Crime figures for the first six months of last year, announced last month, show another 5 per cent fall in serious crime, with violent crime dropping even more steeply. The justice department revealed last week that the average American is now less likely to be a crime victim than at any time in the past 25 years. The 1997 murder rate is the lowest in three decades. Other indicators provide the same message. Teenage births are falling, especially among black teenagers.
Infant mortality is the lowest ever.
Welfare rolls are down, and not merely because of changed definitions. Life expectancy is up. There are other trends, of course, that point in gloomier and potentially destructive directions. And a lot of the good news has nothing at all to do with Mr Clinton. But it's happening 'on his watch', as Americans say.