Just go
“NOTHING in his life became him like the leaving it,” says Malcolm of Cawdor in “Macbeth”. In Bill Clinton's case, nothing in his presidency condemns him like his failure to leave it. He has broken his trust and disgraced his office, but he clings on. Saving his skin at all costs, against the odds, has become the theme of his political career. Each escape is notched up as a victory. But every time he wriggles through—grubbier, slicker, trailing longer festoons of contrition—he does more damage to his country.
This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “Just go”
From the September 19th 1998 edition
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