RateItAll: The Opinion Network

He was slighlty better than average and he wins the award for the 20 years. He was probably the best Since President Truman. Do not consider Regan his buy now, pay later policy was way wrong.

I find it very highly surprising that Clinton would be such a polarizing figure either way. Yes, he was ethically challenged in many respects, but in terms of policy, Clinton never did anything particularly bold or even brave. In fact, he was rarely privy to expend any political capital on anything particularly worthwhile. In the 1990's, we had a chance to shore up our social security system, Medicare, and the tax system among other things. Yes, we did balance the budget and had a surplus during the 1990's, but it was primarily because of more revenue flows from the capital gains tax. A few accounting tricks helped inflate those numbers somewhat as well. On the foreign policy front, we had the chance to truly change the direction of American foreign policy, especially after the end of the Cold War. Any President faced with such paradigm-changing circumstances has to strike while the iron is hot. Instead we got caught up in the minutiae of things. The main failure of the neo-liberal model promulgated by Clinton is the notion that foreign policy can be reduced to a simple economic cost-benefit analysis. There are other norms and interests here at stake. The terrorism issue alone is proof positive of this. Economic globalization clearly has its promises, but also many perils as well. Different behaviors motivate different actors, and not all of them are economically based. Yes, at the end of the day, its NOT just the economy, stupid! Who knows, maybe if we had been more pro-active then, terrorism might not be such a problem today. I think that the past 3 Presidents, Bush included, have failed to meet the challenges of our times.

He balanced out.

A human pile of waste!!! Sad, sad 8 years in our history!!***A liar and a crook.

Overrated, he could have captured Osama, but no, he was too busy giving Monica Lewsky private typing lessons.

Rating the Clinton Administration 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. To begin, 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 measured either great or a failure, one must have some crisis to test the one in office. Clinton simply had no such crisis. Bill 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. 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. 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. Clinton's restraint, therefore, is admirable. The bottom line is that notwithstanding how much partisans on the Left wish to make Clinton their recent hero and a great president, 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) but 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.) In the end, Bill Clinton is extremely overrated.

Undarated dawg. Give da man his props fo' unitin' a nation. History will be kind to my homeboy!

Was treated the exact opposite of Reagan. Liberals loved Clinton and conservatives hated him. To me the sex scandal was not that big of a deal. Conservatives were too hard on him for that. Rather Clinton took excessive credit for the so-called budget surplus. This has got to be the biggest myth. We never had a surplus in any of the years of his administration. It was an accounting gimmick. Money was borrowed from the Social Security trust fund to make it appear that we had a surplus. If you look at the national debt charts, debt continued to increase throughout Clinton's terms. On the positive side, at least his deficits weren't nearly as bad as the current Bush's.

Disgrace to the presidency

History will treat him with the reverence he deserves. He rescued us from the Reagan/Bush years.

I am constantly shocked by how many people hate this man and that uppity wife of his. I don't think he was all that bad, and certainly not as reprehensible as the boob they've got in there now. He had many flaws, but they were in areas that really don't seem all that important or relevant. If you're concerned about the US' international reputation, nobody in the rest of the world cares. It doesn't affect them, why should it affect us? I don't approve of his adulterous ways, but that's totally his business, not mine. It doesn't make one spot of difference in people's lives unless they want it to. BTW, the whole 'lying under oath' thing was a convenient excuse to mask people's insecurities about certain issues, and you know it.

Even worse for America than Carter was. At least Carter was not a opportunistic ambitious cynic and liar. The only good think Clinton did was tie up the Congress with his shenanigans and prevent them from passing more interminable laws.

Like Eisenhower, he was the beneficiary of inevitable good economic times in the 90's. The Republicans harp too much on his indiscretions. He was a more than able administrator of the Oval Office as well as a congenial person. My disagreements with him involve political matters as they should with anyone who did not admire Clinton.

Bill Clinton was and still is an embarrressment to this country. What a sorry excuse for a human being.

Not a great president; not a poor president. Middle of the road among those who have served in the Oval Office. His accomplishments have to be granted to him. He had several. His failures as well are deservedly attributed to him. He was of flawed character, but he was also one of the better administrators to serve as president. I do not give Clinton the supreme compliment of being proactive like I do to those who are charcterized as great presidents, but he did guide this country through an affluent economic period. He deserves credit for working well with a Republican Congress which spearheaded a wonderful economic period of the 90's.

Bill The Cigar Clinton. 'Nuff said.

He was the best president ever ! We love and miss you President Clinton ! :) He could never be overrated, as he deserves each praise he receives. :)

Rode on the high economy claiming he created it...what a joke (do any of the American people know one thing about economics??) His performance on Lewinsky was a national embarassment. Foreign policy okay on most parts, terrible on terrorist prevention.

I'm not denying that he was instrumental in the successful economy of the 1990s, but the President is far less influential on the national economy than many Clinton fanatics claim. He did negotiate the Balanced Budget Agreement and some other good peaces of legislation. However, like FDR and the Great Depression, Clinton did not create the economic boom, but rather led us through it and ensured that it continued for as long as possible.

Seemed to do pretty welll with your economy. Unlike his successor, who has presided over how many state bankruptcies?