42. WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON
1993-2001During 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 was 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.
NOTES:
William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum
http://www.clintonlibrary.gov/
