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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.
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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. |
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BILL CLINTON PICTURES |
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