Our old friend Bruce Bartlett today, writing in the NYT, says that Clinton ought to be regarded more highly by the friends of freedom—especially in light of the disastrous Bush years. He frames up what many of us have thought for some time: see Thornton for example.
He sets up the article well (”we all dreamed of the paradise that would be ours if we could just get a Republican in the White House”) but the evidence he offers for Clinton’s good deeds is weak (curtainling spending is not the same as cutting, and Nafta was no great achievement for liberty). But most of what he says could be restated: Clinton was a good president not for what he did but for what he did not do or could not get away with. No more great presidents, please.
