The first budget surplus in over 60 years. Projected elimination of the national debt by 2010. Approval ratings higher than any post-war president. A slam-dunk re-election.Peace keeping, diplomacy, historic summits and treaties. And Monica.Clinton, the second president to be impeached, leaves office tarnished by scandal. A lot of scandals, actually: Whitewater, Travelgate, fund-raising questions, Monica, Paula, Kathleen, Gennifer, Juanita and God knows who else.Every president has had to deal with some scandal; Reagan and Bush had Iran-Contra. Kennedy allegedly had an affair with Marilyn Monroe, which at least shows he had better taste than Clinton. Presidents before the Civil War slept with their slaves. And as pornographer Larry Flynt discovered during the Clinton impeachment hearings, pretty much every Republican congressman has cheated on his wife.Overall, Clinton was a good president. He led peace efforts in Kosovo, Bosnia and Israel. He brokered a deal with Congress to raise the minimum wage. He made policies protecting the environment, from steeper gasoline regulations to designating millions of acres of land as national monuments.Clinton had some failures: gays in the military and universal health care most notably. And he hasn’t forged a lasting Mideast peace deal, if such a thing could ever exist.As we wish him farewell tomorrow, impeachment and Monica will probably be on all our minds. But ask yourself this: Is your family better off now than eight years ago?editorialboard: Carrie Tett, Greg Jerrett, Katie Goldsmith, Andrea Hauser and Jocelyn Marcus