That Clinton touch
Blood and Treasure explains what makes Clinton into a truly popular president, in a way that neither the Bush that preceded him nor the Bush that stole the elections after him ever were or ever will be:
The thing about Clinton is that he responds to people like a huge baby, and people instinctively respond to him in the same way. Mrs T and all the other women went aaaaah and waved their cigarettes back at him. A couple of the lads gave him a double thumbs up and shouted geezer and wah-hay and suchlike. Then he got into a limo and was driven off, leaving an impression of a big cheeky grin in mid air. Now that?s a proper president.
In fact, no modern Republican president has ever had the personal popularity Clinton still has and damn few Democratic presidents either. Yes, I know you’re going to say “Reagan”, who does come close, but he never was as popular as Clinton was in both the US and abroad; you wouldn’t have seen random English people cheering Reagan walking around Machester. The others: Nixon, Bush, Ford have all been presidents people voted for in order for the other guy to not win, not people you want to have a beer with.
On the democratic side, Kennedy was the last president to be this popular, but 1) the height of his popularity was after he died and 2) it was a glamourous movie star’s popularity, not the average geezer popularity of Clinton. Johnson was as much a sourpuss as any of the bugfuckers on the other side, while Carter was a nice guy but not somebody you could be friends with. Clinton though is the guy next door, smart and succesful but not too succesful to be annoying, somewhat of a fatty, which helps, prone to liking the unglamours kind of women, which also helps. No fucking Marilyn Monroe for him, just some not very attractive intern, something most guys could see them doing themselves…
Yes of course, in his politics he was just as much of a ratfucker as every other president, but on a purely human level he is the most likeable post-war American president, still popular six years after he left office. That’s what drives the wingnuts mad and what makes them hate Clinton so much: they Know none of their guys could ever have that kind of popularity.
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Bill Clinton