The mailbags at the White House these days are filled with Christmas cards, childish scribblings equating the president to Santa Claus and thoughtful letters telling the president how much he's grown in office.
From the beginning, this president and first lady have been a boon to the post office - hundreds of thousands of people have written.But the tenor of the mail has changed in recent days, from carefully detailed grudges about the health care industry and accounts of desperate but fruitless job searches to more appreciative appraisals of Clinton's job performance.
The anecdotal evidence is borne out by the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, which shows Clinton's job approval rating is back up to its March level of 56 percent.
Critics still abound. Republican presidential hopeful Jack Kemp says Clinton is just lucky to have Federal Reserve Bank chairman Alan Greenspan. Republican National Committee chairman Haley Barbour says voters are showing their unhappiness by putting Republicans into key office in New York, New Jersey, Georgia, California, Texas and elsewhere.
But after a year when Americans were skittish about voicing confidence in the president, the mood has changed.
Much as it took Clinton a while to get a grasp on the reins of power as governor of Arkansas, it has taken him time to get a feel for the politics of Washington.
His initial mistakes and his tackling many thorny issues at once made many people nervous and edgy, not just about Clinton's competence but about their own economic futures.
Exuberant over his win, he came to Washington determined to change all the furniture around right away. He has learned that just because he wants something done doesn't mean it is inevitable.
Stunned by the defeat of his economic stimulus program in Congress, he took a deep breath and began to learn how to woo Congress. He worked the phones until he was exhausted and jogged, dined and golfed with pivotal votes.
His list of victories is impressive. Even though some of the legislative successes, such as family leave and the motor voter bill, were preordained with a Democratic Congress and White House, Clinton worked hard for his budget, NAFTA, national service, student loan reforms and the five-day waiting period for handgun purchases.
More impressive was the undaunted way he went about making economic issues part of U.S. foreign policy. That is a long-range way of thinking that had been lacking in national policy. If his visions work out, American workers will be better off.