Abstract: President Bill Clinton won re-election by promising, again, to govern from political center. The major question is whether his near-death political conversion is as real as it was necessary. The answer lies as much in his psychology as in his politics. The president is a man of substantial ambition, which many distrust; but accomplishment depends on it. A more central question is whether a president's ambitions are in service of his values, or vice versa. Another is whether a president has willpower to keep his ambitions from overstepping lines of ethics, candor, and public's ability to accommodate changes he wants.(1) President Clinton has had troubles throughout his career in both areas. Beginning with his less than candid answers during 1992 campaign to questions about draft, marijuana use, marital fidelity, use of questionable deductions for Whitewater loans on his tax returns, and continuing through his most recent lapses with highly questionable contributions to his re-election campaign and Whitewater legal defense fund, he has not inspired public trust. That is why six out of ten voters this year thought he was dishonest and untrustworthy(2) and why a recent New York Times editorial(3) lamented his instinct to deceive. There is ample reason to worry. President Clinton is famous for trying to have it both ways. An unusually explicit example of this took place during a recent Clinton exchange with reporters concerning California Civil Rights Initiative (Proposition 209) and recent Serbian elections. The former, which forbade discrimination on any grounds, was overwhelmingly approved (54 percent to 46 percent) in November election and appeared to effectively ban racial, ethnic, and gender preferences. Asked whether he had any plans to intervene in case, President Clinton indicated he was searching for ways to do so, and in fact later month announced his administration would intervene to overturn results of vote.(4) The reason, he said, was I thought it was bad policy for people of California and a bad example for America. Almost immediately thereafter in same exchange, president was asked what he would say to Serbian President Milosevic, who had just decided not to honor results of recent local elections in which his party lost. The president replied he would say that election should be respected and voice of people should be heard ... our sympathies are always with free people who are struggling to have their freedom and want to have integrity of their elections respected.(5) President Clinton believes best of himself and gets most angry when others do not Believing best of himself, he grants himself permission to cut corners in pursuit of his laudable goals. President Clinton dislikes boundaries and like other highly ambitious, talented people with a dislike of limits, he is impatient He also defines achievement in large terms. His massive federalization of health care, not his more modest and successful family-leave policy, was more congenial to his psychology.(6) During his 1996 State of Union address, president announced the era of big government is over. At same time, his speech contained a substantial list of major new government initiatives for his second term,(7) to which he has subsequently added several times.(8,9) It is not yet clear if, and how, it is possible to end era of big government at same time one adds large numbers of new governmental initiatives. What is clear is president's expansionist impulses remain a powerful force in his psychology, and appear to be at odds with his newly rediscovered moderation. Asked at a post-election news conference about difficulties modern presidents have experienced during their second terms, Clinton responded he thought they ran into trouble for three reasons: a distracting external event, an overestimation of public's mandate, and a flagging of administration energy. …
Publication Year: 2016
Publication Date: 2016-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 1
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