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Americans began to discover who their president really is as the media reported every last detail of special prosecutor Kenneth Starr's report at the weekend of Sep. 12, 1998. Americans are particularly disgusted by the pattern of deceit revealed by the Starr report. They are angered by Pres. Bill Clinton's selfishness in lying to one of his senior spin doctors, Sidney Blumenthal. He told Blumenthal that Monica Lewinsky was threatening him and behaving 'like a stalker' because he had rebuffed her. The way in which Clinton uses word-play to avoid telling the truth also arouses public hostility.

UK Labour Party leader Tony Blair's three-day visit to the US in the week of Apr. 8, 1996, attracted a great deal of favourable attention from the US media, with the New Yorker even proclaiming him the next prime minister. Blair also received a very warm welcome from US Pres. Bill Clinton with whom he appears to have much in common. Blair and Clinton seem likely to forge a strong relationship if, as forecast, they win their respective elections. However both men have discarded a considerable amount of their party's ideological baggage, raising the question of whether they actually stand for anything.

President Bill Clinton has been inaugurated into office on Jan 20 1993. The ceremony was held, by tradition, in midwinter on a cold but bright day. Key posts in the Clinton administration have not yet been filled and about 50 of the Bush administration team are to remain in post, temporarily. Policy decisions are yet to be made, but Clinton's first official act was the signing of new ethics rules for senior government officials. He used the signature 'William J. Clinton.' Ex-president Bush left the White House without ceremony but officials say there was no bitterness.