MUNCIE, Ind. -- President Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky will be forever linked in future history books, says a Ball State University historian.

Over the course of the next 50 years, history books will probably portray Clinton in a poor light due to his alleged sexual relationship with the former White House intern and subsequent impeachment process, said Anthony Edmonds, a history professor.

"They’ll go down side by side," Edmonds said. "She is going to be the anchor around his neck that will make future historians suspect of him as a president of this country.

When we open our history books in the next half century to read about the Clinton years, the first paragraph will talk about the scandal-plagued presidency," he said. "She may not lead off the first paragraph by name, but she’ll be in the second or third. After a 100 years, she’ll be nothing more than a footnote."

Edmonds believes it will be impossible for historians to separate the Clinton-Lewinsky relationship from other more positive aspects of the late 1990s, including impressive foreign policy victories and the second-longest period of economic growth for the nation.

The fact that the House voted to impeach Clinton and the Senate is now conducting a trial overshadows anything else that has happened in the last six years, he said.

"If you don’t consider the Lewinsky scandal, he has had a great run with the economy," Edmonds said. "Clinton may have been known as the president who was able to move the country ahead both in foreign policy and the economy. It has been a good few years for Clinton, except for the Lewinsky matter."

He believes that some historians will unfairly try to compare President John F. Kennedy and Clinton because of the alleged womanizing of the late president.

"When it comes to being a sexual athlete, Kennedy makes Clinton look like a Sunday school teacher," Edmonds said. "There is no comparison to the two except that with Clinton, it came out in the press while he was in office. I think the press knew about Kennedy’s womanizing in the 1960s, but decided to protect him.

"Kennedy was deeply loved by the majority of the country while Clinton is deeply hated by a vocal minority," he said. "The people today who hate Clinton really despise him."

(NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information, contact Edmonds by E-mail at aedmonds@bsu.edu or by phone at (765) 285-2779.)