In Praise of Clinton's Brain
In his Dec. 9 press conference, Bill Clinton, perhaps inadvertently,
stimulated some thoughts about his presidential legacy. Asked who he would name
as man of the century, Clinton chose Franklin Roosevelt (reportedly Time
magazine has made the same choice). Clinton told the famous story of Roosevelt,
on first being elected president in 1932, visiting the nonagenarian Supreme
Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, prompting Holmes to observe that while
Roosevelt didn't have a first-class mind, he had a first-class temperament.
By now it's well understood that Clinton lacks a first-class, or even a
second-class, temperament. He can't control his impulses, especially the
libidinal ones; he has an unattractive tendency to blame other people for his
problems; he has a terrifyingly effective gift for misleading and,
occasionally, telling outright lies. People who work for him rarely come away
from the experience with a high opinion of his character. Chatterbox continues to
believe that the nation (and, without question, Al Gore) would have been
better off had Clinton chosen to resign the presidency in the summer of
1998.
But though Clinton lacks a first-class temperament, he possesses a
first-class mind. By this, Chatterbox doesn't mean only that Clinton is
knowledgeable and smart; Jimmy Carter and Richard Nixon were knowledgeable and
smart, too, but they weren't particularly good presidents. As the former Carter
speechwriter James Fallows* famously observed in an Atlantic Monthly
article, "The Passionless Presidency," Carter had a habit of deploying his
intelligence toward pathetically small matters like deciding who could use the
White House tennis court. Nixon, meanwhile, was someone whose brilliance
blended seamlessly into paranoia, doing serious damage to his judgment. Clinton, by contrast, is
someone whose brain (unlike other parts of his body) seems always to be
deployed in just the right places, shining light on an astonishing variety of
important matters. (Check out his comments at yesterday's press
conference on trade, Chechnya, and health care, among others.) The many
accomplishments of Clinton's administration, most especially his management of
the economy, resulted much more from the sharpness and discipline of Clinton's
mind than from the shiftiness and dithering of Clinton's temperament (which
some people have mistaken for brilliant leadership).
There are many smart people running for president this year, but none of
them will likely match Clinton's ability to wear his intelligence so lightly
and so well. Anyone who's ever read Al Gore's Earth in the Balance knows that Gore's formidable
intelligence is a clunky suit of armor. (Fortunately, when Gore isn't in his
tortured-intellectual mode, his judgment is much better.) Bill
Bradley's intelligence has a narcissistic quality, too often focused on
demonstrating its exquisite sensitivity. John McCain's intelligence, like his
temperament, is impulsive in the best and worst senses. (For an example of the
latter, see "Who's Afraid
of an Internet Tax?") Steve Forbes' is monomaniacal and deluded. Gary
Bauer's, Pat Buchanan's, and Alan Keyes' are completely devoted to articulating
(magnificently well) their extremist ideologies. Orrin Hatch and George W. Bush
... well, let's just say both are emphasizing character and quantity of
experience above all else.
Chatterbox will not miss many things about Clinton when he's gone. But he
will miss his brain, and that will be missing a lot.
* subsequently Chatterbox's boss at U.S. News & World Report
