The defecit reduction could just as easily (it gives me no pleasure to say this) be awarded to Reagan/Bush, and probably rightly so. He fought for civil rights exactly the way JKF did...in his words. That's important, but he could have done much better. Improved access to education I don't know about and seems to be a demographic trend more than anything. Reduced crime...crime has been going down in this country (depending on how you count) for almost 30 years.

Where's national health care, buzz? that was the mandate, that was the vision. Where's the generation-long Democratic majority in the House, a majority he inherited and which was lost not only on his watch, but almost certainly due to his own incredible political miscalculations in years 1 and 2 ("gee, let's START with an invasion of Haiti and gays in the military" has to be one the worst opening salvos in modern presidential history)

Honestly, I really think people on the left give his political gifts WAY too much credit. They're being swayed by his intellectual gifts and his talks. He made many, many major miscalculations in office (of which it must be said that Monica was one, given what he knew to be the climate in washinton and his status and the subject of a sexual harrassment lawsuit), and it hurt him, the party and the country deeply.

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