There are some people who think that no matter what President Bill Clinton says in the next two or three months, nothing will erase the terrible blight of his moral slips in the Oval Office.

Thursday, August 17, 2000

There are some people who think that no matter what President Bill Clinton says in the next two or three months, nothing will erase the terrible blight of his moral slips in the Oval Office.

In fact, there has been quite a bit of talk since the Democratic Convention began about the president’s attempts to apologize for his transgressions and to win back the support of the American people.

If anyone can do it, he certainly can.

And that, more so than anything else, will be the reason people will remember Bill Clinton 10 years from now.

He is as talented an orator as some of the most famous names in politics – Ronald Reagan, John F. Kennedy. And, he has a way of making people look beyond his shortcomings to a greater good and mission.

There are few presidents who can engender that kind of loyalty in their own party, let alone a whole country.

So, credit should go where credit is due, President Clinton is another "great communicator."

There will be some positive results of eight years of the Clinton administration. There has been progress in many ways.

But, when push comes to shove, what has tarnished this presidency is that Americans really seem to know that character matters as much as economic expansion when judging a president with the microscope of a legacy.

No fancy words – or apology – is going to strike that from the record.