NO ONE IS TALKING ABOUT IT, but Bill Clinton might be this year’s biggest political loser. With the opening of his presidential library in Little Rock, Arkansas last week, media attention has focused heavily on the Clinton legacy and what his future role will be in shaping the Democratic party. Practically everyone in Washington has heard the numbers: A $165 million dollar facility, 80 million pages of documents and 14 separate wings dedicated to Clinton’s eight years as chief occupant of the White House. However, the number no one is talking about when it comes to the Clinton legacy is zero.

Prior to Clinton’s quadruple-bypass heart surgery in September, Democrats salivated at the thought of their two-term former president hitting the campaign trail for John Kerry. Unlike Al Gore, Kerry was not making what most Democrats perceived as a tactical mistake in running from Clinton’s record. In fact, Kerry was doing just the opposite, literally promising a nostalgic return to booming markets, sans sexual scandals. And when Clinton returned to the trail in the campaign’s closing weeks, Democrats along with the media slipped into something resembling a feeding frenzy. Not only would he have time to campaign for Kerry, along with several key Senate and House races, people, at long last, would feel sorry for him. One of Kerry’s key weaknesses, a lack of voter empathy, would be quenched courtesy of the Comeback Kid.