Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton
42nd President of the United States
In office January 20, 1993 – January 20, 2001
Vice President	Al Gore
Preceded by	George H. W. Bush
Succeeded by	George W. Bush
40th and 42nd Governor of Arkansas
In office January 11, 1983 – December 12, 1992
Lieutenant	Winston Bryant Jim Tucker
Preceded by	Frank White
Succeeded by	Jim Tucker
In office January 9, 1979 – January 19, 1981
Lieutenant	Joe Purcell
Preceded by	Joe Purcell (Acting)
Succeeded by	Frank White
50th Attorney General of Arkansas
In office January 3, 1977 – January 9, 1979
Governor	David Pryor Joe Purcell (Acting)
Preceded by	Jim Tucker
Succeeded by	Steve Clark
Born	August 19, 1946 (1946-08-19) Hope, Arkansas, U.S.
Political party	Democratic Party
Spouse(s)	Hillary Rodham (m. 1975)
Children	Chelsea (b. 1980)
Alma mater	Georgetown University University College, Oxford Yale Law School
Profession	Lawyer
Religion	Baptist
Signature	Bill Clinton's signature
Website	Clinton Presidential Library

William "Bill" Jefferson Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III on 19 August 1946) was the forty-second President of the United States, serving from 1993 to 2001. He was the third-youngest president, older only than Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy. He became president at the end of the Cold War, and as he was born in the period after World War II, is known as the first Baby Boomer president. He is the husband of New York Senator and 2008 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Life

Clinton was described as a New Democrat and was largely known for the Third Way philosophy of governance that came to epitomize his two terms as president. His policies, on issues such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and welfare reform, have been described as "centrist." Clinton presided over the longest period of peace-time economic expansion in American history, which included a balanced budget and a reported federal surplus. Based on Congressional accounting rules, at the end of his presidency Clinton reported a surplus of $559 billion. On the heels of a failed attempt at health care reform with a Democratic Congress, for the first time in forty years, Republicans won control of the House of Representatives. In his second term he was impeached by the U.S. House for perjury and obstruction of justice, but was subsequently acquitted by the United States Senate and completed his term.

Clinton left office with an approval rating at 65%, the highest end of office rating of any President since World War II. Since leaving office, Clinton has been involved in public speaking and humanitarian work. To promote and address international causes, such as treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS and global warming, he created the William J. Clinton Foundation. In 2004, he released his autobiography, My Life.

The White House (biography)

During the administration of William Jefferson Clinton, the U.S. enjoyed more peace and economic well being than at any time in its history. He was the first Democratic president since Franklin D. Roosevelt to win a second term. He could point to the lowest unemployment rate in modern times, the lowest inflation in 30 years, the highest home ownership in the country’s history, dropping crime rates in many places, and reduced welfare rolls. He proposed the first balanced budget in decades and achieved a budget surplus. As part of a plan to celebrate the millennium in 2000, Clinton called for a great national initiative to end racial discrimination.

After the failure in his second year of a huge program of health care reform, Clinton shifted emphasis, declaring “the era of big government is over.” He sought legislation to upgrade education, to protect jobs of parents who must care for sick children, to restrict handgun sales, and to strengthen environmental rules. President Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe III on August 19, 1946, in Hope, Arkansas, three months after his father died in a traffic accident. When he was four years old, his mother wed Roger Clinton, of Hot Springs, Arkansas. In high school, he took the family name.

He excelled as a student and as a saxophone player and once considered becoming a professional musician. As a delegate to Boys Nation while in high school, he met President John Kennedy in the White House Rose Garden. The encounter led him to enter a life of public service. Clinton graduated from Georgetown University and in 1968 won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University. He received a law degree from Yale University in 1973, and entered politics in Arkansas. He was defeated in his campaign for Congress in Arkansas’s Third District in 1974. The next year he married Hillary Rodham, a graduate of Wellesley College and Yale Law School. In 1980, Chelsea, their only child, was born.

Clinton was elected Arkansas Attorney General in 1976, and won the governorship in 1978. After losing a bid for a second term, he regained the office four years later, and served until he defeated incumbent George Bush and third party candidate Ross Perot in the 1992 presidential race. Clinton and his running mate, Tennessee’s Senator Albert Gore Jr., then 44, represented a new generation in American political leadership. For the first time in 12 years both the White House and Congress were held by the same party. But that political edge was brief; the Republicans won both houses of Congress in 1994.

In 1998, as a result of issues surrounding personal indiscretions with a young woman White House intern, Clinton was the second U.S. president to be impeached by the House of Representatives. He was tried in the Senate and found not guilty of the charges brought against him. He apologized to the nation for his actions and continued to have unprecedented popular approval ratings for his job as president. In the world, he successfully dispatched peace keeping forces to war-torn Bosnia and bombed Iraq when Saddam Hussein stopped United Nations inspections for evidence of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. He became a global proponent for an expanded NATO, more open international trade, and a worldwide campaign against drug trafficking. He drew huge crowds when he traveled through South America, Europe, Russia, Africa, and China, advocating U.S. style freedom.

See also

• Jeffrey Epstein
• North American Free Trade Agreement

External links

• Dr. William Pierce's articles on Bill Clinton

Encyclopedias

• Encyclopedia Britannica: Bill Clinton
• Encyclopedia.com: Bill Clinton