One cannot presume a person's legacy before his retirement, and an accurate, dispassionate assessment might have to wait years after death.
Second terms are often too late for presidents to give shape to their leavings.
Regardless of how the Monica Lewinsky scandal turns out, Clinton is apt to add little luster to his reputation before he leaves the White House. The president and first lady Hillary Clinton hoped to create some form of national health insurance, but Americans resent having to bear the cost of their own medical insurance, and too many declined the costly burden of providing insurance for all the Americans without it. President Clinton has been fortunate enough to preside over an economic boom and deserves credit for resisting protectionist and isolationist forces that could have ended it prematurely. Uncannily, Clinton has received good marks in the polls, but history does not reckon presidencies by means of contemporary polling. If it did, Warren G. Harding might stand taller than Thomas Jefferson.