Clinton's State of the Union speech will rank as one of the great transformative documents in American and world history. He is proposing to re-make America as did the liberal Franklin Roosevelt and the conservative Ronald Reagan. Franz Schurmann, emeritus professor of history and sociology at UC Berkeley, in the Introduction of his "American Soul" (Mercury House, 1995) discusses the historical background to these 20th century re-makings of America.

Clinton pulled off a master stroke by proposing to link Social Security to the unending bull market through "universal savings accounts." By doing so, White House advisers say, we won't have to worry about it going bust until 2055.

The President is saying he wants not just a third of Americans to benefit from ever rising stock returns but all of them. It's the biggest inclusionist message of all time. And it's credible, not pie-in-the-sky.

To make the populist package even sweeter federal budget surpluses will go for education, medical care, anti-smoking moves, child care, support for low income parents, higher minimum wages, more police, help to poor cities, medical leave, long term care. And then there is plenty left over for the ever popular Pentagon.

Critics are already charging it's just accountants' juggling or an end run around the Senate to fend off the impeachment charges. But historians know better. They know that when in his first inaugural address Franklin Roosevelt said "there is nothing to fear but fear itself" those words launched the New Deal which re-made America until Ronald Reagan re-made it again in the 1980's.

In his second inaugural address Clinton's vision proposes another re-making. Its main objective is the same as the earlier two: the general prosperity. But his way of attaining it is different. FDR's was to build a massive state structure which fully arose only during World War II. Afterwards it became the instrument for the post-war boom.

Reagan slimmed down that state by axing one New Deal program after the other. But by August 1982 the first signs of the current bull market became visible. While Reagan's re-making left a lot of poverty in its wake it brought prosperity to most of the American middle class. And they form a majority of the population.

Clinton's way is a combination of the earlier two re-makings. He calls for a return to an activist state to assure the general prosperity, as did Roosevelt. But, like Reagan, he wants to do it through the markets.

According to Clinton's proposal everyone who holds a job, no matter how low the wage, would be involved in the markets through their social security deduction. And people know that some magic has made this bull market go on and on. Clinton's ever rising popularity comes from the fact that they see him as the master of that magic.

The secret of this magic goes back to Alexander Hamilton during the 1790's. Hamilton was convinced the jerrybuilt United States could only survive through strong government, global trade and credible money. It's a tribute to the power of Hamilton's ideas that his enemy, the radical Thomas Jefferson ("the tree of liberty must be watered every twenty years with the blood of tyrants"), fully accepted them once in office.

So has every president since then, including left-of-center Franklin Roosevelt and the arch-conservative Ronald Reagan. Clinton's presentation of a sweeping Hamiltonian-type program disarmed the Republicans. House Ways and Means Committee chairman Bill Archer (R-Texas) immediately offered to work with Clinton on his Social Security proposals.

Those proposals assume American money is going to be sound and plentiful until 2055. But Clinton also made a strong pitch for global trade. He came out in support of a world trade conference originally proposed by European leaders for November this year. And through World Trade Organization hearings he wants the U.S. public fully involved with trade issues.

Despite continuing financial trouble in Brazil and Russia, the mighty global financial tree stands firm. Its roots are world trade. Its trunk is the American dollar. Its two mightiest branches are the Japanese yen and the German mark (now transformed into the euro).

There is general consensus that the Asian crises have bottomed out. The euro is coming on strong. Global trade is predicted to grow again within the year. There are many bad effects from globalization but it's not going to end soon. Clinton knows that.

The mood now is growing even in Washington to end the impeachment trial quickly and let Clinton use the remaining two years of his presidency to try out his mind-bogglingly ambitious proposals for American and world prosperity.