In an odd twist of conventional wisdom, the recklessness of President Clinton's private behavior with Monica Lewinsky -- and his ability to get away with it -- may have emboldened him to behave more presidentially on the global stage, just at the time when the world situation called for daring. The tragi-comedy is that his new boldness may have also galvanized his enemies into using those acts to cripple his presidency, just when it is most needed. PNS Associate Editor Franz Schurmann is the author of "The Foreign Politics of Richard Nixon" (Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley) in which he examined the links between Nixon's "Grand Design" and the Watergate Affair that led to his resignation.

The Lewinsky affair clearly is what's crippling the Clinton Presidency. But it also may be the key to understanding some of his greatest presidential feats.

Right after the 1992 elections, a Chinese historian characterized President Clinton's modus operandi as "step-by-step" -- he takes a step, looks all around, then takes another step. For six years, that strategy allowed him to avoid making any huge mistakes -- until the Lewinsky affair.

Clinton let Hillary lead the charge on health reform and then drifted away from the issue. He sauntered along with Congress on welfare reform and budget balancing. He let Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen push the dollar down so U.S. exports would go up and when that didn't work, he brought in Robert Rubin to push the dollar back up.

The step-by-step m.o. kept the bull market humming. With most of the population -- either directly through investments or indirectly through pension plans -- benefiting from the markets, that put a lot of cash into people's pockets. And that was a big factor in getting Clinton re-elected in November 1996.

The m.o. worked because the American people, above everything else, want peace and prosperity. Peace is good for prosperity and prosperity is the best peace-maker. Worldwide the two together mean less violence and war. And at home if the young have money in their pockets, they'll rethink any knee-jerk temptation towards violence.

But last spring the peace-and-prosperity picture began to change. The Asian financial crises started spreading worldwide. The two embassy bombings in Africa came as tensions were growing in South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Russia and Indonesia. And suddenly the Lewinsky affair was shaking the Oval Office, the political center of the entire world.

Clinton became boldly presidential in November 1995 when he summoned the three warring ex-Yugoslav leaders to Dayton Air Force Base and ordered them to stop fighting. They did. That happened to be around the time Lewinsky came into his life.

The following March he took the dangerous risk of sending an aircraft carrier through the Taiwan straits. War clouds gathered over Taiwan and the Mainland, but his boldness paid off. By Late 1996 the first signs appeared that America and China were becoming virtual allies.

Given reports of debugging of the Oval Office during Watergate days, one wonders if Clinton wasn't fearful of being taped during his numerous encounters with Lewinsky. Maybe when Clinton felt he was getting away with his Lewinsky experience without consequences it had an energizing effect on him. He gave up his step-by-step m.o.

It may be cliche to invoke Lord Acton's famous statement that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, but historians know it's all too true. Clinton certainly acted with uncharacteristic boldness when he spent nine days in a love-feast with China. Not many Americans supported him in that but most, in the end, conceded the U.S. gained greatly from his diplomacy. And it was his personal presidential power that did it.

Even before moderate Iranian President Khatemi was elected in the summer of 1997 Clinton made some bold moves for a rapprochement with that demonized country. And now, even as impeachment clouds are gathering, he refuses to launch military strikes against Iraq. True, he ordered bombing of Afghanistan and the Sudan but continues dialoguing with both countries. Congressional reaction on all these moves has been chilly.

Ever since ending the fighting in Bosnia in November 1995 Clinton has become more presidential. He has been acting like a strong leader in foreign affairs. His reputation abroad remains high. He can take a significant share of credit for keeping the economy strong. He knows American prosperity is linked to the global economy. He has been a bold partner with the leaders of the world's top economies, and that has -- until now -- meant keeping up global investors' confidence.

However, as he moved farther and farther away from his step-by-step m.o., many in power who hated, tolerated and even supported Clinton began to turn against him. Kenneth Starr, whose investigations during the first term and last year seemed to just plod along went into high gear this year. Lewinsky, via Linda Tripp, was just the opening the Starr forces needed to bring down a president they wanted to topple for a variety of reasons.

America and the world are soon going to face the full brunt of many great storms closing in -- not the least of which are Russia's meltdown, the Latin America economic roiling, the turmoil in the U.S. stock markets, and the consequences of our new "War of the Future." The tragedy/comedy is that when we really need a presidential president, all the people have to consider in the weeks and months ahead will be the presidential genitalia.