So much for legacies, those wonderful collections of accomplishments leaders hope will be packaged, embellished and calcified in history books for all eternity. Poof, into the thin air. Gone.
President Clinton, buoyed by peace and prosperity, began thinking about legacy not long after his re-election in 1996 B.L. (before Lewinsky).
But today, in 2000 A.L., much has changed. With the dalliance and double talk forever etched in the collective consciousness of Clinton-fatigued America, the president needs major legacy victories more than ever in his little time left in office.
China trade legislation-making the world’s biggest underserved telecom market open to U.S. wireless firms-was to be one such trophy. But even as Clinton was signing the uber trade bill into law at a White House ceremony last Tuesday, there were signs of Beijing backsliding. Bottom line: at best, a delay in wireless investment and exports to Communist China. China likely will enter the World Trade Organization on the watch of the next U.S. president.
Then there is Clinton’s uber antitrust conquest of Microsoft Corp. Or so it seemed. With the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear an expedited appeal of the court-ordered breakup-ending the Justice Department’s bid to fast-track the case by bypassing the circuit court-the government’s victory over the software giant has virtually evaporated into cyberspace.
On the international front, the Mideast peace process is in tatters, and Europe and Asia are about to clean our clock in the fight for the next generation of the Internet: wireless.
Indeed, FCC Chairman William Kennard’s legacy is tied to the fate of 3G mobile-phone and digital TV development. Both sectors are in trouble. 3G needs spectrum, including that held hostage by broadcasters. Local competition envisioned by the 1996 telecom act remains largely absent in the residential market.
To their credit, Kennard and Clinton have been powerful advocates for breaking down racial, ethnic and gender barriers in the telecommunications industry.
Tom Wheeler, president of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association and wireless salesman supreme, could see his legacy go down the tube (whether he stays or leaves after the election). If 3G bombs here and if carriers and manufacturers become endlessly entangled in health- and consumer-related lawsuits in coming years, industry will quickly forget deregulation victories on Capitol Hill and astronomical mobile growth during the past eight years.
The legacy of the GOP-led 106th Congress can be sized up in one word: Clinton. He has outfoxed Republican lawmakers at every turn, especially in fall budget battles. Their obsession with taking him down, at the expense of the nation’s business, could be their undoing Nov. 7.
