Baby-boomer Bill Clinton: A Generation Takes Power

As America's first baby-boomer President, Clinton will bring to the White House a fresh mental map of historical impressions and pop-cultural symbols

". . . the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans, born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace . . ." -- John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, 1961

These stirring words commemorated the last time that one generation ceded power to the next. The 22-year age chasm between President-elect Bill Clinton and George Bush is the second largest in U.S. electoral history, surpassed only by the 27 years separating Kennedy and Dwight Eisenhower. But this generational conceit is unlikely to be updated as a theme for Clinton's Inaugural Address. Imagine a...

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