Prolife president

I'm talking about Slick Willy here, under whose tenure abortions actually went down, despite the lack of any legislation restricting abortion. But this isn't about abortion but AIDS drugs: Bill Clinton's foundation has negotiated price reductions for two important second-line treatments for HIV infection, especially significant since the U.N.'s "3x5" program--3 million HIV-infected people in the developing world on HIV treatment by 2005--barely got to half its goal, primarily due to lack of funding.

And where's the current U.S. administration on this? After trumpeting a "pledge" of $15 billion to fight AIDS in Africa, authorization has languished in Congress while the Christian right in the Bush White House restricts funding to abstinence-only HIV-prevention and pregnancy prevention programs.

So here's to Slick Willy. While you may not like his Southern accent, taste in women other than his wife, or moral (ahem) foibles, he uses in celebrity and influence well. Not quite Jimmy Carter-well, of course, but there's time.