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.