In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, some commentators in the mass media contrasted the initial “deer in the headlights” response of George W. Bush with the instinctive leadership of Bill Clinton. Mr. Clinton’s detractors, however, vowed to find new opportunities to malign the former president. “If we members of The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy don’t get back to our daily routine of obsessive Clinton-bashing,” a writer in The National Review declared, half-seriously, “then the terrorists will have won.”