11.   Compared to his immediate predecessors, Clinton, with all his shortcomings, looks as qualified to be Commander in Chief as any of them.

12.   Democrats used the diversity of that class and its immediate predecessor to change the makeup of several major committees.

13.   He became an early ally of Karmal, his immediate predecessor.

14.   He inherited from his immediate predecessors, Ronald Reagan and George Bush, a staggering federal deficit and retired from the presidency with the largest surplus in American history.

15.   Herbert Blomstedt, his immediate predecessor and now conductor laureate, was a serious and solid musician, but nobody could accuse him of possessing excessive color or panache.

16.   His emphasis and that of his immediate Republican predecessors, Ronald Reagan and George Bush, have been primarily on helping the middle class rather than the underclass.

17.   His immediate predecessor, Robert M. Gates, made similar pledges but had little more than a year to carry them out.

18.   His two immediate predecessors, President Chun Doo Hwan and Roh Tae Woo, are on trial on corruption, mutiny and treason charges.

19.   His two immediate predecessors would have been hopeless.

20.   Herbert Hoover is absolved of responsibility for the Great Depression, which Miller attributes to his immediate predecessors, Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge.