COLUMN: Last grasp at a legacy

From Andrew Exum's, "Perlious Orthodoxy," Fall '00 From Andrew Exum's, "Perlious Orthodoxy," Fall '00The Secret Service agent glided down the aisle, his loose-fitting suit cut a size too large in order to conceal the bulge from a pistol strapped to his side. And the protesters outside waited in silent apprehension with their placards and picket signs. Yes, the president was in town. And by the hundreds we sat there -- students, faculty, administrators, congressmen and media -- waiting for our man of the moment to step out onto the stage. When he did, an hour late and looking tired, we jumped from our seats to greet our hero with applause and ovations. Bill Clinton's speech last Thursday inaugurated the new Granoff Forum on global economics, a venture financed by College alumnus Michael Granoff. And yet while most people were there to hear Clinton's thoughts on globalization, the stock market and the new dot.com economy, the thing that most caught my ear was the way in which Clinton's talk echoed former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's remarks in the same building last semester. In both instances, the two heads of state used their given time at the podium to more or less defend their terms in office. For Netanyahu, that meant justifying his foreign policy and reminding the audience of his domestic policy successes. For Clinton, that meant once again telling the audience -- in the words of trusted advisor James Carville -- that, "it's the economy, stupid." It also meant harping on the successes of his tenure rather than the many scandals and nadirs. Clearly, Clinton is a man whose life after he leaves office will be dominated -- and, indeed, perhaps tormented -- by his thoughts on how he will be judged in the history books. He is a man in every way obsessed with his legacy. But if Bill Clinton is searching for what his legacy will be, here it is: Bill Clinton does -- and always will -- represent great promise unfulfilled. Nothing less, but nothing more. I volunteered for Clinton's campaign in 1992. I voted for him in 1996. And yes, despite all that has happened -- despite the interns, the bimbo eruptions and the countless scandals ending in the word "gate" -- I would vote for him again. Why? Well, perhaps in the hope -- just the hope -- that he would for once live up to the enormous potential that excited the country and propelled him to two terms in office. For the past eight years, we as a populace have been simultaneously blessed and cursed with one of the most remarkable -- and one of the most disappointing -- men to have ever held the office of the president. Those who know swear that a so-called "photographic" memory is an impossibility. But Clinton has been known to flip through a stack of donor cards two inches thick the evening before a fundraiser and remember every single fact about the men and women in the file. Uncanny. But he is also an adulterer. Certainly, the man is a genius, a Rhodes scholar able to process a hundred different problems at once and retain a greater vision in his goals. But he is also a liar. As a public speaker, Clinton is without peer. A few years ago, media magnate Ted Turner spoke at my high school. He was by all accounts an awful speaker -- we counted he used the word "uh" 173 times in a 10-minute speech. But Clinton's vision has too often been confused and clouded in his tenure by his very public short-comings. Of course, our country has been blessed before with leaders so immaculate in public yet so tragically flawed in their personal lives. But Bill Clinton was a new experience for America. Unlike with other presidents who may have strayed in their marriages, we the public paid for Clinton's sins perhaps as much as he and his family did. While Watergate destroyed the Office of the President, the Clinton tenure destroyed the president as a man -- both this one and perhaps all to come. Our hero for whom we held such great hopes fell flat on his face. And even as we stood cheering on Thursday, we all knew that the economy isn't the only thing that's changed dramatically over the past eight years. In our presidents, this country has always demanded a little more than the average man. We've always demanded the exceptional, the example for us all to follow. I'm not sure we will ever be so naive again.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.