y son, the comedian, launches into a Bill Clinton imitation whenever the president's name comes up. ''I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky,'' he declares. It's a bad joke, made even worse by the jokester's poor Southern accent and tender age: 11.
And it explains why today's presidential election is not just about the federal deficit, which is down, but about the country's moral deficit, which is up.
For many Americans these have been the best of economic times. But something is holding back the average citizen's contentment quotient. And for once the feeling of discontent may have less to do with money than with morality.
The discontent revolves around the slipping values in our cultural life and the lack of truthfulness in our political life. It leads many Americans to feel that the the United States is not headed in the right direction, even if its economy is.
Throughout the presidential campaign this has been the weak spot for Democrat Al Gore and the opening for Republican George W. Bush. Today we will finally see how it plays out.
Will we hold Clinton and, through him, Gore responsible for a collective moral weakness? Or will we give Gore the benefit of the doubt and a chance to stand in Washington as his own man?
For eight years, looking at Bill Clinton has been a lot like looking in a mirror, particularly for baby boomers. His weaknesses and appetites elicit great contempt, perhaps because they are variations of our own excesses.
Clinton's transgressions may be more outrageous, but he is not the first or only American to want it all and to act on his desires. Many of us want things both ways, too. We prefer taking the moral high ground without making the moral sacrifice. We are quick to pass judgment on the sins of others while rationalizing the sins we commit.
Depending on our political persuasion, or our discomfort with self-righteous moralizing, some adults - mainly liberal Democrats - cut the commander in chief some slack. But that doesn't change the political reality. Clinton handed his enemies a potent weapon of destruction: a lie. His enemies used it against him. Afterwards he could never lead us to a higher place as a nation.
So today there is no hero or role model in the White House, just a flawed human being and a largely ineffectual president. This administration has no grand or uplifting achievements to go along with the nation's long-running economic boom. Citizens benefitted as individuals. But collectively as a country, what great things did we accomplish?
That is part of America's moral deficit. Focus group watchers will tell you that their data indicate that people long for a leader who can and will reverse the slide - in effect, pay the moral deficit down.
Americans would like to feel good about electing a leader who can help us accomplish something honorable as a country. Their vote today will be a vote for whom they believe offers the best hope of making that happen. Who will it be?
In the waning days of this campaign, Bush took to calling Clinton ''the shadow,'' and so he is. Gore stepped out of it during the Democratic National Convention and stayed out of it for a brief time. But he stepped right back in it with his own exaggerations and misstatements on the campaign trail. While relatively minor on their own, they took on a larger meaning within the context of Clinton's lies.
The president, of course, didn't help Gore's cause with his defiant pose and Republican-baiting prose in the December issue of Esquire magazine. It reminded Americans of everything they dislike about the Clinton-Gore administration - impeachment, partisanship, and polemics.
As challenger, does Bush truly represent a higher moral alternative? If he does, is that enough to offset questions about his experience and readiness to be president? That's what voters today will decide.
Has the Clinton era run its course? Do Americans crave the promise of stronger values more than economic continuity? An 11-year-old boy catches snatches of news between ESPN and Nickelodeon and knows that the president lied. For many, that suggests an answer.
Joan Vennochi's e-mail address is vennochi@globe.com.
