in high standards with much respect for all your hard work and loyalty to us Americans. No other man could have done better or even come close to what you have done.

bill clinton is a piece of crap. he is a liar, cheater, adulterer, thief, and should be hung for treason. not to mention a sex addict.
he totally disgraced the oval office by shooting his load all over monicas face and dress in it. what a disgrace,
how would bill and hitlary like it if george bush shot is hot sticky load of man juice all over chelseas face and dress like he did to monica?
not to mention he desimated the cia, fbi and military, allowing the sand nigers to take down the twin towers.
only a total idiot would think clinton is anything but what he is, a sick piece of white trash.

Billyboy, I had no problem with you until you made an ass of yourself on the campaign trail, with your finger-jabbing and endless lunatic pronouncements. You've been laying low of late. Continue that trend.

made some very bad mistake,during his time in office. and just lately try to divided the country by color again i just  don't trust this man.

The only impeached elected president in history. Lies under oath and denies someones civil right to a fair trial.
Very poor example for the children of today.

I think people like him in retrospect because of Bush and neocons as the alternative. But his pursual of neo-liberalism was relentless.

What was great about Bill Clinton was that the American people could relate to him - he had a highly visible human side - he wasn't afraid to show emotion, and was highly skilled in the art of communication.  It's something so many politicians lack today.  Sure he made a lot of mistakes.  But he also achieved some great things, including economic policies that helped create millions of jobs.  A lot of people criticize his morals and ethics, but fail to acknowledge that he wasn't running on a eunuch platform - he was running as a politician and a democrat, and I'd be willing to bet that a lot of the people who call him immoral have done the same or worse - they just haven't been caught!

There was nothing "great" about Bill Clinton, period- and his personal life and the BJ's have nothing to do with that. Clinton did NOT reduce our national debt- it was nearly 1 TRILLION dollars higher when he left office than when he took office. "Welfare Reform"??? LOL...Clinton vetoed the same welfare reform bill 3 times before he signed it, under intense political pressure and in an election year. We are still paying for the "stain" this clown left on the Oval Office.

Bill Clinton's economic policies worked. However, if Newt Gingrich had not won in 1994, welfare reform would never have been signed and taxes would have increased. Clinton was corrupt and a liar.

A genuine embarrasment to America - and to himself.  The ultimate lying, self-serving polititian.

  One of the worst presidents in history, he was an embarrassment to the American Presidency.  And Hillary is even worse.

A lightning rod, but he was adequate. Unfortunately for his legacy, none of his foreign policy initiatives panned out.

3 stars represent the balance of good and bad. Much very good, and much very bad.

Rating Bill Clinton will always be a highly contested matter, as first not much time has elapsed since he left office and second the flames of partisan politics are very high at the present time. One must remember that Clinton is much like his idol JFK in that both are often loved and forgiven because they were the first presidents of their respective generations. Second, to be deemed either great or a failure, one must have some crisis to which to respond. Clinton simply had no such crisis. Clinton was also a popularist president meaning that he and his supporters have little claim to being a leader. There is nothing wrong with being a popularist, but leadership requires making people do what they need to do despite their unwillingness to act, and this was not Clinton's forte given his obsession with popular polls. Moreover, Clinton did not reduce the national debt as many think. One must understand how government accounting works to understand this, but suffice it to say that actual debt (accrued and unaccrued) increased during the Clinton Administration. This was Clinton's primary failure and really his most important task during a time of extended economic boom and higher general tax revenues. On another matter, the only credit Clinton gets for the 1990's economy was for leaving well enough alone. The rule of thumb is that it takes four years (on average) for government action to materially affect the economy if it has any effect at all. Clinton's best course was to do little or nothing, and that is what he basically did; however, one should note how difficult it is to not use power when it is delegated for a fixed period of time. Though Clinton's diplomacy with North Korea was a failure in hindsight, it is not reasonable to conclude that it was wrong in foresight. In fact, for the most part it was a worthy experiment, but we should acknowledge that this failure did ultimately exacerbate the current situation. Similarly, Clinton's shift in emphasis away from human intelligence sources to non-human sources should be analyzed from a foresight (not hindsight) perspective as well. We now know it was a bad decision. Finally, Clinton (and Carter) has shown poor judgment in commenting on the current administration, breaking some wise and longstanding unwritten gentlemen's rules on the behavior of ex-presidents. The bottom line is that notwithstanding how much partisans on the Left wish to make Clinton their recent hero, he had no real crisis to which to respond so his maximum objective rating is no more than three stars. Moreover, as his first priority should have been real debt reduction (accrued and unaccrued) and this was not done, he loses yet another star. One must always remember that a simple who was in office when X happened is more often than not inaccurate and not really an analysis.

An American embarrassment. The liar in chief. I just love the way he took care of that terrorist problem that was developing through his whole presidency, the way he gave us the highest tax hike in history, cut the military budget to shreds amoung other fun things that endear him to me so much

Best president of my lifetime. A brilliant man and a true humanitarian. I wish I could vote for him again.

Best president the US has had since JFK.

They wanted to impeach him for having sex with an intern but they don't impeach Bush for starting a war where THOUSANDS HAVE DIED. This is ridiculous. Clinton's mistakes were personal. Bush's continued mistakes are much more serious and have affected the peace of the entire world.

no morals, and yes morals are important.

Say what you want but under this guy the country was in great condition. Any guy that can lead the greatest country while getting a bj is A-OK in my book. Come back we're controlled by an idiot!

A brilliant man who could have been a great President, if he had been discreet in his sexual shananigans, and kept it out of the oval office. Yes discreet, but he wasn't discreet, he was stupid, and reckless, and try the patience of a gifted wife, who has more common sense, and may be the first woman President in 2008

Scandals Part Two..... L is for Craig Livingstone, the ex-bar bouncer with a history of drug use who was the head of White House security. Two FBI agents say it was Hillary Clinton who demanded his hiring, which she denies. Disgraced Clinton political guru Dick Morris's hooker pal, Sherry Rowlands, claims Morris told her a "paranoid" Hillary Clinton was behind Filegate. He says he only told her that's what polls show. M is for Jim and Susan McDougal, the Clintons' Whitewater partners, both of whom have been convicted of fraud. Jim McDougal is said to be helping Whitewater independent counsel Starr. Susan McDougal is in jail for refusing to say whether President Clinton lied when he denied knowing about an illegal $300,000 loan to bail out Whitewater. The loan wasn't repaid, and taxpayers were left holding the bag. M is also for disgraced political guru Dick Morris. N is for Bernard Nussbaum, the former White House lawyer who barred federal investigators from searching Vince Foster's office after Foster's death. Nussbaum also withheld Foster's diary on Travelgate problems from federal probers for more than a year. Nussbaum was forced to resign for botching damage-control efforts. O is for Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary, the frequent flier who drew up an enemies list of reporters, hired an image consultant at taxpayer expense, and has run up huge tabs on overseas trips. P is for Pardons, which President Clinton has refused to rule out for individuals like Susan McDougal who potentially could provide evidence against him. P is also for White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta, expected to leave in a second Clinton term -- with the prospect that his deputy, Harold Ickes, could replaces him. Senate Republicans want perjury charges brought against Ickes for his answers on Whitewater damage control. Q is for all the questions -- unanswered -- on Whitewater, Filegate, Travelgate, Cattlegate and Billgate. R is for Sherry Rowlands, the $200-an-hour hooker who revealed her ongoing affair with Clinton political guru Dick Morris, the author of Clinton's family-values strategy, forcing Morris to resign. R is also for the Rose Law Firm, where Hillary Clinton, Vince Foster, Webster Hubbell and William Kennedy were partners, as was Joseph Giroir, a key figure in the Lippo group. S is for Kenneth Starr, the Whitewater independent counsel probing Filegate, Travelgate and Vince Foster's death. He has won 15 convictions or guilty pleas, including both McDougals and former Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker, who was forced to resign. Starr says his probes are active and ongoing, and there is widespread speculation he will have more indictments after the election, possibly including one of Hillary Clinton. T is for Travelgate, the Clintons' firing of career travel staffers like Billy Dale to make way for Clinton cronies. White House memos say Hillary Clinton was behind the firings -- she denies it -- and that she was spurred on by Clinton Hollywood pal Harry Thomason, who was seeking a piece of the lucrative White House charter business. U is for undue influence and the question of whether that is what Lippo was seeking though megabucks contributions to Democrats. Lippo has close ties to Indonesia's brutal dictatorship, responsible for near-genocide in East Timor, which it occupied two decades ago. V is for Vince Foster, the former Hillary Clinton law partner who became a White House lawyer and was found dead, an apparent suicide with a gunshot wound to the head. He apparently was a central figure in Travelgate and Filegate and handled Whitewater matters for the Clintons. Starr is examining his death and has yet to confirm former prober Bob Fiske's conclusion that it was a suicide in the park where Foster was found. W is for Whitewater, the Arkansas land deal that started it all, with questions about whether the Clintons improperly benefitted from funds Jim McDougal's Madison Guarantee savings-and-loan, which went belly up, costing taxpayers an estimated $60 million. X is for the Xeroxed copy of Hillary Clinton's law billing records that were found in the white House book room, two years after they were first sought. The pages had Mrs. Clinton's fingerprints around the section on Castle Grande - there were red ink notations in the late Vince Foster's handwriting. Y is for the the young White House aides who were hired by the Clinton administration despite FBI background checks that found "recent" use of hard drugs like cocaine, crack and hallucinogens. Z is for zippers -- the one Paula Jones claims that the then-Arkansas governor undid (see J) and the one Gennifer Flowers claims Clinton undid during what she insists was a long-running affair. He denies the claims.

I didn't vote for Clinton and of course he was a liar but if you had Hillary right by your side you'd lie too. But she amazed me how well she took it when she found out. Don't you know there was a lot of Prozac being consumed by the Secret Service as they had to protect Clinton not only from the public outside the White House but Hillary inside the White House. The statement made by Texas Congressman Dick Armey seem more logical than what we saw with Hillary. When he was asked, " If you had been in President Clinton's place would you have resigned?" Armey's Reply: "If I had been in the presidents place I would not have gotten the chance to resign. I would have been lying in a pool of my own blood, looking up, and listening to my wife ask, ' How do you reload this damn thing?" Anyway, I always liked Bill but always disliked Hillary as a fake. I felt a little sorry for their daughter. I can't say that Clinton was a good president or even accomplished much but he was very likable.

One of the best president's the US has ever had, but I am not a citizen of the US. Unlike Reagan, Clinton was alive and well to do his job. Unlike Bush sr. he knew how to communicate to the people he was there for. Unlike Bush jr. he knew how to make friends. Sure, he had his faults, he made a big mistake with Monica Lewinsky. But aren't mistakes concerning life or death something on a whole other level. Reagan had Iran- Contra, Bush jr. had Iraq, New Orleans. Compared to those three presidents I think Clinton is absolutely the best. He is intelligent, he can inspire and comfort people. He knows what he is talking about unlike Reagan during his presidency or Bush jr. They read aloud what advisors wrote. Clinton will be remembered for his affair that is his own fault. But I will remember more about him: the guy had charisma, the guy tried medicare for all people in the US and failed, the guy made speeches that inspired me, the guy actually loved people, and when the guy laughed I laughed with him. He tried, he failed, too bad.

One of the most intelligent presidents we have ever had. Like the MO Secretary of State said of him at church one Sunday, he must be doing a wonderful job as president if the other side can't criticize anything but lying to his family about a sex act Not that it is right, and I was deeply disappointed (about the act) but if we threw out all the politicians who have done this, there would be very few people left in Washington or the state capitols.

The worst president during my lifetime. Dishonest to the core and either didn't understand or care about what the founding fathers of our country intended for the United States to be. Zero character. His lasting legacy will be at least one generation of Americans who have a difficult time distinguishing between right and wrong.

Could have been a transformational president and turned out to be. Unfortunately for him, all the wrong reasons. Still, the first baby boomer in the White House who lived a uniquely American story.

despite being attacked constantly by republicans that were putting real issues on the backburner while they tried to nail him for infidelity pres. clinton got a lot done. the people that call clinton a bad president are probably the same people that beat off to the ken star report.

Bill Clinton visited California many times during his presidency and is one of the brightest men to hold the office since JFK. I give him the highest rating.

An intelligent southerner who managed to bring America together, sort of. Would be nice to have him back in control. Hope he doesnt die. Anytime soon I mean.

Here! Here! Was there anyone as entertaining in office as Clinton? Seriously, he reminds me a bit of Carter, as he'll truly be more recognized after his presidency. But I really believe Clinton cared for the American people. Yes, he may not have had the best common sense at times; but the White House hasn't been the same since he left. Inasmuch as Gearge W is trying SO HARD to leave a legacy, Clinton will leave him in the dust hand down!

I am so sick of pinhead liberals like Canadasucks and Scarlett feather talking about peace and prosperity under Clinton. Peace what peace? You liberals seem to forget that in 1993 under Clinton the World Trade Center was bombed by Islamic Terrorists. Also under Clinton the USS Cole was bombed, several American embassies were bombed, we attacked Yugoslavia and Bosnia, and of course as Canadasucks so graciously mentioned the Oklahoma city bombing. Economic prosperity? THis of course was all Clinton's doing huh? BZZZZZ! Wrong it's called the internet boom. The high tech/internet market exploded and gave us the economic prosperity not Clinton. And when the high tech/internet sector bubble burst while Clinton was still in office we started losing jobs and the economy turned south and liberals blamed of course Geroge Bush. Clinton just happened to be in the right place at the right time during the .com boom and you liberal pinheads call Clinton an economic genius but not one of you can actually explain in detail exactly what Clinton did while he was in office to give us the so called economic prosperity. I dare Canadasucks or Scarlettfeather to submit a new post explaining in detail exactly what Clinton did that was directly responsible for the economic properity we had in the 1990's. I dare ya. You probably won't do that though. In typical ignorant liberal fashion you will probably reply to my challenge by saying something like I could explain it you, but conservative republicans are too stupid to understand the brilliant economic mind of Bill Clinton and other liberals so I won't even waste my time. Your bullpoop liberal smug intellectual superiority complex is laughable. If liberals and Democrats are so intellectually superior to conservatives and Democrats why did Kerry lose? Why is there a republican Congress?

Remember him? The president who was in charge when we (1) weren't attacked on a grand scale domestically (unless you count Timothy McVeigh?), (2) had a prosperous economy and job market, (3) wasn't villified by every first-world nation in the world, (5) didn't begin a war based on a lie and kill 10,000 civilians and (5) managed to provide late-night television with hundreds of jokes about sex. Anyone else sad the 90's are over? My investment numbers sure are. . . I love it how people try to parade Clinton as a whacko leftist - he was as much a friend of big-business as any Republican I've ever seen. I miss that redneck dirtbag. (Can't believe I would ever say that.) Of course Clinton takes heat for not being able to be discreet (a must for policians in any age) but the vilification of him is nothing but pure amusement to me. Clinton-haters have got to live with the fact that the 90's rocked- He had a bl@wjob and lied! WAAAAH! He is responsible for every attack/military failure! WAAAH! Bill Clinton will be remembered as a dirtbag who got away with it- deal with it, folks.

What nonsense by edt4!You trying to say he is/was not responsible for Whitewatergate,Travelgate,the murder of Vince Foster?In addition to having let Bin Laden slide several times and turn deaf ears upon the many attacks on our embassies and the U.S.S. Cole.Clinton was a worthless piece of crap!

Lincoln-esque? I literally was in tears when I read that. Sorry to say but all you Clintonistas need to honestly look at the record. Bush has proved himself to be a much more adroit politician, audacious leader and effective statesman than Clinton could ever have dreamed. First, let me state that Clinton was far from one of our worst presidents and I substatively agree with the assertion that over zealous politicians proceeded in a manner of investigation during his presidency that was unwarranted- purely for political gain. This, however, was exacerbated by Clinton's stonewalling and mendacious behavior. Clinton however rose to office without a plurality of the votes in both his elections. Upon taking office he quickly moved to the left proposing tax hikes, huge pork barrel stimulus packages, and a public take over of 1/7th of our nation's economy. After losing the battle politically on Capitol Hill he proceeded to get the Lefties slaughtered at the ballot box in 1994 with the Gingrich Revolution sweeping into office on the Contract With America- stamping home the conservative shift in the electorate that Reagan had started in 1980. Clinton quickly adjusted back toward the center slightly. He passed welfare reform only after vetoing it twice and realizing he would have been overridden by a super majority on the final bill. He did pass NAFTA AND GATT both moderately successful treaties- and in the process won reelection against a horrible republican candidate in Bob Dole- one of the final remnants of the Old Republican party. Clinton reluctantly passed capital gains cuts that heated up the already white hot tech market. And yes the increased tax revenues collected in connection with the gutting of our military allowed our budget to be balanced on paper for part of his second term. Clinton's foreign policy however was complete and utter failure. Save for a successful intervention in Kosovo- derided in the paleo-conservative circles- Clinton for all intensive purposes lacked a cohesive foreign policy. He sent Carter to broker a failed deal with North Korea- that included of all things us building a nuclear reactor for them. The World Trade Center was bombed. He did nothing- hell, he didn't even visit the site! To busy getting gays in the military I suppose. Our embassy in Kenya was bombed. Our embassy in Tanzania was bombed. The USS Cole was bombed. Terror training camps were in full operation to our knowledge in Afghanistan- and he did nothing. He exercised our might tepidly in Somalia tucking and running when it got hot empowering the nefarious ambitions of one Usama Bin Laden. By the time he left office the economy was steadily cooling off dipping into an actual recession by March 2000. Saddam was bilking the Oil For Food program for billions and had kicked out weapons inspectors. Korea had long broken it's agreement to suspend its nuclear weapons program. Terrorists were being trained openly in Iraq and Afghanistan. And we had already cut our intelligence budget in half to create the mirage of a balanced budget. We had no on the ground operatives in most parts of the Middle East. Horrifically, this all came home to roost on 9-11. In contrast, Bush has expanded his party's size while in office, garnered more votes than any in history during his re-election campaigns. Has crafted an audacious foreign policy that addresses the issue of terrorism. Has deposed to tyrannical governments freeing almost 40 million from the bonds of dictatorship-and propped up democracies where the once stood. He has reinvigorated our military. Clinton would be happy to hang his hat on one of these accomplishments. Well, he can always say his attorney general incinerated a bunch of women and children on his watch! Man, that Ashcroft really was such an offense to civil liberties. What a joke.

One source of amusement for me during Clinton's term was how vilified he was by the Republicans when he was, at best, a moderate Republican himself, so far as I was concerned. Clinton was no great progressive. NAFTA and welfare reform and an increasingly repressive War on drugs were all initiated under his tenure. And yet you couldn't help but cheer him on, considering the mountainous, expensive wall of crap that the Republicans tried, with increasing desperation, to throw at him. Whitewater? Travelgate? The murder of Vince Foster? Chimeras. Fantasy. The alleged party of fiscal responsibility spent God knows how many millions trying to nail Clinton on all this and more, without success. The best they could come up with was his lying about his sexual chicanery, which essentially was a matter between himself and Hillary. Like I said, I was never a great fan of Clinton's while he was in office, but if you match him up against what we've got in there now, he assumes a stature that's almost Lincoln-esque.

Best President in my lifetime. I've stated why I think so elsewhere. No need to repeat.

Took a blind eye to many things while one eye was getting all the attention.

Okay I will be nice.........this guy is and was a disgrace to our country!! He wasen't even a good president. Followed on the coatails of the Republicans and the prosperity they had established before Clinton got into office!

What a lot of you seem to ignore is the fact that this president's entire life was subjected to a multi-year 40 million dollar investigation with a microscope and all they could come up with was he lied about having a affair with a consenting adult. Citing Whitewater, Travelgate, supposed murders, theft, etc. are totally bogus products of the right wing attack machine. Remember, Mr. Starr investigated the mountain of spurious allegations made against the Clinton Administration, and came up with NOTHING. The vandalism & theft stories circulated by the Bush Adminstration in the early days of their reign resulted in an GAO investigation which refuted the assertion that the outgoing Clinton Administration stole or damaged any government property. I will admit, I didn't like Clinton initially, partly due to his tendency to parse the truth (i.e. smoked, but didn't inhale)but mainly due to listening to the right-wing echo chamber for my news; but one has to admit, the Clinton Administration did balance the budget, did reform the welfare state, did enact family friendly legislation, and presided over the longest economic boom this country ever experienced, accompanied by EVERYONE (statistically speaking) in every income bracket doing better, rich and poor alike. That they managed to do this while under unrelenting disgraceful attacks by the right-wing and their surrogates makes this presidency all the more remarkable.

I am ashamed to say that he was our President. He lied and used the Presidency as his own little ego boosting center. Have you forgotten Whitewater, Travelgate, etc? He was even so low as to take items from AirForce One.

Former President Clinton was one of our greatest Presidents. During his entire Presidency we enjoyed peace, prosperity in spite of his political enemies endless efforts to derail his presidency. The facts speak for themselves, Pres. Clinton kept America safe by keeping a strong military as we saw right after 9/11/01. Because if the military was as bad as his haters tried say, they could not have performed so superbly in Afganistan. He could work with republicans as well as democrats to get things accomplished. He didn't blame other people when things went wrong as his political enemies often do. You can always tell the people who unfairly hated this great president because they refused to give him credit for all the good things that happen under his watch. All they wanted to talk about was his sex life. At least our young men & women weren't dying in a war similar to Vietnam while he was in office. But, while they are seething with hatred, this great President continues to grow in popularity and is loved by millions all over the world as evidenced by the thru the roof book sells of his book My Life. I'm sure all those sells did'nt result from his dripping with hatred critics who thinks he should never have been president. They can't understand that if former President Clinton could run again for President he would be re-elected and thats a fact. So stop with the hate it just makes you feel bad right?

What a great president! All these Repukes giving him 1's are shameful. What do they hate? The economic prosperity? The respect around the globe? All the achievements Clinton achieved Bush has managed to squander in 4 short years.

Damn good president, so he cheated on his wife....only thing he did differently from most presidents: he got caught.

Chinese sellout.

his biggest problem is he just liked girls to much be happy he was not chasing boys