The legacy of the Comeback Kid

Like John F. Kennedy, Jr., Bill Clinton, LAW '73, is smart, charismatic, and has a hell of a smile. Like Kennedy, he has a taste for buxom young women. Unlike Kennedy, Clinton got caught—and yet he is the one leaving office with the distinction of being the most popular leader of the free world in almost 50 years. Kennedy, on the other hand, is dead.

Clinton is like a punching bag that swings back harder the harder you hit it. Much like the unsinkable Fidel Castro, who was written off 40 years ago as a pawn of the Soviet Union but who has somehow remained strong a decade after the USSR fell, Clinton has repeatedly stayed standing after everyone else around him—both enemies and allies—have crumbled. His resilience carried him through Whitewater, Monica, and a disastrous attempt to reform health care. He lied, squirmed, and scratched his way out of every disaster, all the while flashing that smile and boasting approval ratings above 50 percent. And while he may be leaving office on Sat., Jan. 20, The New York Times reported that most Democrats still point to Clinton—defamed, defiled, and exasperating though he may be—as the one true leader of their party. Even the Republicans who tirelessly haunted him have folded; after eight years of screaming and hollering about perjury and immorality, they finally realized that the only thing that would finally take down Bill Clinton was time.

"I think that there would even have been a certain amount of rejoicing among some Republicans if Gore had won or if Ralph Nader had won or if Satan had won," Tucker Carlson, co-host of CNN's The Spin Room recently told viewers. "Clinton will always have a special place of honor in the conservative pantheon of enemies. He has really been a thorn in the side of Republicans for eight years."

But what is it about this man that makes him a great political Houdini? Is it the economic prosperity that burgeoned under his reign? His crumbling international successes in Kosovo and the Middle East? His dubiously successful welfare reform?

In fact, it doesn't appear to have much to do with any of these traditional measurements of success. Recent polls show that despite looming economic collapse at home and ongoing uneasiness abroad, Clinton is about as popular as he's ever been. Also, history shows that plenty of presidents who weren't caught with their pants down have presided over economic prosperity and yet have not enjoyed the depth and sheer longevity of the popularity that Clinton has attained. It seems that his mysterious cult status comes not so much from what he's done, but instead from who he is.

Clinton is blessed with the charisma of Kennedy and the intelligence of Abraham Lincoln. He is far more popular than President-elect George W. Bush, DC '68, or Al Gore could ever be, because he does what each of them does best, only he does it better. Gore is smart, but Clinton is smarter. While Gore can name the sister-in-law of the leader of Kazhakstan, Clinton can name her pet dog—and will remember to ask after its injured left paw. It is a well-known parable among those who know him that Clinton literally never forgets a face, often even remembering the names of the children of supporters whom he's met only once. And while Bush is known for being friendly and easy-going, Clinton is friendlier. He has a breathtaking ability to converse with anyone from any background or any walk of life and to dazzle even the most ardent feminists into overlooking his frolics in the Oval Office. "He's a misogynist and a bastard, and I don't know why, but I love him," one such woman told me.

Indeed, it is precisely his most obvious and egregious faults that have transformed the draft-dodging Arkansas boy into a war hero. Despite his linguistic gymnastics, Clinton appeared to his nation a tortured little boy who deserved our sympathies. The more the Republicans raged, the more sympathetic he became. Those who predicted his quick and shameful resignation were first angered and then baffled when the great Houdini bounced back again and again to louder and louder cheers. It was not until Clinton's own party—suddenly fearful of the possible repercussions of their bizarre good luck—abandoned him, that his spell finally dissipated. Clinton did not succeed in handing over the White House keys to his oafish young counterpart—but perhaps that was only because that oaf's advisers wouldn't let him. The Democratic Party did not believe in the power of their great Houdini to propel them into the future, and they will pay for that mistake for the next four years.

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