Certainly, it reaffirmed once and for all that there is such a thing as Clintonism and that Clintonism remains a major force, if not the major force, not only in America but in the world. Much is being written about Clinton's achievements, and rightly so. America is not the same country as he inherited. In 1992, the United States was in limbo, an interim period in Ronald Reagan's shadow presided over by the ancien regime of George Bush, economically and politically unsure of itself. Clinton now bequeaths to Bush Junior a buoyant nation basking in the most economically prosperous epoch in its history.
Poverty remains a scourge, but the war against it has been declared.
The stubborn steadiness of the growth rate has been staggering, wages and the standard of living are high, labour is more powerful than it has been for decades. Health care, although a disgrace by the standards of European welfare sates, has moved closer, despite the American traditions, to a system which protects the majority of citizens. Clinton's welfare reform was bitterly criticised by the Left, but unemployment rolls are low - America is busy working. He presided over the years of liberal democracy's unsteady conquest of the communist East. With others, he devised and became the figurehead for a new politics, the Third Way, a political hegemony to which not only Messrs Blair, Jospin, Schroder and D'Alema subscribe, but also the leaderships in Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic - and even Israel and Russia in their fashion.