Tuesday, September 16, 2003

David Frum on Clinton

Here's David Frum's take on Clinton's recent campaigning:
    Will Saletan of Slate and Andrew Sullivan beat me to the story of Clinton endorsing the Democrats’ weary old arsenic hoax at a political rally in Iowa. But there is still one more thing that remains to be said: which is that just as Clinton reduced the standards of the presidency to a world-historical low, so he now seems to be competing to be the most disgraceful ex-president in history. Time was, when ex-presidents refrained from overt partisanship, ascending into a kind of dignified retirement that allowed them to undertake important tasks on behalf of the whole nation. Even those presidents who had been strident partisans during their time in office – Truman, Nixon – nonetheless managed to get a grip on themselves afterward, and at least in public behave with some kind of dignity. Not Clinton! He's still untruthfully accusing his political opponents of poisoning the wells. What a guy. Al Jazeera should hire him as its in-house political analyst.
I don't hate Clinton; I just think he was an awful President, and he appears to be following suit as ex-President.

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