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William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III on August
19, 1946) was the 42nd President of the United States, serving from 1993 to 2001.
Before his presidency, Clinton served nearly twelve years as the 50th and 52nd
Governor of Arkansas. He was the third-youngest person to serve as president, after
Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy, and is considered the first baby boomer
president. Clinton is considered to have served during the American transition from
the political order of the Cold War. Clinton was a New Democrat politician and was
mainly responsible for the Third Way philosophy of governance that came to
epitomize his two terms as president.
Clinton presided over the longest period of peace-time economic expansion in
American history, which included a balanced budget and a federal surplus. His first
term saw the passage of economic legislation such as the Omnibus Budget
Reconciliation Act of 1993. In 1994, because of several perceived failures,
including an unsuccessful attempt at health care reform, Republicans gained control
of the House of Representatives for the first time in 40 years. Clinton's second
term was largely marked by impeachment proceedings. He was subsequently acquitted
by the United States Senate and remained in office to complete his term. Other
events of Clinton's second term include the Kosovo War.
Clinton left office with polls revealing that most questioned his morals and
ethics; however, he also retained a 65% approval rating, the highest
end-of-presidency rating among all the Presidents that came into office after World
War II. Since leaving office, Clinton has been involved in public speaking and
humanitarian work. He created the William J. Clinton Foundation to promote and
address international causes, such as treatment and prevention of HIV/ AIDS and
global warming. In 2004, he released a personal autobiography, My Life. His wife,
Hillary Rodham Clinton, is the Junior United States Senator from the state of New
York, where they both currently reside.
 Early life and
education
William Jefferson Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe III in Hope, Arkansas,
and raised in Hot Springs, Arkansas. His father was William Jefferson Blythe, Jr.,
a traveling salesman, who died in a car accident three months prior to the birth of
his son. In 1950, his mother, Virginia Dell Cassidy (1923–1994), married Roger
Clinton, a partner (with his brother) in an automobile dealership.
Bill Clinton in 1950It was not until Billy (as he was known then) turned 14 that he
formally adopted his stepfather's surname of Clinton; although, he had assumed use
of Clinton prior to that. Clinton claims his stepfather was a gambler and an
alcoholic, who regularly abused his mother and, at times, his half-brother, Roger,
Jr.
In Hot Springs, Clinton attended St. John's Catholic Elementary School, Ramble
Elementary School, and Hot Springs High School - where he was an active student
leader, avid reader, and musician. He was in the chorus and played the saxophone,
winning first chair in the state band's saxophone section. He briefly considered
dedicating his life to music, but as he noted in his autobiography My Life:
“ (…) Sometime in my sixteenth year I decided I wanted to be in public life as an
elected official. I loved music and thought I could be very good, but I knew I
would never be John Coltrane or Stan Getz. I was interested in medicine and thought
I could be a fine doctor, but I knew I would never be Michael DeBakey. But I knew I
could be great in public service. ”
In 1963, two influential moments in Clinton's early life contributed to his
decision to become a public figure. One was his visit to the White House to meet
President John F. Kennedy, as a Boys Nation senator. The other was listening to
Martin Luther King's 1963 I Have a Dream speech (which he memorized).
Clinton was also a member of Youth Order of DeMolay (but never actually became a
Freemason). He is a member of Kappa Kappa Psi National Honorary Band Fraternity,
Inc.
With the aid of scholarships, Clinton attended the Edmund A. Walsh School of
Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington D.C., receiving a Bachelor
of Science in Foreign Service (B.S.F.S.) degree in 1968. It was at Georgetown that
he interned for Arkansas Senator J. William Fulbright. While in college he became a
brother of Alpha Phi Omega and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
On graduation he won a Rhodes Scholarship to University College, Oxford where he
studied government. He developed an interest in rugby, playing at Oxford and later
for the Little Rock Rugby club in Arkansas. While at Oxford he also participated in
Vietnam War protests, including organizing an October 1969 Moratorium event. In
later life he admitted smoking cannabis at the university, but claimed that he
"never inhaled".
After Oxford, Clinton attended Yale Law School and obtained a Juris Doctor degree
in 1973. While at Yale, he began dating law student Hillary Rodham who was a year
ahead of him. They married in 1975 and their only child, Chelsea, was born in
1980.
Early
political career
Governor of
Arkansas
After graduating from Yale Law School, Clinton returned
to Arkansas and became a University of Arkansas law professor. A year later,
in 1974, he ran for the House of Representatives. The incumbent, John Paul
Hammerschmidt, defeated Clinton with 52% of the vote. In 1976, Clinton was
elected Attorney General of Arkansas without opposition in the general
election.
Clinton with Jimmy Carter in 1978In 1978, Bill Clinton was elected Governor of
Arkansas for the first time; at 32, he was the youngest governor in the country. He
worked on educational reform and on the infrastructure of Arkansas's roads, but his
first term also was fraught with difficulties, including an unpopular motor vehicle
tax and citizens' anger over the escape of Cuban refugees (from the Mariel
boatlift) detained in Fort Chaffee in 1980. Running for re-election in 1980,
Clinton was defeated by Republican challenger Frank D. White. As Clinton once
joked, he was the youngest ex-governor in the nation's history.
But in 1982, Clinton reclaimed his old job as governor and kept it for another 10
years, helping Arkansas transform its economy and significantly improving the
state's educational system. He became a leading figure among the New Democrats. The
New Democrats, organised within the DLC were a branch of the Democratic Party that
called for welfare reform and smaller government, a policy supported by both
Democrats and Republicans. He served as Chair of the National Governors'
Association from 1986 to 1987, bringing him to an audience beyond Arkansas.
Clinton made economic growth, job creation and educational improvement high
priorities of his administration. He removed the sales tax from medicine for senior
citizens and increased the home property tax exemption for the elderly. Clinton was
also responsible for some state educational improvement programs, notably more
spending for schools, rising opportunities for gifted children, an increase in
vocational education, and raising of teachers' salaries.
Clinton's approach answered conservative criticism during his terms as governor,
but personal and business transactions made by the Clintons during this period
became the basis of the Whitewater investigation, which dogged his later
presidential administration. After very extensive investigation over several years,
no indictments were made against the Clintons related to the years in Arkansas.
Campaign for
the Democratic nomination
There was some media speculation in 1987 that Clinton would enter the race for the
1988 Democratic presidential nomination after then-New York Governor Mario Cuomo
declined to run and Democratic front-runner Gary Hart bowed out due to revelations
about marital infidelity. Often referred to as the "Boy Governor" at the time
because of his youthful appearance, Clinton decided to remain as Arkansas governor
and postpone his presidential ambitions until 1992. He did, however, give the
opening night address at the 1988 Democratic National Convention, a
nationally-televised speech that introduced him to the American public, but was
criticized for its length. Presenting himself as a moderate and a member of the New
Democrat wing of the Democratic Party, he headed the moderate Democratic Leadership
Council in 1990 and 1991.
In 1992, Clinton was the early favorite of Democratic Party for the presidential
nomination and he was able to rack up large amounts of superdelegates even before
the first nominating contests were conducted. In spite of this, Clinton began his
1992 presidential quest on a sour note by finishing low down in the Iowa caucus,
which was largely uncontested due to the presence of favorite-son Senator Tom
Harkin, who was the easy winner. Clinton’s real trouble began during New Hampshire
Primary campaign, when revelations of a possible extramarital affair with Gennifer
Flowers began to surface. Clinton and his wife Hillary decided to go on 60 Minutes
following the Super Bowl to rebut those charges of infidelity, which had started to
take their toll, as Clinton had fallen way behind former Massachusetts Senator Paul
Tsongas in the New Hampshire polls.
Their TV appearance was a calculated risk, but it seemed to pay off as Clinton
regained several delegates. He still finished second to Paul Tsongas in the New
Hampshire Primary, but the media viewed it as a moral victory for Clinton, since he
came within single digits of winning after trailing badly in the polls. Clinton
shrewdly labeled himself "The Comeback Kid" on election night to help foster this
perception and came out of New Hampshire as the high leader. Tsongas, on the other
hand, picked up little or no momentum from his victory.
Clinton used his new-found momentum to win many of the democratic Southern
primaries, including the big prizes of Florida and Texas, and build up a sizable
delegate lead over his opponents in the race for the 1992 Democratic presidential
nomination. However, there were still some doubts as to whether he could secure the
nomination, as former California Governor Jerry Brown was scoring victories in
other parts of the country and Clinton had yet to win a significant contest outside
of his native South.
With no major Southern state remaining on the primary calendar, Clinton targeted
the high delegate numbered New York Primary, which was to be his proving ground.
Clinton scored a resounding victory in New York. It was a watershed moment for him,
as he had finally broken through and shed his image as a regional candidate. Having
been transformed into the consensus candidate, he secured the democratic party
nomination, topping it off with a victory on Jerry Brown's home turf in the
California Primary.
Presidential
election
Bill Clinton with H. Ross Perot, Independent, and George H.W. Bush, Republican, in
a national debateMain article: United States presidential election, 1992
Clinton won the 1992 presidential election (43.0% of the vote) against Republican
George H. W. Bush (37.4% of the vote) and billionaire populist H. Ross Perot, who
ran as an independent (18.9% of the vote) on a platform focusing on domestic
issues; a large part of his success was Bush's steep decline in public approval.
Previously described as "unbeatable" because of his approval ratings in the 80
percent range during the Persian Gulf conflict, Bush saw his public approval rating
drop to just over 40% by election time because of a souring economy.
Additionally, Bush reneged on his promise ("Read My Lips: No New Taxes!") not to
raise taxes when he compromised with Democrats in an attempt to lower the Federal
deficits; this hurt him among conservatives. Clinton capitalized on Bush's policy
switch, repeatedly condemning the president for making a promise he failed to
keep.
Finally, Bush's party base was in disarray. Conservatives had previously been
united by anti-communism, but with the end of the Cold War, new issues would have
to emerge. The 1992 Republican National Convention was perceived by some moderate
voters to have been usurped by religious conservatives, and did not inspire them.
All this worked in Clinton's favor. Clinton could point to his moderate, 'New
Democrat' record as governor of Arkansas. Liberal Democrats were impressed by
Clinton's academic credentials, his 1960s-era protest record, and support for
social causes such as women's abortion issues. Many Democrats who had supported
Ronald Reagan and Bush in previous elections switched their allegiance to
Clinton.
His election ended an era of Republican rule of the White House for the previous 12
years, and 20 of the previous 24 years. That election also brought the Democrats
full control of both branches of Congress, the House of Representatives and Senate.
Clinton would be the first president to enjoy this privilege since President Jimmy
Carter did in the late-1970s.
Source : Some of the information on this page came
from a Wikipedia article and is licensed under the GNU Documentation
License. ©2008 www.geneticmatrix.com.
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Bill
Clinton - Generator - Biography
