While the US rides high on the back of a booming economy and the lowest unemployment in 24 years, President Clinton faces into 1998 and its mid-term elections with some apprehension.
The inquiry into fund-raising phone calls he and Vice-President Al Gore made from the White House for the 1996 elections has been ended by the Attorney General, Janet Reno, without the appointment of an independent counsel to investigate further. But broader investigations into alleged illegalities by the Democrats are going ahead, with the likelihood of some indictments of Clinton supporters.
Ms Reno's decision not to appoint a special counsel was a relief to Mr Clinton and Mr Gore as such inquiries, like the Whitewater one, can drag on for years. But the decision also provoked a public rift between the Attorney General and the Director of the FBI, Louis Freeh, who made clear his opinion that, given the conflict of interest for her and the Justice Department, she should have handed over the investigation to an independent counsel. There is now an unprecedented situation where the head of the major federal law enforcement agency believes that there are grounds to investigate the President and Vice-President for criminal wrongdoing. This is a situation which will be fully exploited by the Republicans in a year in which the full House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate is up for election.
The Paula Jones civil action against the President for alleged sexual misconduct will be heard in Little Rock next May unless there is a settlement beforehand, which seems unlikely. Already there have been embarrassing revelations about her claims concerning certain "distinguishing characteristics" of his private parts. Even if the President wins the case, the publicity in the American and world media before and during the court hearing will be horrendous for him and his family.
Mr Clinton is caught in a dilemma. While some of his advisers and Mrs Clinton are said to have urged a settlement which would end the unwelcome publicity, the President insists that he did nothing wrong and is unwilling to make the kind of apology Ms Jones seeks, along with damages of $525,000.
The President tries to ignore this embarrassing affair as he pursues his political agenda for his second and final term of office. With Republican help he has already secured an agreement to balance the budget and to reform welfare.
He has also yielded to Republican pressure and set in motion a reform of the Internal Revenue Service, whose bullying ways anger American taxpayers. He is also shaping up for a tax cut as urged by Republicans.
It is this kow-towing to a Republican agenda which has provoked a revolt in Democratic ranks in the House of Representatives, a revolt headed by the Minority Leader, Dick Gephardt, who is expected to challenge Mr Gore for the Democratic nomination for President in 2000.
Some 80 per cent of House Democrats rejected the President's request in November for fast track authority to negotiate trade agreements. He will try again, but the rebuff was a challenge to a President who not only faces a Congress controlled by his political opponents but now cannot depend on his own party on what he sees as a vital issue.
The White House blames Mr Gephardt and his presidential ambitions for this debacle. The rift widened when Mr Gephardt followed up with a speech at Harvard University challenging the "centrist" views of Mr Clinton and Mr Gore without naming them. He angered the President and moderate Democrats by declaring that "Too often, our leaders seem enamoured with small ideas that nibble around the edges of big problems."
Mr Gephardt is trying to revive the "liberal" tradition in the Democratic Party, which has been cast aside by Mr Clinton in favour of "New Democrat" policies appealing to suburban voters.
While Mr Clinton has won office twice by blurring the lines between himself and the Republicans, the Democrats have lost control of both Houses of Congress for the first time in over 40 years. Mr Gephardt reckons the Democrats must renew their appeal to blue collar voters and the labour unions if they are to win back control of the House.
Winning 11 seats now held by Republicans, as well as holding all of their own, would give the Democrats a majority and make Mr Gephardt Speaker - a high profile base from which to launch his own presidential campaign. But his recent Harvard speech was seen as so divisive that moderates have denounced him as more concerned with his own prospects for the 2000 presidential election than with the midterm elections and the unity of the party.
THE President has been fundraising at a frenetic rate, while at the same time calling for campaign finance reform. He defends his activities by saying that as long as the Republicans will not agree to reforms, he and the Democrats have little choice but to raise money to win elections.
Mr Clinton rejects criticisms that he has become too laid back in his second term and has run out of steam. But his increasing interest in golf is attracting sarcastic comment.
With their only daughter, Chelsea, at university in California and Mrs Clinton travelling extensively, the President is often alone in the White House. Perhaps this is why he has decided to get a Labrador puppy.
In response to his critics, the President points to a series of reforms in education, health, welfare and the protection of children against pornography and violence. This "incremental" approach has been yielding better results than expected, he recently told the New York Times. But it is not yet the stuff of the kind of Clinton "legacy" that he hopes to leave behind.