For the second time this summer, President Clinton - with more reluctance than enthusiasm - called on Jimmy Carter to come to his diplomatic and political rescue.
In June it was North Korea and now it is Haiti, where the former president's last-minute diplomatic mission prevented the final go-ahead on the largest military operation of Clinton's presidency.
"Ironically, Jimmy Carter got another chance to save Bill Clinton from himself," said the Heritage Foundation's Larry Di Rita.
Di Rita, the conservative group's deputy director for foreign and defense policy, said Carter spared Clinton from having to "get some Americans killed for no good reason."
At Carter's side were retired Joint Chiefs chairman Colin Powell and Senate Armed Services Chairman Sam Nunn, a Georgia Democrat.
Carter, the only other Democratic president in a quarter century, has replaced his ineffectual-leader image with that of busy elder statesman and diplomatic troubleshooter.
Using skills honed at the White House when he promoted the historic Camp David peace talks, Carter has now won more public affection than he ever enjoyed as president.
He reportedly offered to serve as mediator last week.
But the White House dragged its feet, apparently fearing a successful Carter mission would make Clinton look like a president who had to call on a predecessor to handle foreign policy.
Carter is highly regarded by the two main players in Haiti's crisis: exiled president Jean-Bertrand Aristide and junta chief Gen. Raoul Cedras.
Carter served as an observer who helped certify the 1990 elections that put Aristide in power as Haiti's first democratically elected leader. And the former president was proposed by Cedras as a mediator.
Last June, Carter stole the limelight when he went to North Korea during the diplomatic crisis over Pyongyang's nuclear policy, met the late Kim Il Sung and helped defuse the situation.
"He served a very useful purpose in North Korea by providing a face-saving opportunity to the North Koreans," said retired admiral Eugene Carroll, deputy director of the Washington-based Center for Defense Information, a military think tank.
"He all but derailed the Clinton policy on North Korea," said Di Rita.
Giving the impression that Carter went beyond instructions in Korea, the White House was unhappy with him for communicating quickly with the news media, something he didn't do this time.
With Carter's offer in hand, the White House seized on suggestions that Powell and Nunn also serve as envoys, in part to ensure that Carter not deviate from its strict policy of negotiating only the terms of Cedras' departure, not a broader agenda of secession issues.
By deciding on the mission the president muffled some recent criticism.
On May 15, Senate GOP leader Robert Dole of Kansas proposed that Powell, who was a civilian and military official under two Republican presidents, be sent to Haiti.
Powell's reputation as the man who led U.S. forces to victory in the Persian Gulf is well-known in Haiti, as is the fact that he's a highly ranked African-American and the son of Caribbean immigrants.
"Both Nunn and Powell are certified conservatives, and they were sent to lend weight to the statements of what was going to happen" to Cedras and his allies, said Carroll.
Nunn is widely respected on Capitol Hill, where he expressed his own reservations about invading Haiti. He recommended just the kind of mission he is part of.
"The only one of those three who has any real authority, because he holds an elected position, is Nunn, and Nunn had not shown any real stomach for this invasion," said Di Rita.
