Difference between revisions of "Bill Clinton"

Revision as of 14:21, April 1, 2007

William "Bill" Jefferson Clinton served as the 42nd President of the United States of America from 1993-2001, following George H. W. Bush and preceding George W. Bush.

Early Life

Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe III on August 19, 1946 AD in Hope, Arkansas. His father, William Jefferson Blythe Jr. died in a car accident while his mother was pregnant with him. Clinton's mother later married Roger Clinton, and the four year-old William was given his stepfather's name.[2]

Clinton was active in high school, participating in various student government organizations as well as playing the saxophone. Roger Clinton, however, made Bill's family life unpleasant by repeatedly abusing Clinton's mother and her children.^{[Citation Needed]} Bill Clinton would eventually stand up to his stepfather in high school, forcing him to stop beating his mother and kicking him out of the house.^{[Citation Needed]} After Roger Clinton underwent alcohol rehabilitation, he would eventually rejoin the family.

Clinton attended Georgetown University, then Oxford University after receiving a Rhodes Scholarship, and finally earned a Juris Doctorate from Yale University in 1973 AD. At Yale he met Hillary Rodham, whom he would later marry [3].

Early Political Career

After returning to live in Arkansas, Clinton was elected Attorney General of Arkansas in 1976 AD. Two years later, he was elected Governor of Arkansas, becoming the youngest governor in the country as a 32 year-old. Though defeated in 1980 AD, Clinton won back the governorship in 1982 AD and held it until becoming President in 1992 AD.

Whitewater Scandal

His close personal business partnerships with James McDougall in a failed Savings and Loan scam lead to investigation of the Whitewater scandal.

Presidency

Despite never winning a majority of the popular vote during either of his elections, President Clinton enjoyed good public approval ratings during parts of his second term.^[1] Clinton won in 1992 with 43% of the popular vote versus President George H. W. Bush's 37%, capitalizing on public discontent with a weak economy and public displeasure with Bush's proposed tax increases, and Ross Perot, a popular third candidate. In his first two years in office, 1993 through 1994, Clinton was unable to "reform" health-care in the United States with a socialized health-care plan. It was a tough sell in the wake of the collapse of Soviet Bloc only a few years earlier. His approach consisted of appointing a planning committee with secret members to reshape this important sector of the economy.^{[Citation Needed]} The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons successfully sued to force disclosure of the committee financing, expenses and membership. The program ultimately became so unpopular after two years the Democratically controlled Congress shielded its members records by never bringing it to floor for a vote.

In 1994, voters expressed their high disapproval of Clinton by giving a victory to Republicans in Congress. This event was tagged the "Republican Revolution," and began a series of showdowns with the Republican-led Congress.^{[Citation Needed]} These showdowns were epitomized by the budget conflict with then-Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich in 1995. Gingrich refused to pass Clinton's budget proposal, and the latter threatened to shut down the government as Reagan had done in the 1980s. Clinton did not back down, however, and eventually had his budget passed [4]. This showdown backfired for the Republicans, as it reinvigorated Clinton's flagging approval ratings, which would remain above 60% for most of his presidency[5].

Clinton was reelected in 1996 with 49.2% of the popular vote against Republican candidate ( Bob Dole), who won 41%, and "populist" candidate, H. Ross Perot, who won 8%. Clinton spent a lot of the remainder of his presidency combating scandals.^{[Citation Needed]} The special prosecutor's report was not released until well into Clinton's second term, and brought the issue of Clinton giving false testimony in a civil lawsuit while President to light which resulted in his impeachment and disbarment from the legal profession.^{[Citation Needed]} The main charge was that he lied about a sexual relationship with an employee in an attempt to avoid paying damages to another employee for sexual harassment. After a brief trial, the Senate failed to make clear what constitutes high crimes and misdemeanors.^[2]

His term also saw an increase in terrorism directed at the United States.^{[Citation Needed]} These incidents included the first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, the Alfred P. Murrah building bombing in Oklahoma City in 1995, the bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 and the attack on the USS Cole in 2000.^{[Citation Needed]} Clinton responded by striking back at al Qaeda, the organization responsible for the attacks.^{[Citation Needed]} He launched cruise missile strikes aimed to kill al Qaeda's leader Osama bin Laden [6], and began planning to invade Afghanistan in order to capture bin Laden and overthrow the Taliban government[7].

Clinton also signed into law the Violence Against Women Act, which opened the federal courts to claims of domestic disputes between men and women, which had always been handled under state rather than federal law.^{[Citation Needed]} A key provision of this law was later ruled unconstitutional in United States v. Morrison.^[3]

Clinton devoted much time during his two terms to the peace process in Northern Ireland.^{[Citation Needed]} He made interventions including 3 trips to Ireland during periods of stagnation in negotiations which coincided in major breakthroughs which ensured the province didn't slide back to the violence of the 70's and 80's.^{[Citation Needed]}

Impeachment

Clinton became the second sitting president to be impeached by the US House of Representatives. During his second term Clinton was accused of perjury in connection to the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit. The US Senate voted to acquit him. He later lost his law license in Arkansas.

After the Presidency

Clinton has spent much of time since leaving office working for charitable causes such as support and fund-raising for the victims of AIDS and the Asian tsunami. In the case of the Indonesian tsunami, he teamed with former president George H.W. Bush to raise money for relief efforts.

Bill Clinton's wife, Hillary Clinton, was elected Senator to New York in 2000. Reelected in 2006, she is now seeking the Democratic nomination for president 2008.

Bill Clinton's Chief of Staff was John Podesta between 1998-2001.

References

1. ↑ [1]
2. ↑ http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/02/12/impeachment/
3. ↑ http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/99-5.ZS.html