The immigration debate is over

[Nym90]

Of course, when Clinton did try to go after terrorism, Republicans criticized it as an attempt to distract attention from the Lewinsky scandal. Clearly the Lewinsky scandal was far more important than the hunt for Bin Laden....

[Nym90]

Of course, when Clinton did try to go after terrorism, Republicans criticized it as an attempt to distract attention from the Lewinsky scandal. Clearly the Lewinsky scandal was far more important than the hunt for Bin Laden....

At that point, I believe the only "distraction" was an attack on Iraq (which was justified, IMO).

Of course, there was no Lewinsky scandal between 1993, the first WTC bombing and 1998, when Clinton testified.

That's true, and as the President, Clinton deserves more blame than anyone else for the failure to place it higher on the priority list; although I think it is worth noting that no one was talking about it at all at the time. It's not like the Republicans were trying to make an issue out of it and Clinton was ignoring it. It really was something that caught everyone by surprise and hadn't been any sort of a campaign issue or national issue.

The President has to bear more responsibility than anyone else for not bringing up a pertinent issue that everyone is ignoring, of course, but it still doesn't change the fact that it was a non-issue for everyone at the time.

[Nym90]

Of course, when Clinton did try to go after terrorism, Republicans criticized it as an attempt to distract attention from the Lewinsky scandal. Clearly the Lewinsky scandal was far more important than the hunt for Bin Laden....

At that point, I believe the only "distraction" was an attack on Iraq (which was justified, IMO).

Of course, there was no Lewinsky scandal between 1993, the first WTC bombing and 1998, when Clinton testified.

That's true, and as the President, Clinton deserves more blame than anyone else for the failure to place it higher on the priority list; although I think it is worth noting that no one was talking about it at all at the time. It's not like the Republicans were trying to make an issue out of it and Clinton was ignoring it. It really was something that caught everyone by surprise and hadn't been any sort of a campaign issue or national issue.

The President has to bear more responsibility than anyone else for not bringing up a pertinent issue that everyone is ignoring, of course, but it still doesn't change the fact that it was a non-issue for everyone at the time.

I'm going to say that Clinton bears much more of the blame for two reasons:

1.  He has absolute access to the intelligence; that something that the candidates and the congressional leadership never had.

2.  I think it was Gladstone who said that a politician was a teacher.  This is something that the president should have brought before the country.  There were a few, notably Rudman and Hart. 

I don't disagree with point number 2, but point number 1 is refuted by the 9/11 commission, who concluded that the intelligence necessary to prevent 9/11 was not available to either Clinton or Bush.