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William Jefferson Clinton
42nd President
Vice PresidentAl Gore
Preceded byGeorge H. W. Bush
Succeeded byGeorge W. Bush
Personal details
Nationalityamerican
Political partyDemocratic

William Jefferson Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III on August 19, 1946) was the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Before his presidency, Clinton served five terms as the Governor of Arkansas.

Generally regarded as a moderate member of the Democratic Party, he headed the centrist Democratic Leadership Council from 1990 to 1991 [1]. During his tenure as president, his domestic priorities included legislation to upgrade education, to restrict handgun sales, to strengthen environmental regulations, and to protect the jobs of individuals who need to take leave for pregnancy or a serious medical condition. Internationally, his priorities included reducing trade barriers and mediating the Northern Ireland and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts. In an effort to appeal to conservatives, his domestic priorities included expanding the "War on Drugs" and the death penalty, and in 1996 his administration unilaterally vetoed the reappointment of United Nations Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali.

He was the third youngest president and the first of the baby boomer generation. As such, his assumption of office marked a generational shift from the earlier presidents who were mostly World War II veterans and had experienced the start of the Cold War in the 1950s.

His tenure was marked by an adversarial relationship with the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress. He was also the subject of a series of independent counsel investigations by Congress such asWhitewater, where several of his associates were indicted on charges unrelated to the Clintons themselves. Clinton was subsequently found innocent of all wrongdoing in the Whitewater scandal. He became the second president to be impeached, on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice before a grand jury for his handling of his personal affair with Monica Lewinsky, but he was acquitted by the Senate.

He was elected twice with the highest percentage of the popular vote among his opponents, but never with a general majority due to the strong showing of a third party (Ross Perot) at the polls. Characteristics of the period during his administration included the longest economic boom in U.S. history which subsequently ended shortly after George W. Bush took office, possibly indicative of a stock market bubble, a NATO peacekeeping operation with the Kosovo Conflict, and presiding over a shift from a budget deficit of around $250 billion to a budget surplus of around $523 billion from the beginning of his presidency to the end of his term [2].

Clinton's job approval rating varied dramatically over the course of his presidency, with a low of about 40% during his first year and a high of about 70% approval during impeachment proceedings.[3] A CNN/USA TODAY/Gallup poll[4] conducted as he was leaving office revealed deeply contradictory attitudes regarding Clinton. Although his approval rating at 65 percent was higher than any departing president since polling began more than seven decades earlier, only 45 percent said they would miss him. While 55 percent thought he "would have something worthwhile to contribute and should remain active in public life", and 47 percent rated him as either outstanding or above average as a president, 68 percent thought he would be remembered for his "involvement in personal scandal" rather than his accomplishments as president and 58 percent answered "No" to the question "Do you generally think Bill Clinton is honest and trustworthy?" 47% of the respondents identified themselves as being Clinton supporters.

Early life

Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe III in Hope, Arkansas and raised in Hot Springs, Arkansas. He was named after his father, William Jefferson Blythe Jr., a travelling salesman who had been killed in a car accident in Scott County, Missouri between the towns of Sikeston and Morley just three months before his son was born. His mother, born Virginia Dell Cassidy, remarried in 1950 to Roger Clinton. Billy, as he was called, was raised by his mother and stepfather, using the last name "Clinton" throughout elementary school, but not formally changing it until he was 14. Clinton grew up in a traditional nuclear, albeit blended, family, however his stepfather was a gambler and alcoholic who regularly abused Clinton's mother, and sometimes Clinton's half brother Roger, Jr.

Arkansas political career and education

Clinton attended the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington DC, where he became a brother of Alpha Phi Omega, worked for Senator J. William Fulbright and won a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford in England. After Oxford, Clinton attended and graduated from Yale Law School, where he met his future wife, classmate Hillary Rodham.

File:CarterClinton.jpg
President Carter (right) meets with Governor Clinton.

Clinton taught law at the University of Arkansas for a few years. During this time, he ran for the House of Representatives in 1974 against Congressman John Paul Hammerschmidt. Clinton lost the election by over 6,000 votes. After his teaching stint, Clinton was elected Attorney General of Arkansas in 1976. Bill Clinton was first elected governor of the state of Arkansas in 1978, when at the time he was the youngest state governor in the United States, and the youngest to be elected to a state governorship since 1938. His first term was fraught with difficulties, including an unpopular motor vehicle tax and popular anger over the escape of Cuban prisoners (from the Mariel boatlift) detained in Fort Chafee in 1980.

Furthermore, Hillary Rodham's decision to keep her maiden name while Arkansas' First Lady raised many eyebrows in the traditionally conservative state. Eventually, Hillary took her husband's surname and adopted a more traditional public role as a political wife, while quietly establishing herself as a political force in her own right through her skills as an attorney.

After Clinton's first term, he was defeated by Republican challenger Frank D. White in 1980. As he once joked, he was the youngest ex-governor in the nation's history. However, in the next election, Clinton was elected governor again in 1982 for four consecuitve terms until 1992, when he took the office of the President. In 1984, Clinton succeeded in amending the governor's term from 2 years to 4 years.

Clinton's business-friendly approach mollified conservative criticism during his terms as governor. However, several deals the Clintons made during this period led to the Whitewater investigation, which dogged his later presidential administration. Clinton's half-brother, Roger Clinton, Jr., was convicted of a cocaine drug charge in Arkansas in 1985, while his brother was the state's governor.

Presidency

File:ClintonRecent.jpg
Official Cornell University photograph.

Clinton's first major foray into national politics occurred when he was enlisted to speak at the 1988 Democratic National Convention, introducing candidate Michael Dukakis. Clinton's address, scheduled to last 15 minutes, became a debacle as Clinton gave a notoriously dull speech that lasted over half an hour (he joked about the length of this speech at the 1992 convention) [5]. Clinton's subsequent appearance on The Tonight Show to diffuse the criticism was perceived by Associated Press as a "stunning comeback" from his convention television appearance. [6]

Four years later, Clinton prepared for a run in 1992 against incumbent president George H. W. Bush. In the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War, President Bush seemed unbeatable, and several potential Democratic candidates — notably New York Governor Mario Cuomo — passed on what seemed to be a lost cause. Positioning himself as a straight-talking everyman, Clinton handily won the Democratic Party's nomination.

Clinton chose U.S. Senator Albert A. Gore Jr. (D-Tennessee) to be his running mate on July 9, 1992. Initially this decision sparked criticism from strategists due to the fact that Gore was from Clinton's neighboring state of Tennessee. In retrospect, many now view Gore as a helpful factor in the successful 1992 campaign.

Clinton's opponents raised various character issues during the campaign, including his avoidance of military service during the Vietnam War, and his response to a question about past marijuana use, in which he claimed he smoked, but "didn't inhale." Allegations of womanizing and shady business deals also were raised. While none of these alleged flaws led to Clinton's defeat, they did fuel unusually vehement opposition to Clinton among many conservatives from the very beginning of his presidency.

Clinton's campaign was successful. Clinton won the 1992 presidential election (42.9% of the vote) against Republican George H. W. Bush (37.4% of the vote) and independent candidate H. Ross Perot (18.9% of the vote), largely on a platform focusing on domestic issues, notably the economic recession of the pre-election period — using the line "It's the economy, stupid!" A large portion of his success was due to George H.W. Bush's steep decline in public approval. Previously described as "unbeatable" due to his approval ratings in the 80 percent range, Bush managed to halve his approval rating to just over 40% come election time. In his last question of the final Presidential debate, Clinton's opponent had to explain why his approval rating had been cut in half:

REPORTER: Mr. President, why have you dropped so dramatically in the leadership polls, from the high 80s to the 40s? And you have said that you will do anything you have to do to get reelected. What can you do in two weeks to win reelection?
PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, I think the answer to why the drop, I think, has been the economy in the doldrums. Why I'll win is: I think I have the best plan of the three of us up here to do something about it.

Clinton was the first Democrat to serve two full terms as president since Franklin D. Roosevelt, though he is the first president since John Kennedy to have never achieved a majority of the popular vote, due to strong showing by third party candidates. His election ended an era in which the Republican party had controlled the presidency for 12 consecutive years, and for 20 of the previous 24 years. That election also brought the Democrats full control of the political branches of the federal government, including both houses of U.S. Congress as well as the presidency, for the first time since the administration of the last Democratic president, Jimmy Carter.

Clinton's first act as president was to sign executive order 12834 (entitled "Ethics Commitments by Executive Branch Appointees"), which placed substantial restrictions upon the ability of his senior political appointees to lobby their colleagues after they leave office. Clinton rescinded the order shortly before he left office in executive order 13184 of December 28, 2000.

Clinton and Vice President Gore talk while walking through the Colonnade at the White House.

Shortly after taking office, Clinton fulfilled a campaign promise by signing the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, which required large employers to allow their employees to take unpaid leave because of pregnancy or serious medical condition. While this action was popular, Clinton's initial reluctance to fulfill another campaign promise relating to the acceptance of openly gay members of the military garnered criticism from both the left (for being too tentative in promoting gay rights) and the right (for being too insensitive to military life). After much debate, Clinton implemented the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy, which officially remains in effect.

The most important item on Clinton's legislative agenda, however, was a complex health care reform plan, the result of a taskforce headed by Hillary Clinton, aimed at achieving universal coverage. Though initially well-received, it was ultimately doomed by well-organized opposition from conservatives and the health insurance industry, who urged Americans to read the actual details of the plan. It was the first major legislative defeat of Clinton's administration.

The First Lady played an active role in helping the President form policy, and Clinton's two best friends and most loyal supporters, Democratic spin doctors Paul Begala and James Carville, could often be seen defending the President's policies in Washington and the media.

After two years of Democratic party control under Clinton's leadership, the mid-term elections in 1994 proved disastrous for the Democrats. They lost control of both houses of Congress for the first time in 40 years, in large part due to stalled legislation, including a failed attempt to create a comprehensive health care system under a plan developed by the First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Yitzhak Rabin, Clinton, and Yasser Arafat during the Oslo Accords on September 13, 1993.

After the 1994 election, the spotlight shifted to the Contract with America spearheaded by Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. The Republican-controlled Congress and Clinton sparred over the budget, resulting in a government shutdown due to the inability of Clinton and the Republican-controlled Congress to come to an agreement.

In the 1996 presidential election, Clinton was re-elected receiving 49.2% of the popular vote over Republican Bob Dole (40.7% of the popular vote) and Reform candidate Ross Perot (8.4% of the popular vote), while the Republicans retained control of the Congress losing but a few seats.

Clinton developed a close working relationship with Tony Blair, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, when he was elected in 1997.

In 1999, through Clinton's efforts, the United States had a federal budget surplus for the first time since 1969.

He took a personal interest in The Troubles in Northern Ireland and paid three visits there while he was president in order to encourage peace. His involvement set in motion the process that led to the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) commencing disarmament on October 23, 2001. By the beginning of 2005, however, the PIRA declared that it was withdrawing from the disarmament process.

In 2002, a UPI story stated that documents discovered in Afghanistan showed that al-Qaeda may have plotted to kill Clinton toward the end of his term.[7]

Legislation and programs

Major legislation signed

Major legislation vetoed

Proposals not passed by Congress

Initiatives

Cabinet

File:ClintonAdmin.jpg
Clinton and his administration
OFFICE NAME TERM
President Bill Clinton 1993–2001
Vice President Al Gore 1993–2001
State Warren M. Christopher 1993–1997
Madeleine K. Albright 1997–2001
Treasury Lloyd Bentsen 1993–1994
Robert E. Rubin 1995–1999
Lawrence H. Summers 1999–2001
Defense Les Aspin 1993–1994
William J. Perry 1994–1997
William S. Cohen 1997–2001
Justice Janet Reno 1993–2001
Interior Bruce Babbitt 1993–2001
Agriculture Mike Espy 1993–1994
Daniel R. Glickman 1994–2001
Commerce Ronald H. Brown 1993–1996
Mickey Kantor 1996–1997
William M. Daley 1997–2000
Norman Y. Mineta 2000–2001
Labor Robert B. Reich 1993–1997
Alexis M. Herman 1997–2001
HHS Donna E. Shalala 1993–2001
Education Richard Riley 1993–2001
HUD Henry G. Cisneros 1993–1997
Andrew Cuomo 1997–2001
Transportation Federico F. Peña 1993–1997
Rodney E. Slater 1997–2001
Energy Hazel O'Leary 1993–1997
Federico F. Peña 1997–1998
Bill Richardson 1998–2001
Veterans Affairs Jesse Brown 1993–1997
Togo D. West, Jr. 1997–2000
Hershel W. Gober 2000–2001


Supreme Court appointments

Clinton appointed the following justices to the Supreme Court:

The economy

During Clinton's tenure, the U.S. enjoyed continuous economic expansion, reductions in unemployment, and growing wealth through a massive rise in the stock market. Although the reasons for the expansion are continually debated, Clinton proudly pointed to a number of economic accomplishments, including:

  • More than 22 million new jobs
  • Homeownership rate increase from 64.0% to 67.5%
  • Lowest unemployment in 30 years
  • Higher incomes at all levels
  • Largest budget deficit in American history converted to the largest surplus
  • Lowest government spending as a percentage of GDP since 1974 [8]
  • Higher stock ownership by families than ever before

The reasons for this growth are hotly debated, but many cite his 1993 tax increase which is generally acknowledged to have reduced the deficit, which in turn lowered interest rates, which spured comsumption and comsumer spending. It is also important to know that Alan Greenspan supported this plan, which was approved by Congress without one Republican vote. His critics credit the Republican Congress' 1995 spending cuts, Alan Greenspan's monetary leadership, the Contract with America initiatives, or even Ronald Reagan's 1981 tax cut during the 1980's. However, one must consider the inconsistencies in those theories. That is because if Reagan's tax cuts were to have helped the economy of Clinton, it is likely they would have helped his predecessor, George H.W. Bush. Clinton was brought to the presidency because of economic woes. Greenspan was there before Clinton too, and so were failed spending cuts.

Foreign policy

Clinton embraces British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Jiang Zemin and Bill Clinton.

Clinton deployed the U.S. military several times under hostile circumstances. In 1993, U.S. troops fought the Battle of Mogadishu attempting to capture local warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid in Somalia. In 1994, Clinton sent U.S. troops into Haiti to restore Jean-Bertrand Aristide as president, ending a period of intense violence. Aristide, who had been elected, had been ousted in a coup just seven months into his term in 1991. Clinton also committed troops twice in the former-Yugoslavia to stop ethnic violence, most notably in Kosovo. In addition, Clinton launched military strikes on Iraq several times to punish violations of UN sanctions and an attempt to have former President George H. W. Bush assassinated. However, because he was scarred by the U.S. defeat and humiliation in Somalia, he refused to get the U.S. involved in the Rwandan genocide.

In 1994, Clinton negotiated and signed the Nuclear Accords with North Korea. The underlying concern was that North Korea was developing nuclear weapons technology under the guise of a nuclear power plant. In exchange for assistance with energy needs, North Korea agreed to abandon all ambitions for acquiring nuclear weapons. However, by the mid 1990s defectors from North Korea, along with reports from the IAEA, indicated that North Korea was violating both the Nuclear Accords and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. In December, 2002, North Korea expelled IAEA inspectors from its Yongbyon nuclear facility, and announced (privately in 2003 and publicly in 2005), that they possessed nuclear weapons.

After his presidency, Clinton identified his proudest foreign policy accomplishments as mediating peace talks between Israel and Palestine, resulting in the Oslo Accords. Subsequent events, including the collapse of the 2000 Camp David Summit and the commencement of the al-Aqsa Intifada, resulted in the Oslo Accords being widely discredited within Israel and in various Palestinian factions by 2004.

Clinton identified his major foreign policy failure as lack of response to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Along with the United Nations, the Clinton administration initially did not publicly acknowledge that genocide was occurring.


Criticisms of foreign policy

Attack on Yugoslavia

Some critics have accused Clinton of leading the United States to war with Kosovo under the false pretense of genocide [9]. Others have accused him, and his administration, of inflating the number of Kosovar Albanians killed by Serbians[10]. Clinton's Secretary of Defense William Cohen, giving a speech, said, "The appalling accounts of mass killing in Kosovo and the pictures of refugees fleeing Serb oppression for their lives makes it clear that this is a fight for justice over genocide [11]." On CBS' Face the Nation Cohen claimed, "We've now seen about 100,000 military-aged men missing...They may have been murdered[12]." Clinton, citing the same figure, spoke of "at least 100,000 (Kosovar Albanians) missing[13]". Later, talking about Serbian elections, Clinton said, "they're going to have to come to grips with what Mr. Milošević ordered in Kosovo...They're going to have to decide whether they support his leadership or not; whether they think it's OK that all those tens of thousands of people were killed...[14]". Clinton also claimed, in the same press conference, that "NATO stopped deliberate, systematic efforts at ethnic cleansing and genocide[15]." Clinton even compared the events of Kosovo to the Holocaust. CNN reported, "Accusing Serbia of 'ethnic cleansing' in Kosovo similar to the genocide of Jews in World War II, an impassioned President Clinton sought Tuesday to rally public support for his decision to send U.S. forces into combat against Yugoslavia, a prospect that seemed increasingly likely with the breakdown of a diplomatic peace effort[16]." Clinton's State Department also claimed Serbian troops had committed genocide. The New York Times reported, "the Administration said evidence of 'genocide' by Serbian forces was growing to include 'abhorrent and criminal action' on a vast scale. The language was the State Department's strongest yet in denouncing Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević[17]." The State Department also gave the highest estimate of dead Albanians. The New York Times reported, "On April 19, the State Department said that up to 500,000 Kosovar Albanians were missing and feared dead[18]."

However, the numbers given by Clinton and his administration have been proven false. The official NATO body count of the events in Kosovo was 2,788 (not all of them were war crimes victims)[19], with Slobodan Milošević charged with the "murders of about 600 individually identified ethnic Albanians[20]". Critics have noted that these numbers can not be considered genocide. The headline of The Wall Street Journal, which had launched an investigation into whether genocide had occured in Kosovo, on December 31, 1999 was "War in Kosovo Was Cruel, Bitter, Savage; Genocide It Wasn't"[21]. The Wall Street Journal wrote, "the U.N.'s International War Criminal tribunal has checked the largest reported sites first, and found most to contain no more than five bodies, suggesting intimate acts of barbarity rather than mass murder... Kosovo would be easier to investigate if it had the huge killing fields some investigators were led to expect. Instead, the pattern is of scattered killings[22]."

In addition, a United Nations Court had previously ruled that Serbian troops did not commit genocide against Albanians. The court wrote "the exactions committed by Milošević's regime cannot be qualified as criminal acts of genocide, since their purpose was not the destruction of the Albanian ethnic group[23]". According to BBC, "the decision was based on the 1948 Geneva convention which defines genocide as the intent 'to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group as such'[24]". Milošević was not charged with genocide in Kosovo by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) but the more broader "crimes against humanity"[25]. Spanish forensic surgeon Emilio Perez Pujol, who led the Spanish forensic team in Kosovo, gave an interview to the British paper The Sunday Times. The paper wrote, "In an outspoken interview, Pujol complained he had been sent to head a large investigation team attached to the ICTY, consisting of pathologists and police specialists, to work in the north of the country. But he found that what was publicised as a search for mass graves was 'a semantic pirouette by the war propaganda machines, because we did not find one—not one—mass grave.'[26]".

Others have called Clinton a war criminal for the NATO bombing campaign during the Kosovo war. In the aforementioned article, The Wall Street Journal wrote, "As the war dragged on…NATO saw a fatigued press corps drifting toward the contrarian story: civilians killed by NATO's bombs. NATO stepped up its claims about Serb 'killing fields'." The actual number of civilian deaths is debated, with the numbers as high as 5,700 claimed by Yugoslavia, and with NATO acknowledging it killed, at most, 1,500 civilians. Critics note that there were more civilian deaths caused by NATO than the amount of deaths Milošević was charged with.

Iraq

Some people believe that Clinton's continuation of economic sanctions against Iraq caused civilian deaths. Reason magazine studied the sanctions and concluded, "It seems awfully hard not to conclude that the embargo on Iraq has been ineffective (especially since 1998) and that it has, at the least, contributed to more than 100,000 deaths since 1990." [27]

Critics also contend that Bill Clinton misled the public on matters of foreign policy another time when he made the claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. He made the following statement to the Joint Chiefs of Staff on February 17, 1998:

"In the next century, the community of nations may see more and more the very kind of threat Iraq poses now a rogue state with weapons of mass destruction ready to use them or provide them to terrorists, drug traffickers or organized criminals who travel the world among us unnoticed.
If we fail to respond today, Saddam and all those who would follow in his footsteps will be emboldened tomorrow by the knowledge that they can act with impunity, even in the face of a clear message from the United Nations Security Council and clear evidence of a weapons of mass destruction program [28]."
Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Many conservatives also felt that he treated the Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement in the wrong manner. Many felt that he elevated the stature of Yasser Arafat (many believed he was a terrorist) to that of a world leader and asked Israel for too many concessions—and not enough from Arafat. Many people, including many Israelis, believe that Clinton's main goal behind his attempts at brokering a peace agreement was to leave behind a good legacy and, potentially, receive a Nobel Peace Prize. More of this can be found in Legacy by Rich Lowry.

Somalia

Other critics argue America's contemporary attacks on Somalia, Bosnia, Sudan, and Afghanistan violated international law. [29], [30], [31]

Impeachment and the Monica Lewinsky scandal

Main article: Impeachment of Bill Clinton

Clinton was impeached as President of the United States on December 19, 1998 by the House of Representatives. The charges were perjury and obstruction of justice. The Senate acquitted Clinton on both counts in a trial concluding on February 12, 1999.

The charges arose from an investigation by independent counsel Kenneth Starr. Originally dealing with the failed land deal years earlier known as Whitewater, Starr, with the approval of Attorney General Janet Reno, expanded his investigation into Clinton's conduct during the sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a former Arkansas government employee, Paula Jones. In a sworn deposition for this case, Clinton denied having "sexual relations" or a "sexual affair" with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. At the deposition the judge ordered a precise legal definition of the term "sexual relations" that could be construed to mean only vaginal intercourse. A much misquoted statement from Clinton's Grand Jury testimony showed him questioning the precise use of the word "is." Clinton said, "It depends upon what the meaning of the word is means. If is means is, and never has been, that's one thing. If it means, there is none, that was a completely true statement." [32] Lewinsky's confidante Linda Tripp provided Starr taped phone conversations in which Lewinsky discussed having oral sex with Clinton. Based on these tapes Starr concluded that Clinton's statements constituted perjury.

After rumours of the scandal reached the news, Clinton publicly stated, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky." In his Paula Jones deposition, he swore, "I have never had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky. I've never had an affair with her." [33] Months later, Clinton confessed "Indeed, I did have a sexual relationship…" Clinton was widely perceived as deliberately misleading the public by using his legalistic parsing of the term "sexual relations" to exclude oral sex in ordinary speech.

File:ClintonImpeach.jpg
Clinton, under threat of impeachment, re-affirming his intentions not to resign.

The Senate impeachment trial lasted from January 7, 1999 until February 12. No witnesses were called during the trial. A two-thirds majority, 67 votes, is necessary to convict the President on impeachment charges. The perjury charge was defeated with 45 votes for conviction and 55 against. The obstruction of justice charge was defeated with 50 for conviction and 50 against. The impeachment effort lacked bipartisan support, with no Democratic votes for conviction.

The day before leaving office, Clinton agreed to a five year suspension of his Arkansas law license as part of an agreement with the independent counsel to end the investigation. Based on this suspension, Clinton was also automatically suspended from the United States Supreme Court bar, from which he chose to resign. [34]

In addition to impeachment, the Clinton White House was the subject of many lesser scandals. Travelgate refers to the firing of White House travel office staffers. Filegate refers to White House handling of hundreds of personnel files from individuals without asking for their permission. Chinagate involved Democrats accepting improper campaign contributions; allegedly the ultimate source of this money was the Chinese government. Pardongate refers to a grant of clemency to FALN members in 1999 and pardons to Marc Rich and others in 2001. In March, 1998 Kathleen Willey, a White House aide, alleged that Clinton had sexually assaulted her. Also in 1998, Juanita Broaddrick alleged that Clinton had raped her in 1978. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy was acquitted on each of 30 charges of illegally accepting gifts such as sports tickets, lodging, and transportation from companies regulated by his department in exchange for favors. [35] Only one Clinton administration official was convicted for any wrong-doing while in office: HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for misstating to the FBI the amount of money he gave his girlfriend. In March 2000, Federal District Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that "the President had the requisite intent for committing a criminal violation of the Privacy Act" when the White House released correspondence from Kathleen Willey to President Clinton. [36] The letters were released in March 1998, the morning after Willey appeared on the CBS program "60 minutes" and alleged that the president made an unwanted sexual advance while the two were in a private room adjacent to the Oval Office in 1993.

Timeline

Public image

Clinton seated with child.

As the first Baby Boomer president, Clinton was seen during his presidency and during his candidacy as a change from the presidents of the World War II Generation. With his sound-bite-ready dialogue and pioneering use of pop culture in his campaigning, Clinton was declared, often negatively, as the "MTV president". Despite criticisms that his appeal to young voters lacked substance, Clinton won among Generation X voters in the 1992 election, with the highest Gen-X turnout ever. Clinton clearly came across as popular to young people. Until his inauguration as president, he had earned substantially less money than his wife, and had the smallest net worth of any president in modern history, according to My Life, Clinton's autobiography.

Clinton was very popular overall among African-Americans and made improving race relations a major theme of his presidency. [37]. Toni Morrison dubbed Clinton "the first Black president", saying "Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald's-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas."

Hillary Clinton's very strong role in the administration led to a degree of criticism toward a First Lady not seen since the days of Eleanor Roosevelt. Many people saw the couple as an unprecedented political partnership. Some even suspected that Hillary, and not Bill, was the dominant force behind the team.

Social conservatives were put off by the impression of Clinton having been a "hippie" during the late 1960s, his coming-of-age era. In the 1960s, however, Clinton might not have been viewed as such by many of those in the hippie subculture. Clinton avoided the draft with a student deferment while studying abroad during the Vietnam War. Clinton's marijuana experimentation — clumsily excused by Clinton's statement that he "didn't inhale" — further damaged his image with some voters. Although he was actually to the right of previous Democratic candidates for the presidency on many issues — he supported the death penalty, curfews, uniforms in public schools, and other measures opposed by youth rights supporters, and he expanded the War on Drugs greatly while in office — Clinton's actions during the 1960s were never forgotten by his opponents. Intense opposition to the Clintons was perhaps the main factor in the phenomenal growth of conservative talk radio in the 1990s.

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Presidents Bill Clinton, George Bush, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, and their wives at the funeral of President Richard Nixon on April 27, 1994.

Starting from 1992 Presidential election campaign, rumors about Clinton's adultery were floating about, and these surfaced and increased with Paula Jones' accusations of sexual harassment. After allegations had linked him to Paula Jones, Gennifer Flowers, and Kathleen Willey, Clinton's sex life would become the focus of his public image when in January 1998 recorded conversations by Linda Tripp contained statements by White House intern Monica Lewinsky about having oral sex.

Clinton was viewed with intense personal dislike of his policies and character by some on the far right. Several unsubstantiated accusations were leveled by conservative talk radio. Among these were rumors of involvement with drug traffickers and personal cocaine use. Some talk show personalities even fomented conspiracy theories about Clinton's involvement in the death of long-time friend and aide Vince Foster, which was later ruled a suicide in an extensive investigation by Kenneth Starr. The deadly Branch Davidian standoff near Waco, Texas in 1993 fomented further far right hostility to the Clinton administration.

Clinton is often referred to by nickname among both detractors and fans. One of the earliest was "Bubba", which alludes to his Southern "good ol' boy" background. Other common nicknames include "Slick Willy" and "Clintoon" (by detractors), and the "Big Dog" (by fans).

Legacy

File:Clinton Yeltsin sax.jpg
Clinton plays the saxophone presented to him by Boris Yeltsin at a private dinner in Russia, January 13, 1994

Clinton presided over the period of longest steady growth of the economy in modern American history.

Clinton is seen as having led — in conjunction with the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) — the Democratic Party away from the left, towards a more moderate centrist position. During the 1990s, the Party was accused of abandoning its traditional base of support (unions, the working class, minorities) in pursuit of a center-right position, responding to — and funded by — corporate contributors, with the soccer mom representing his new base. The current quandary of the Democratic party is felt by many to be primarily due to its inability to define itself vis-à-vis the Republican Party and offer a clear alternative. Clinton was able to surmount this problem through sheer personal charisma, but his successors have been less successful.

Clinton advocated nanotechnology development. Howard Lovy, a nanotechnology writer, said the National Nanotechnology Initiative may "turn out to be one of Clinton's most-important legacies". The Initiative was a federal nanoscale science, engineering, and technology research and development program. In a 21 January 2000 speech at the California Institute of Technology, Clinton said, "Some of our research goals may take twenty or more years to achieve, but that is precisely why there is an important role for the federal government." Critics argue that his supporters will look for any issue to find a legacy. Nanotechology received only a passing mention in Clinton's memoirs and failed to make the book's index.[38]

Some of the personal failures and immoral acts of Clinton have tainted his legacy in the eyes of many Americans in spite some of the good economic growth of the late 1990's. There was a massive stock market bubble coupled with crippling corruption by Enron that deflated some earlier economic gains. Additionally, there is controversy over his foreign policy actions; some Americans feel that his foreign policies had resulted in an environment that permitted terrorists like Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network to strike on September 11. Also, he was viewed by his detractors as a television-image based- president, relying mostly on soundbites versus substance.

Post-presidential career

Hillary Clinton is sworn in as a U.S. Senator by Vice President Gore as Bill and Chelsea Clinton observe.

On January 18, 2001, he addressed the nation one last time on television from the Oval Office of the White House, two days before handing over the presidency to George W. Bush, whose father he had defeated in 1992.

Like many former American presidents, Clinton has engaged in a career as a public speaker on a variety of issues. In these, he continues to comment on aspects of contemporary politics. One notable theme is his advocacy of multilateral solutions to problems facing the world. Clinton's close relationship with the African American community has been highlighted in his post-Presidential career with his opening of his personal office in the Harlem section of New York City. He assisted his wife Hillary Clinton in her campaign for office as a senator representing New York.

In February 2004, Clinton (along with Mikhail Gorbachev and Sophia Loren) won a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children for narrating the Russian National Orchestra's album Peter and the Wolf/Wolf Tracks. Clinton won a second Grammy in February 2005, Best Spoken Word Album for My Life.

Clinton collected his memoirs into a book entitled My Life, which was released on June 22, 2004. Commenting on memoirs in general, he said "some are dull and self-serving, hopefully mine will be interesting and self-serving." The book made an unprecedented three appearances on the Amazon.com best-seller list, before it was even released. In an interview with David Dimbleby [39] which aired on the BBC on June 23, 2004, Clinton was questioned at length about the effects to his presidency of his affair with Monica Lewinsky, conceding that he had made many mistakes while in office. He also spoke about the prospects of a future Clinton presidency, should his wife Hillary Clinton decide to run for office in 2008.

File:ClintonMansbridge.jpg
Bill Clinton gives a media interview on his autobiography, My Life

Clinton has gone to other countries for his book tours and has given media interviews on them. One of those was in Canada. On September 11, 2004, CBC Newsworld, which is the CBC's cable news network, began its sixth season of "Mansbridge One on One" with an interview Clinton gave with the program's host, the network's chief correspondent, Peter Mansbridge [40] [41]. Unlike Dimbleby, Mansbridge didn't mention the Lewinsky affair. Nor was there any mention of Hillary Clinton. Clinton mostly talked about his book and how he went about writing it, his thoughts on the issues that confronted the Bush administration, and the 2004 presidential election. He also talked about repealing the 22nd Amendment in the event of a terrorist attack.

On July 26, 2004, Clinton spoke for the fifth time in a row to the Democratic National Convention. He used his speech to praise candidate John Kerry. Many have argued that Clinton's speech is one of the best in Convention history. In it, Clinton criticized George W. Bush's depiction of Kerry, saying that "Strength and wisdom are not opposing values."

On September 2, 2004, Clinton had an episode of angina and was evaluated at Northern Westchester Hospital. It was determined that he had not suffered a coronary infarction, and he was sent home, returning the following day for angiography, which disclosed multiple vessel coronary artery disease. He was transferred to Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City, where he successfully underwent quadruple coronary artery bypass surgery on September 6, 2004. The medical team responsible for Clinton claimed that, had he not had surgery, he would likely have suffered a massive heart attack within a few months. On March 10, 2005, he underwent a follow-up surgery to remove scar tissue and fluid from his left chest cavity, a result of his open-heart surgery.

He dedicated his presidential library, which is the largest in the nation, the William J. Clinton Presidential Center, in Little Rock, Arkansas on November 18, 2004. Under rainy skies, Clinton received words of praise from former presidents Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush, as well as from the current president, George W. Bush. He was also treated to a musical rendition from Bono and The Edge from U2, who expressed their gratitude at Clinton's efforts to resolve the Northern Ireland conflict during his presidency.

File:Bushclinton2.jpg
Clinton and Former President Bush at Super Bowl XXXIX.
File:Jp2presidents.jpg
Clinton, along with President George W. Bush, his wife, Laura, and Bush's father pay their respects to Pope John Paul II before the pope's funeral.

On November 22, 2004, New York Republican Governor George Pataki named Clinton and the other living former presidents (Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and George H. W. Bush) as honorary members of the board rebuilding the World Trade Center.

On December 8, 2004, Clinton announced that he was the new spokesperson for Accoona, an internet search engine company.

There had been reported signs of a friendship growing between former president Clinton and George W. Bush. After the official unveiling of his White House portrait in June 2004, and especially since the 2004 election, Clinton and Bush met on occasion, although the nature of the friendship did not appear to be a reconciliation of political opinions. During the 2000 presidential campaign, Bush deemed Clinton "the shadow" and vowed to "uphold dignity" into the White House once he departed in January of 2001.

On January 3, 2005, President George W. Bush named Clinton and George H. W. Bush to lead a nationwide campaign to help the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. On February 1, 2005, he was picked by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to head the United Nations earthquake and tsunami relief and reconstruction effort. Five days later, he and Bush both appeared on the Super Bowl XXXIX pre-game show on Fox in support of their bipartisan effort to raise money for relief of the disaster through the USA Freedom Corps, an action which Bush described as "transcending politics." Thirteen days later, they both traveled to the affected areas to see how the relief efforts are going.

Following the death of Pope John Paul II on April 2, 2005 Clinton stirred up a mini-controversy saying the late pontiff, "may have had a mixed legacy…there will be debates about him. But on balance, he was a man of God, he was a consistent person, he did what he thought was right." Clinton sat with both President George W. Bush and former President George H.W. Bush as the first American heads of state to attend a papal funeral.

In his post-presidential years, Clinton also made it known that he would like to serve as Secretary-General of the United Nations. Throughout his career, he supported the United Nations and NATO and the international sense the organizations fostered was something he built his foreign policy on.

Trivia

  • Bill Clinton struggled with poor eating habits which led to heart problems, as he explained on Good Morning America, "I'm more sensitive to it because of my recent heart problems and because I had come to terms with the fact that they came about not only because of my predisposition to high cholesterol but because of decades of poor eating habits." [42]
  • Clinton's reputation was such that several film and song parodies have been made about his use of marijuana without inhaling, his womanizing and his dominant wife.
  • Clinton is 6 feet, 3 inches (191 cm) tall.
  • Roger Clinton, Jr. was one of 140 people pardoned by his brother in the last days of the Clinton presidency.

References

References for "Criticisms of Foreign Policy" Section

^ Farah, Joseph (1999). "The Real War Crimes".

^ Schlafly, Phyllis (November 19, 1999). "Numbers Game in Kosovo". Washington Times.

^ Cohen, William (April 7, 1999). "Secretary Cohen's Press Conference at NATO Headquarters".

^ Doggett, Tom (May 16, 1999). "Cohen Fears 100,000 Kosovo Men Killed by Serbs". The Washington Post.

^ Clinton, Bill (May 13, 1999). "Speech by President to Veterans Organizations on Kosovo".

^ Clinton, Bill (June 25, 1999). "Press Conference by the President".

^ ibid

^ "Clinton: Serbs must be stopped now". (March 23, 1999). CNN.

^ Clines, Francis X (March 30, 1999). "NATO Hunting for Serb Forces; U.S. Reports Signs of 'Genocide'". The New York Times, p. A1.

^ Erlanger, Steven (November 11, 1999). "Early Count Hints at Fewer Kosovo Deaths". The New York Times, p. A6.

^ Pilger, John (September 4, 2000). "US and British officials told us that at least 100,000 were murdered in Kosovo. A year later, fewer than 3,000 bodies have been found...". New Statesman.

^ "The charges against Milosevic". (July 5, 2004). BBC.

^ Pearl, Daniel and Block, Robert (December 31, 1999). "War in Kosovo Was Cruel, Bitter, Savage; Genocide It Wasn’t". The Wall Street Journal, p. A1.

^ ibid

^ "Kosovo assault 'was not genocide'". (September 7, 2001). BBC.

^ ibid

^ "Milosevic et al. - Amended Indictment".

^ Swain, Jon (October 31, 1999). "Lost in the Kosovo numbers game". The Sunday Times.

Further reading

  • Rich Lowry (2003)Legacy: Paying the Price for the Clinton Years
  • Dick Morris with Eileen McGann (2004) Because He Could
  • Kenneth W. Starr (1998) The Starr Report: The Findings of Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr on President Clinton and the Lewinsky Affair PublicAffairs ISBN 1-89-162024-X
  • Institute for Policy Studies (2002) Enron's Pawns: How Public Institutions Bankrolled Enron's Globalization Game Link
  • Michael Isikoff (1999) Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter's Story Crown Publishing Group ISBN 0-60-960393-0
  • Peter Baker (2000) The Breach : Inside the Impeachment and Trial of William Jefferson Clinton Scribner ISBN 0-68-486813-X
  • James Bovard (2000) Feeling Your Pain: The Explosion and Abuse of Government Power in the Clinton-Gore Years St. Martin's Press ISBN 0-31-223082-6
  • David Maraniss (1998) The Clinton Enigma : A Four and a Half Minute Speech Reveals This President's Entire Life Simon & Schuster ISBN 0-68-486296-4
  • Mark J. Rozell (2000) The Clinton Scandal and the Future of American Government Georgetown University Press ISBN 0-87-840777-4
  • Bob Barr (2004) The Meaning of Is: The Squandered Impeachment and Wasted Legacy of William Jefferson Clinton Stroud & Hall Publishing ISBN 0-97-453762-4
  • Christopher Anderson (1999). Bill & Hillary: The Marriage. William Morrow & Co., Inc. ISBN 0-75-153035-2
  • Sidney Blumenthal (2003). The Clinton Wars. Farrar Straus Giroux. ISBN 0-37-412502-3
  • Bill Clinton (2004). My Life. Knopf. ISBN 0375414576.
  • Joe Conason and Gene Lyons (2003). The Hunting of the President : The Ten-Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton. St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 0-31-227319-3
  • Elizabeth Drew (1994). On the Edge: The Clinton Presidency. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-67-187147-1
  • Jason D. Fodeman (2003). How To Destroy A Village : What The Clintons Taught A Seventeen Year Old, PublishAmerica. ISBN 1-59-129804-0
  • David Maraniss (1996). First In His Class : A Biography Of Bill Clinton, Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0684818906
  • Roger Morris (1996). Partners in Power: The Clintons & Their America. Henry Holt. ISBN 0-89-526302-5
  • Michael Waldman (2000). POTUS Speaks: Finding the Words That Defined the Clinton Presidency Simon & Schuster ISBN 0-74-320020-9.

See also

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Bill Clinton
Preceded by Attorney General of Arkansas
1977–1979 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Governor of Arkansas
1979–1981 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Governor of Arkansas
1983–1992 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Democratic Party Presidential candidate
1992 (won), 1996 (won) 		Succeeded by
Preceded by President of the United States
January 20, 1993–January 20, 2001 		Succeeded by
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