Background

Some praise him, others point to him as the epitome of presidential corruption. Regardless, Bill Clinton today remains one of the most talked about presidents in recent memory for his policies, impeachment, and post-presidency activities. He oversaw the Kosovo War, economic expansion and the identity formation of the true America after the end of the Cold War. Leaving office with a 65% approval rating, the highest of any president since WWII, Clinton proved himself as capable through all partisan opposition.

Born William Jefferson Blythe III on August 19, 1946 in Hope, Arkansas, the future president faced a daunting childhood. His father, William Jefferson Blythe, Jr., a traveling salesman, had died in a car accident just three months before the birth of his son. Four years later, William's mother, Virginia Dell Cassidy, married Roger Clinton, an auto salesman. When "Billy" turned 14, he adopted the surname Clinton, even though his memories of his stepfather are plagued with alcoholism and abuse. In Hot Springs, Clinton attended St. John's Catholic Elementary School, Ramble Elementary School and Hot Springs High School, taking particular interest in the saxophone. Clinton, in 1963, first sowed the seeds of his bright future as a politician and leader. It was that year that he heard Martin Luther King Jr. speak of his Dream and when, as a Boys Nation senator, he visited the White House and met President John F. Kennedy. With scholarships, Clinton was able to attend the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington D.C., where he received a B.S. in Foreign Service in 1968. There, he became a brother of Alpha Phi Omega, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and today is a member of Kappa Kappa Psi's National Honorary Band Fraternity, Inc. He was also a member of the Youth Order of DeMolay, but never became a Freemason.

Graduating from Georgetown, Clinton won a Rhodes Scholarship to University College, Oxford where he studied government. Developing an interest in rugby, he played at Oxford and later at the Little Rock Rugby club. At Oxford, Clinton participated in Vietnam War protests and the Baby Boomer generations new past time, marijuana. Finishing at Oxford, Clinton attended Yale Law School and earned a Juris Doctor degree in 1973; while there, he began dating his future wife, Hillary Clinton. They were married in 1975 and their only child, Chelsea, was born five years later.

Governor of Arkansas

Once finished with Yale Law School, Clinton moved back home and became a University of Arkansas law professor. In 1974, just one year later, he ran and lost to John Paul Hammerschmidt for a seat in the House of Representatives. Two years later, the political rookie became Attorney General of Arkansas with no opposition in the general election. In 1976 Clinton was elected to his first term as Governor of Arkansas at the young age of 32. Clinton's first term as governor centered on educational reform and Arkansas infrastructure. Voter disappointment was present, however; with an unpopular vehicle tax and the escape of Cuban refugees detained in Fort Chaffee in 1980 came a decline in support for Clinton. However, Clinton went on to win re-election in 1982 and would remain in the same seat for 10 years following. With a focus on Arkansas' economy and educational system, as well as his chairing the National Governors Association from 1986 to 1987 came recognition of the Governor on the national scale. At this time, Clinton became a leader in the Democrat sect known as the New Democrats, organized within the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) and calling for welfare reform and smaller government, policies very similar to the Republican agenda. Clinton was active in job creation as a means of economic growth, removal of sales tax from medicine for senior citizens, increased home property tax exemption for the elderly as well as state educational improvement programs such as increased spending, increased opportunities for gifted children, increases in vocational education and raising of teachers' salaries.

Path to the Presidency

In 1987 there was much talk of a possible 1988 Democratic presidential nomination of Clinton for president. The "Boy Governor," however, remained as Arkansas governor, holding off presidential ambitions until the next election in 1992. He did, however, introduce himself to the American public in a pivotal, albeit lengthy, speech opening the 1988 Democratic National Convention, presenting himself as a New Democrat heading the moderate Democratic Leadership Council in 1990 and 1991. During the primaries in 1992, the then Democratic favorite and likely nominee for president ran into several roadblocks. Rumors of a possible affair with Gennifer Flowers surfaced and had to be denied by Bill and Hillary during a 60 Minutes interview, a denial by Bill which would later be reversed. The set-back, however, did not ruin Clinton's presidential chances. Securing his Southern base, Clinton moved on to capture the delegates in New York and California in the primaries. Running against Republican George H. W. Bush (37.4%) and Independent populist H. Ross Perot (18.9%), Clinton garnered a winning 43% of the vote and won the seat in the Oval Office. The main issue of debate amongst the candidates was the economy (,stupid!); during the Persian Gulf War Bush enjoyed an 80% approval rating, one which dropped to the 40% range due to a downwards spiraling economy. Additionally, while Bush told voters to read his lips that there would be no raising of taxes, he was forced to break his promise, a misstep Clinton capitalized on. Winning the White House was only part of Clinton's success; the Democrats were able to win control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, a party privilege not enjoyed since the 1970s Carter presidency.

Bill Clinton was inaugurated on January 20, 1993 as the 42nd President of the United States. Shortly thereafter, Clinton signed the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, requiring large employers to allow employees to take unpaid leave because of pregnancy or a serious medical condition. In his campaign Clinton promised to address the issue of gay rights in the military. The issue was answered by the President with the currently used "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, allowing gays to serve in the military as long as their sexuality is secret. In 1994, Clinton and his vice-president Al Gore launched the first official White House website, the final version being launched in 2000. As a broader attempt to make government practices more accessible to the public, Clinton, in 1996, issued Executive Order 13011, Federal Information Technology, ordering the heads of all federal agencies to embrace the internet. In terms of free trade, Clinton signed into law in 1994 the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico and Canada. Additionally, Clinton signed the Brady Bill, imposing a five-day wait on handgun purchases. The first major legislative defeat Clinton faced, however, was the failure of Hillary Clinton's health care reform plan of 1993. Soon thereafter, the Democrats lost control of both house of Congress through the 1994 mid-term elections. Perhaps as a one last shot of legislation before the Congress defeat, Clinton, in Auguest 1993, signed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, legislation which passed Congress without a single Republican vote. Raising taxes on the wealthiest 1.2% of taxpayers while cutting taxes for 15 million low-income families and 90% of small businesses, the Act sought to balance the U.S. budget, a core belief of Clinton's New Democrats.

In the Face of Scandal

Clinton was able to get more comfortable in the White House in 1996; Clinton gained 49.2% of the popular vote over Republican Bob Dole's 40.7% and Reform candidate Ross Perot's 8.4%. His legacy was to face a harsh threat, however, in 1998. Rumor was spreading that Clinton's relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky was less that professional, and in a lame duck session after the 1998 elections, the Republican House voted to impeach the President. Allegations slung from across party lines and Washington was thrown into a moral dillemma. A year later in 1999 Clinton found a suprising aquital in the Republican Senate. The Lewinsky Scandal nonetheless tainted the Clinton presidency; far from the first time a political lens has looked into the moral, personal life of a president, never had the lens looked so deep and uncompromisingly.

In 1998 Clinton enacted the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), the first significant amendment to the Copyright Act since 1976. The DMCA extended the protection of intellectual property to outlaw reverse engineering of digital protection. It sought to tighten the grip on production and dissemination of technology, devices or services that are used to get aroud measures that control access to copyrighted works; in the new age of Napster, Washington D.C. felt compelled to legislate on the matter.

The Clinton administration was not all peaceful, though. In 1998, for four days in December (16-19) Clinton authorized Operation Desert Fox, a bombing campaign seeking to loosen Saddam Hussein's iron grip in Iraq. The previous House of Representatives Bill 4655, signed into law just two months prior to Desert Fox, had decided on a policy of "regime change" in Iraq, though not specifically citing the American military as the means to that end. Clinton's initial confrontation with Saddam has continued to this day with President Bush continuing a fight in a land devoid of rulership. Clinton also had an active role in the Kosovo crisis. In support of the 1999 NATO Operation Allied Force, Clinton committed troops to end the nationalist Serbians genocidal ethnic cleansing of Albanians in the region. The bombing ended the same year it started with the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244, which placed Kosovo under U.N. administration by a peacekeeping force. Clinton also made some head-way in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Building on some success in the early '90s Oslo accords, Clinton brought Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat together at Camp David for peace talks; no common ground was found.

Since the end of his Administration in 2001, Clinton has written an autobiography, My Life and has gone on speaking tours promoting his global initiatives, and opened the William J. Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Arkansas. He is currently on the campaign trail for his wife and Democratic front-runner Hillary who is seeking the 2008 nomination for president.

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