With no promises to keep, Clinton keeps all happy

A year after Clinton’s re-election to a second and final term, debate over his dubious campaign financing methods continues to rage. In early December, Clinton avoided serious damage when Attorney-General Janet Reno rejected — for the moment, at least — calls for an independent council to investigate Clinton and Vice-President Al Gore.

Nonetheless, the Republican-controlled Congress is in no mood to let Clinton or his Democratic heir-designate off the hook.

Defying last year’s predictions, Clinton also signed an agreement with the Republican leadership to balance the federal budget in 2002, and erase the deficit for the first time in three decades.

On the international front, Clinton forced a weakened Russia to recognize the inevitability of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) expansion to eastern Europe.

But he also faced his bitterest defeat in his five-year Presidency when his own Democratic Party was instrumental in defeating him over “fast track” trading authority, granted to every President since Gerald Ford.

Clinton has instead retreated to handling every day affairs, and launching a dialogue on racism that has virtually escaped notice until recently.

Some analysts are beginning to ask whether Clinton is becoming a lame-duck President.

To avoid that “he needs an agenda,” said Stephen Hess, a presidential expert at the Brookings Institute, a Washington-based think-tank. “He needs to go out and fight for something.”

But for now, this is the President of mini-reforms.

Americans don’t seem to have a problem with that, current polls show. The most recent survey, in early December, indicates 61 per cent of US citizens gave Clinton a favorable rating.

“People are very happy with him … because he is not promising anything,” Hess said. “The fact that he is so popular reflects the degree to which he is not making major proposals.”

There seems no need to. America of the 1990s is a prosperous country, with a 4.6 unemployment rate that is the envy of the world. A country also at peace.With such good tidings, Americans can easily forgive Clinton his faults and presumed indiscretions.

Even wife Hillary, architect of a failed and much derided effort to reform US health care, is enjoying a political comeback. The First Lady, who recently celebrated her 50th birthday, is adding to her overseas trips and taking a more active domestic role.

Meanwhile, the Whitewater controversy, which has poisoned Clinton’s last three years, has dragged on under a fog of public indifference.

US interest will likely peak when sexual harassment charges by Paula Jones against Clinton are aired in court next May. But even such notoriety offers no guarantee that his popularity will suffer.