Indeed, during this necessarily short and fragile “unipolar moment,” Clinton probably had an intuition of what America’s new responsibilities should be, but he did not deliver. The defeat of the Democrats in the mid-term elections in 1994, followed by the Monica Lewinsky affair, hampered the effectiveness of one of America’s most energetic and gifted Presidents.
实际上，在这短暂脆弱而又不可避免的“单极时刻”，克林顿或许已经意识到美国所肩负的全新责任，但他却没有能够将其付诸实施。民主党在1994年中期选举中的失利，再加上接踵而至的莫妮卡·莱温斯基事件，使这位精力最为充沛、也最有天分的美国总统效率大打折扣。