[...But Bill Clinton's behaviour these past couple of weeks ought by now to be flashing warning signs for American voters. It is not just that his egregious interventions in the campaign have revived the near certain prospect of a demoralising replay of the stomach-churning bitterness and vicious partisanship of the 1990s - not all of which was the Clintons' fault.
It is that, if nothing else, the history of America, from its very founding, has been a history of the struggle to constrain the appetites of powerful men - and occasionally women. It was this fear of the monarchical tendency that persuaded Americans more than 50 years ago to limit presidents to two terms in office.
By cleverly reincorporating themselves as a political institution in their own right, the Clintons are offering an extra-constitutional detour around this impediment. Her husband's evident role in his family's restoration should give any reasonable American pause when considering the virtues of Mrs Clinton's own claim to the presidency. ]
Enough Clinton Inc. - London Times - 1/24/08
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/gerard_baker/article...
[...But Bill Clinton's behaviour these past couple of weeks ought by now to be flashing warning signs for American voters. It is not just that his egregious interventions in the campaign have revived the near certain prospect of a demoralising replay of the stomach-churning bitterness and vicious partisanship of the 1990s - not all of which was the Clintons' fault.
It is that, if nothing else, the history of America, from its very founding, has been a history of the struggle to constrain the appetites of powerful men - and occasionally women. It was this fear of the monarchical tendency that persuaded Americans more than 50 years ago to limit presidents to two terms in office.
By cleverly reincorporating themselves as a political institution in their own right, the Clintons are offering an extra-constitutional detour around this impediment. Her husband's evident role in his family's restoration should give any reasonable American pause when considering the virtues of Mrs Clinton's own claim to the presidency. ]