I've always liked the Clintons, sometimes despite myself.  Maybe it's my personal memories of the go-go nineties, or the fact that I spent most of them overseas, and so looked on with the rest of the world bemused as America was racked by one of its periodic spasms of ritualized cannibalism.

Because of that little episode, both Clintons remain easy targets from those perched like vultures on the scorched earth of the moral high ground.  But abroad, Bill Clinton, especially, is still loved and admired.  If anything, his personal flaws have made him a more appealing figure, and arguably a more effective humanitarian. 

It should surprise no one that Bill Clinton has secured the release of two American journalists imprisoned in North Korea.  Naysayers on the right, like John Bolton, US Ambassador to the UN under W., seem to have missed the point of diplomacy.  Haters on the left, like Maureen Dowd, obsessed with the Clinton psychodrama, will use the episode to carp about their clashing egos.

But the fact remains: Clinton went to Pyongyang to secure the release of these young women, who had both been sentenced to twelve years of hard labor, and accomplished his purpose without a fuss, something arguably no other statesman on the scene could have done. 

Of course, any success by the Clintons will be minimized, dismissed outright, or eviscerated by their critics.  But if nothing else, they should recognize that the simplicity of the right gesture, the ease with which the goal may be attained when it is employed, offers intriguing possibilities once it's found.