When I first heard Clinton speak as a teenager, it was political love at first sight. While millions of people in the U.S and elsewhere felt the same way about Clinton, many people also hated him with the intensity of a thousand burning suns.
In an age lacking objectivity, "The Survivor" - a book published this summer by Washington Post reporter John F. Harris - offers an unbiased, yet gripping, perspective on the nervous '90s America and the world witnessed while on Clinton's watch.
The book is able to place Clinton's decisions, strengths and weaknesses in the context of the '90s. In doing so, it avoids the cardinal mistake often made - evaluating yesterday's decisions in terms of what we know today.
Harris chronicles Clinton's successes and his failures brilliantly by metaphorically pointing to a battle between Clinton's keen intellect and his desire to indulge excessively.
In 1993, Clinton appointed his wife, Hillary Clinton, to develop a plan that would ensure universal health coverage. Health care industries - opposed to the idea that consumers may find a voice - campaigned heavily (and dishonestly) against the plan.
Then, Clinton did not seek a compromise with the Republicans. His plan ended in failure, and he lost both houses of Congress - an equation that still remains unaltered.
The lesson Clinton learned from that mistake was that you achieve more by gradual steps, based on improvisation, rather that sticking to a plan based on conviction.
Sen. Daniel Moynihan - whose seat Hillary Clinton now holds - then said, "Government is about the increments by which you move toward goals you desire."
We have not had a reasonable evaluation of the Clinton legacy - since most Americans failed to decouple his personal failings from his professional accomplishments.
Clinton fared a lot better with the economy. He raised taxes to control the deficit Reagan left behind. In doing so, he demolished the axiom that government has to spend a lot of money to pull the economy out of a slump.
He also cut spending by starting a "reinventing government" program headed by then-Vice President Al Gore. Clinton's fiscal discipline led Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Alan Greenspan to lower interest rates.
Lower rates helped spur investment, which in turn, led to the booming economy that is now a distant memory.
And rather than offer entitlements to the poor, Clinton offered tax-cuts to draw businesses into depressed areas and create jobs.
An example of Clinton's people skills - discernibly missing in his successor - came during the Kosovo conflict. In an attempt to keep French President Jacques Chirac from derailing the NATO alliance, he brought all American allies on his side without publicly humiliating France.
He used his long-cultivated alliance with Russian leader Boris Yeltsin to outmaneuver Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic. In the end, he was able to secure the American interest without fracturing traditional alliances.
It would be impossible to complete every chapter of those eight years without examining Clinton's misadventure with Monica Lewinski.
Harris correctly points out that - while Clinton's actions were foolish and lying was wrong - history shouldn't ignore Congressional Republicans and prosecutor Ken Starr using the investigation to run him out of office.
Harris' book may not have all the answers but is a good start toward a reasonable look at Clinton's legacy.
We owe it to ourselves to understand the past correctly and comprehensively. Otherwise, we are in danger of letting extremes skew our rearview mirror, just as they bedevil our contemporary vision.
Nishant Bhajaria is a computer science graduate student. Reach him at nishant.bhajaria@asu.edu.
