Rating America's President's

Jim Taranto, editor of the Wall Street Journal's Best of the Web column is publishing a book today that ranks each of America's presidents. There is a great page of excerpts from it in which they relate these nice words about Bill Clinton

Paul Johnson on Bill Clinton: 'Most of Clinton's time and energy as president were spent not on policy or executive activity but in defending himself against accusations. . . . This had one outstanding virtue. It turned the Clinton years into one of the longest periods of laissez-faire in U.S. history. If Clinton had been a continent man, and so with time to be an activist president, the consequences would almost certainly have been disastrous for the American economy. As it was, with the president busy elsewhere, the nation thrived mightily, as always when the White House does nothing.'