Clinton falls short

If a grudging admission of sexual indiscretion with Monica Lewinsky and another attack on Kenneth Starr could end the crisis in his presidency, then Bill Clinton finished his five-minute address to the nation on Monday night in good shape.

But in our opinion, Mr. Clinton let slip a vital chance to give a healing report to the nation and to begin the task of rehabilitating his character in the eyes of the public. Instead he went for the time-tested blend of minimal confession and contained tantrum that got him elected twice, but will not make him a leader who will be missed once he leaves Washington.

Eventually, all the details of what he told the grand jury during his testimony on Monday will come out. In these first moments, we are getting a few pieces in the jigsaw puzzle of his presidency. Mr. Clinton could have shaped that process by speaking fully and from his heart. He chose not to, but he cannot stop the process of revelation in which he participated on Monday. By and by, we will see the entire lineaments of his fate and his standing among past presidents.

It can never be what he and the nation hoped, for he long ago chose to manipulate the narrative of his political life in such a way that it was necessary for him to remember everything he said along the way.

What we will know in time, of course, is whether he has so falsified his conversation with the American people that he could not, even in the hour of his greatest peril and through the simple agency of truth, position himself to receive their forgiveness.

-- The New York Times