Bill Clinton, Diminished

So what now for the 42nd president of the United States? Will Bill Clinton become, in the political world, the equivalent of those TV actors who had a top-rated series once upon a time and are now reduced to doing cameos on quiz shows? He has been around for so long that it is difficult to imagine his ever going away.

He did not go away, certainly, after leaving office. He needed to stay “relevant” for the first couple of years because he was, in the words of his spouse, “dead broke,” and had bills to pay, his and hers. So there was the inevitable book. And there were the speeches. It didn’t take long for him to become, first, solvent, then rich, and then hog rich.