Clinton's legacy too close to call

Tomorrow, the roller coaster ride that was Bill Clinton's presidency will come to an end. His eight-year tenure was marked with incredible popularity despite unprecedented controversy. Clinton will find his way into the history books for eight years of prosperity, and eight years of scandals.\nHow will we remember this man? The man who brought us Whitewater and the man who brought us America's longest period of economic expansion. The man who had an Oval Office affair with an intern and the man who doubled the number of Head Start programs. \nIt's not an easy question to answer. \nClinton's second presidential victory was the first contest in which most of us could vote. We will remember him for his strong stance on the environment and international trade relations. But he never was able to overcome the weaknesses that tabloid editors were happy to exploit.\nWhen Clinton was elected in 1992, his campaign's theme song, "Don't Stop" by Fleetwood Mac, was indicative of the years to come. Clinton made change the theme of his presidency and stuck to it. \nHe supported the North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization and made humanitarian emergencies acceptable criteria for a bombing campaign. Clinton made these progressive moves even in the face of protest from his own Democratic Party.\nThis forward-thinking mentality came to a grinding halt in the health care arena. The universal health care vision that Clinton entrusted to wife Hillary Rodham Clinton never happened. Although poor families made out relatively well during Clinton's two terms, this health care failure haunted the president.\nClinton was also the first president to be impeached in 125 years. When the country should have been focusing on the growing economy, parents were wondering how to keep their children from reading the lurid tales in the Starr Report online. Stories usually reserved for the pages of the National Enquirer made headlines in the Washington Post. \nThrough all the controversy and ethical uproar and through losing Congress to the Republicans in 1994, Clinton always prevailed. Known as "the Comeback Kid," his approval numbers are the highest final quarter rating for any president in the past 50 years, according to the latest CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll. The survey, done last week, shows 65 percent of Americans approve of Clinton as a president. \nBut only 41 percent of those surveyed approve of Clinton as a person. \nThe ride might be over for now, as Clinton's presidency turns into George W. Bush's. But at age 54, a young former president, the man who thrives on attention will probably not wander too far from the spotlight after leaving the Oval Office.\nWe will likely see more from the Comeback Kid.