I have and will continue to avoid the topic of Chelsea Clinton’s wedding, except to remark upon this from Ben Smith’s comment on the parents of the bride:

[F]riendship with the Clintons has never been an indicator of much, other than perhaps utility to them. Outside a small circle of law school friends and former aides, the Clintons have always been surrounded by a crew of useful billionaires and odd hangers-on, including from time to time the stray felon.

It’s amusing but not unexpected that on both the left and the right, there is so much candor these days about the Clintons, at least about Bill. Democrats no longer feel obliged to defend the former president. (OK, he is an egomaniac. OK, he is a scoundrel.) And Republicans feel inclined to look more charitably on him, especially in comparison with Obama. (OK, he understood ordinary Americans. OK, he championed NAFTA and didn’t harbor animus against Israel.)

In polarized political times and with growing frustration with the Obama administration (liberals dismayed, conservatives gloating), there is something refreshing — and unifying — about the Clinton-watching these days. We can all agree that Clinton was/is a badly flawed character whose presidency fell victim to his own excesses and lack of discipline. And many Americans from the vantage point of the Obama era view the Clinton presidency (like that of George W. Bush’s) much more favorably. Frankly, Obama’s greatest accomplishment to date may be to improve his predecessors’ images and forge a new not-Obama coalition. Not exactly what he had in mind, I grant you.