The Smallness of Clinton

There have been a number of reviews of Bill Clinton's recently released memoirs. The reviews have been rather mixed, with many panning the book as full of nothingness. Perhaps the reason that it is so full of nothingness is because the presidency that it describes was exactly that. Charles Krauthammer points out the smallness of the Clinton presidency:

Clinton's autobiography, appearing as it does in such close conjunction to the national remembrance of Reagan, invites the inevitable comparison.

The contrast is obvious. Reagan was the hedgehog who knew -- and did -- a few very large things: fighting and winning the Cold War, reviving the economy, and beginning a fundamental restructuring of the welfare state.

Clinton was the fox. He knew -- and accomplished -- small things. His autobiography is a perfect reflection of that -- a wild mishmash of remembrance, anecdote, appointment calendar and political payback. This themeless pudding of a million small things is just what you would expect from a president who once gave a Saturday radio address on school uniforms.

Supposedly the '90s were a time of great peace and prosperity where not much needed to be done: the Soviets were defeated, Iraq was contained, and the main concern was how high tomorrow's Internet IPO would open - in effect, a "holiday from history". This smallness of Clinton, while a positive on the domestic front because at least the President didn't interfere (much) in the economy, it was disastrous on a foreign policy level. Each of Clinton's foreign policy initiatives focused not on a grand vision, but on alleviating minor details and then declaring triumph for that policy. And predictably, each of these foreign policy "triumphs" has imploded - the Oslo Accords, North Korea, Haiti, Ireland, and most importantly the terrorist threat. It took a horrific attack on the US to wake us from our respite from history and realize (at least for some) that smallness, while it may be comfortable now, ultimately brings tremendous harm.