(FORTUNE Magazine) – With the President's most ballyhooed initiative -- comprehensive health care reform -- dead for this year, it seems an apt moment to assess Bill Clinton's record as a manager. No surprise: The report card isn't good. Clinton's White House has been the most undisciplined and unfocused since Jimmy Carter's. With the exception of crime, the bulk of his legislative agenda is stalled. Foreign policy is in disarray. And a rat-a-tat-tat of scandal and policy flip-flops has tattered public confidence more thoroughly than at any time since Richard Nixon occupied the White House. Overall, management guru Tom Peters gives Clinton a C grade. Says political analyst * Kevin Phillips:"Clinton is getting close to the point where Presidents are goners." To save his presidency, Clinton is moving to reengineer both the White House and his own management style."Clinton recognizes his mistakes," says chief of staff Leon Panetta, who was brought on board in June."His fear is that he has been seeing a repetition of his first term as governor, when he was involved in an awful lot of issues. Management became very chaotic. He ended up micromanaging."And, of course, he lost his bid for reelection. In addition to orchestrating a more disciplined and focused White House -- with major personnel changes ahead -- Clinton now plans to pursue a bipartisan legislative strategy."Clearly the next Congress is going to be more conservative," says Panetta."To get legislation through, we will have to build a coalition between Democrats and moderate Republicans, like what we saw on crime and NAFTA." Next year, expect the Comeback Kid to reappear as a real New Democrat, focusing on a number of issues that appeal to the middle class. Among them: welfare reform, means testing of entitlements, and even that old standby, a tax cut for the middle class. Says Panetta: "The President wants to fight back."

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