There are many people who say that Bill Clinton has no character. They are wrong.
Much of what he did very much did take character. He passed deficit reduction at the time when everyone was howling about taxes. He passed NAFTA when most of his party opposed it. He bore hatred of many but did not wish them ill in return.
Regarding his personal ethics, he made a much better husband than most men who wanted him deposed. If Hillary Clinton had been married to a “redneck,” she would have been a pregnant-and-barefoot punching bag and would not have survived the first five years of marriage. With Bill Clinton, she became the most powerful woman in the world.
He was also a loving father to Chelsea, and she ended up doing very well, which is not common for presidents’ children.
While most people would have used their retirement from presidency to rest and enjoy, Bill Clinton kept working. He wrote a book called “Giving,” providing instructions for how to do charitable work intelligently. He also started the Clinton Foundation, which has been doing invaluable work in energy and philanthropy.
There are people who believe that people who support Bill Clinton do it because they have no character themselves. I support Clinton because he was an excellent president and an excellent ex-president. If any of these people were subjected to the kind of hatred to which Bill Clinton was subjected, they would have wanted to take revenge on the people who hated them. Bill Clinton did no such thing. In fact he continued to have good will even to people who had ill will to him, and he kept considering their interests when forming his public policy.
His behaviour in this matter has been influential to me. I have had the hatred of many people as well, but I do not wish those people ill. And it takes far more character to do that than it does to run vicious feeding frenzies about things that aren’t anybody’s business or to howl for the blood of a person who makes a much better husband than they do themselves.
So no, Bill Clinton very much does have character. And it is character that can be instructive to many other people.