701 Emory St, Hot Springs National Park, AR 71913, United States
Bill studied at Hot Springs High School
College/University
Career
Gallery of Bill Clinton
1993
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500, United States
Clinton and Vice-President Al Gore on the South Lawn.
Gallery of Bill Clinton
1994
Clinton, Jordan's King Hussein and Yitzhak Rabin sign the Israel–Jordan peace treaty.
Gallery of Bill Clinton
1997
Al Gore and Newt Gingrich applaud as Clinton waves during the State of the Union address.
Gallery of Bill Clinton
From January 20, 1993, to January 20, 2001, Bill was the 42nd President of the United States.
Gallery of Bill Clinton
1987
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500, United States
Governor and Mrs. Clinton attend the Dinner Honoring the Nation's Governors in the White House with President Ronald Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan.
Achievements
Bill Clinton statue
Membership
Awards
Presidential Medal of Freedom
In 2013 Bill received the Presidential Medal of Freedom
National Order of Honour and Merit
In 2011 Bill received the National Order of Honour and Merit
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500, United States
Governor and Mrs. Clinton attend the Dinner Honoring the Nation's Governors in the White House with President Ronald Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan.
(President Bill Clinton s My Life is the strikingly candid...)
President Bill Clinton s My Life is the strikingly candid portrait of a global leader who decided early in life to devote his intellectual and political gifts, and his extraordinary capacity for hard work, to serving the public.
It shows us the progress of a remarkable American, who, through his own enormous energies and efforts, made the unlikely journey from Hope, Arkansas, to the White House a journey fueled by an impassioned interest in the political process which manifested itself at every stage of his life: in college, working as an intern for Senator William Fulbright; at Oxford, becoming part of the Vietnam War protest movement; at Yale Law School, campaigning on the grassroots level for Democratic candidates; back in Arkansas, running for Congress, attorney general, and governor.
We see his career shaped by his resolute determination to improve the life of his fellow citizens, an unfaltering commitment to civil rights, and an exceptional understanding of the practicalities of political life.
(Here, from Bill Clinton, is a call to action. Giving is a...)
Here, from Bill Clinton, is a call to action. Giving is an inspiring look at how each of us can change the world. First, it reveals the extraordinary and innovative efforts now being made by companies and organizations - and by individuals - to solve problems and save lives both "down the street and around the world." Then it urges us to seek out what each of us, "regardless of income, available time, age, and skills," can do to help, to give people a chance to live out their dreams.
(President Bill Clinton gives us his views on the challeng...)
President Bill Clinton gives us his views on the challenges facing the United States today and why government matters—presenting his ideas on restoring economic growth, job creation, financial responsibility, resolving the mortgage crisis, and pursuing a strategy to get us "back in the future business.” He explains how we got into the current economic crisis, and offers specific recommendations on how we can put people back to work, increase bank lending and corporate investment, double our exports, restore our manufacturing base, and create new businesses. He supports President Obama’s emphasis on green technology, saying that changing the way we produce and consume energy is the strategy most likely to spark a fast-growing economy while enhancing our national security.
(Set over the course of three days, The President Is Missi...)
Set over the course of three days, The President Is Missing sheds a stunning light upon the inner workings and vulnerabilities of our nation. Filled with information that only a former commander in chief could know, this is the most authentic, terrifying novel to come along in many years.
William Jefferson (Bill) Clinton won the Democratic nomination for the presidency in 1992 and then defeated incumbent George Bush to become the 42nd president of the United States. He was re-elected to a second term in 1996.
Background
William Jefferson (Bill) Clinton was born in Hope, Arkansas, on August 19, 1946. He was the son of William Jefferson Blythe Jr., a traveling salesman who had died in an automobile accident three months before his birth, and Virginia Dell Cassidy (later Virginia Kelley). Under the care of his maternal grandparents, while his mother was attaining a degree in nursing school, young Clinton learned to count and read.
Education
Bill Clinton was a stellar student at the Hot Springs High School. An avid reader with leadership qualities, he developed an affinity for music and mastered playing the saxophone. However, his real interest was in public service.
In 1963, he attended the Arkansas Boys State, where he was elected as the representative of the Boys Nation, which was scheduled to meet the then president, John F Kennedy. While this meeting turned to be influential for him, it was Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech that tempted him to become a public figure.
In 1968, he attained a Bachelor of Science degree in Foreign Science. During his college years, he found himself a significant place in university politics. Post-graduation, he interned for Senator J. William Fulbright.
In 1968, he won the Rhodes scholarship to gain admission to Oxford University. However, a call for military services disrupted his studies. He later attained a Junior Doctor degree from Yale Law School in 1973.
He has been honored with a doctorate degree from various colleges and universities including Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, and New York.
Clinton became active in Arkansas Democratic politics. After losing a race for the United States House of Representatives in 1974, he was elected attorney general of Arkansas in 1976 and then governor in 1978 with more than 60 percent of the vote. He raised taxes and was defeated for a second term, becoming the youngest ex-governor in United States history. He was again elected governor in 1982 and served until 1992.
He was elected the president of the National Governors Association and was instrumental in founding the Democratic Leadership Conference, an organization devoted to moving the Democratic party away from its liberal orientation toward a centrist position, designed to win back voters in the Southern and border states in Presidential elections.
In the spring of 1991, when President Bush's popularity stood at 91 percent in the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War, Clinton began his run for the 1992 Presidential nomination. He defeated a weak field of contenders in the primaries despite allegations that he had engaged in extramarital affairs, had smoked marijuana (but didn’t inhale), and had avoided military service during the Vietnam War.
In a three-candidate race (involving the independent Texas billionaire Ross Perot) Clinton positioned himself as the one best equipped to manage the economy. His selection of Tennessee Democratic senator Al Gore as his running mate added strength to the ticket and took away the Republican advantage in the Southern and border states.
Clinton broke new ground in campaign strategy. He appeared on a late-night television show wearing sunglasses and played the saxophone in a successful attempt to appeal to younger voters. He followed up with many appearances on daytime television and radio talk shows.
Clinton won his first election with 42 percent of the popular vote, against 37 percent for Bush and 19 percent for Perot. He won 370 electoral college votes, compared with 160 for Bush.
In his first term, Clinton cut the annual deficits in half, laying the groundwork for growth, as well as lower unemployment and inflation. His bill to provide health insurance to all Americans was defeated after health insurers lobbied against it in Congress. Questions about his character continued to dog Clinton, especially his role in a scandal involving a failed savings and loan institution in Arkansas.
In the 1994 midterm elections, Republicans won control of Congress for the first time in 40 years, putting an end to Clinton's legislative agenda. Thereafter his threat to veto Republican measures enabled him to negotiate with House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Senate majority leader Robert Dole on welfare reform and environmental policy.
Clinton won reelection over former senator Bob Dole with almost half the vote of the electorate, but the Congress, which in the 1994 midterm elections had become controlled by Republicans, remained in the hands of the opposition party.
Two years into his second term, Clinton had failed to win enactment of his major health care initiatives but otherwise had compiled a respectable legislative record by cooperating with the Republicans or outmaneuvering them. He reoriented the Democratic party toward the center by balancing the budget, winning crime control measures (crime rates plunged during his terms), and cooperating with the Republicans to end “welfare as we know it” by providing incentives for states to reform their programs to get recipients into jobs.
Clinton's administration also downsized the federal departments as part of a "reinventing government" initiative. Clinton worked hard to improve race relations by appointing minorities to high positions in his administration and beginning a national dialogue on race. He appointed women to the highest positions in government, including for the first time secretary of state and attorney general.
Clinton and other Western leaders made the decision to launch air attacks in Bosnia against the Serbs, which led to the Dayton Accords. Then in 1999 NATO leaders acted militarily against Serbia for its repression of the Kosovars, a decision that required Clinton to use all his negotiating skills to lessen the confrontation between NATO and the Russians and between his administration and the Chinese.
Clinton also backed a "Partnership for Peace" that would eventually permit Eastern European nations to join NATO without antagonizing Russia. Twenty years after the end of the Vietnam War, he established diplomatic relations with the communist government of Vietnam.
Clinton showed leadership in international trade issues. He led the United States into the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico against the opposition of a majority of his party and made $20 billion available to Mexico during the transition to a free-trade zone. He won congressional approval for the 1994 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which lowered tariffs and provided for a World Trade Organization (WTO).
Both NAFTA and the WTO led to an increase in world trade.
In January 1998 the news media reported that Clinton had had an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. At first, the President denied the allegation, but by late August he had admitted to having an "improper relationship" with her.
Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr submitted a referral to the House of Representatives outlining possible "high crimes and misdemeanors," and the House subsequently voted to impeach Clinton for perjury and obstruction of justice committed during the investigation of his sexual relationships with Paula Jones and Monica Lewinsky. The vote was highly partisan, with most Democrats defending the President and most Republicans voting for impeachment.
In February 1999 the crisis ended when the Senate failed to muster the two-thirds vote needed to convict - or, for that matter, failed to secure even a majority. Clinton remained in office, but he was unable to pursue much of his legislative agenda because of the impeachment crisis and the conflict in the Balkans.
The youngest former president since Theodore Roosevelt, he established his presidential library in Little Rock, and, moving to New York where his wife was now a senator, opened an office and foundation in Harlem.
He remains an influential and generally popular figure, and became prominent in a number of causes, including international AIDS treatment.
He joined with George H. W. Bush to raise funds for the victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami (2004) and Hurricane Katrina (2005), and in 2005 was appointed to a two-year term as UN special envoy for tsunami recovery, with responsibility for sustaining the international efforts for its victims. In 2009 he was named UN special envoy to Haiti, focusing on supporting the island's economic and social development, and following the 2010 earthquake there joined with George H. Bush to raise funds for relief.
(Here, from Bill Clinton, is a call to action. Giving is a...)
2007
Religion
Clinton, during his presidency, attended a Methodist church in Washington along with his wife Hillary Clinton, who is Methodist from childhood.
Politics
Bill Clinton presided over one of the longest periods of economic expansion in the 20th century, with low rates of interest, inflation, and unemployment, and high rates of economic growth. In consequence, the stock market reached new highs, and so did his job approval rating in the polls.
Throughout his Presidency, Clinton remained a centrist.
In foreign affairs, Clinton acted cautiously. He pulled U.S. troops out of Somalia after they came under attack; negotiated with North Korea to halt its development of nuclear weapons; and allowed former President Jimmy Carter to negotiate an agreement with Haiti's military rulers that allowed for a peaceful occupation of Haiti.
In other diplomatic efforts, Clinton worked to secure peace agreements between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland and between Israelis and Palestinians in the Middle East.
Views
Clinton was considered to be an activist, pushing for school reform and for health care and welfare reform with mixed results. During his presidency, Clinton advocated for a wide variety of legislation and programs, most of which were enacted into law or implemented by the executive branch. His policies, particularly the North American Free Trade Agreement and welfare reform, have been attributed to a centrist Third Way philosophy of governance. His policy of fiscal conservatism helped to reduce deficits on budgetary matters.
He also defended abortion rights.
Quotations:
"Yesterday is yesterday. If we try to recapture it, we will only lose tomorrow."
"Great rewards will come to those who can live together, learn together, work together, forge new ties that bind together."
"The road to tyranny, we must never forget, begins with the destruction of the truth."
"We want to live forever, and we're getting there."
"I don't care how precise your bombs and your weapons are, when you set them off, innocent people will die."
Personality
"Bill Clinton has a very true compass," observed Dick Morris, a former Clinton political advisor who also worked for Republicans. "I don’t think that varies much with public opinion. But within the general proposition he wants to go north, he will take an endless variety of routes. He’s constantly maneuvering, constantly picking the routes he wants to get there, maneuvering his opponents into positions where they can’t get a clear shot at him. That is what leaves a legacy of "Slick Willie.'" The nickname Click Willie was coined by Paul Greenburg, a columnist for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, who was a frequent critic of the governor’s tendency to compromise on state issues. Clinton’s instinct for compromise is often linked to an unwillingness to offend others. Like Franklin D. Roosevelt before him, he at times leaves people on opposite sides of an issue believing that he stands with them. Some have inferred that his aversion to making enemies is rooted in a childhood marred by the abuse of an alcoholic stepfather. Clinton concedes that he had to learn "not to overuse the peacemaking skills that I developed as a child." (U.S. News and World Report, July 20, 1992). But he insists that his early trials also provided him with a special empathy. "I can feel other people’s pain a lot more than some people can. I think that is important for a politician. I think you literally have to be able to sit in the quiet of a room and accurately imagine what life must be like for people growing up on mean streets, people living their lives behind bars, people about to face death’s door." (New York Times Magazine, March 8, 1992).
Clinton, personable and outgoing, seems to genuinely enjoy campaigning and talking to voters on a wide variety of topics. He is particularly persuasive in small groups, with whom he maintains strong eye contact. He is a tactile politician, who commonly strokes, pats, or hugs those with whom he is dealing. Out on the stump, Clinton can be a folksy speaker, with a ready store of down-home phrases laced with the rich Arkansas accent of his youth. His defense of a citizen’s right to privacy, for example, can emerge as a call for the government "to give people a good lettin’ alone." In more formal settings, however, his English straightens a bit and he has a tendency to become both long-winded and mired in statistical detail.
Physical Characteristics:
Clinton stands 6 feet 2.5 inches tall and has intense blue-gray eyes and thick hair, which was mostly gray by the time of his election as president. His weight fluctuates between 205 and 230 pounds; at the time of his election, he weighed 215; on reelection, he reportedly was significantly trimmer. Like his predecessor, he is left-handed. He suffers from chronic laryngitis, caused by inhalant allergies and the leaking of stomach acid into his throat. During acute attacks, his vocal chords swell to the point where he loses his voice. To alleviate the problem, he drinks plenty of water, takes antacids and antihistamines, receives allergy shots regularly, and sleeps with his head slightly elevated. He is allergic, in varying degrees, to dust, mold, pollen, cats, certain greenery (including Christmas trees) and dairy products. He is slightly hard of hearing.
Quotes from others about the person
"One undeniable accomplishment of Bill Clinton's presidency was that it kept Jimmy Carter from being the worst U.S. president in history." - Thomas Sowell
"Clinton’s an unusually good liar. Unusually good." - Bob Kerrey
"I think Bill Clinton was the best Republican president we've had in a while." - Alan Greenspan
Interests
Golf, jogging, saxophone
Sport & Clubs
football
Connections
In 1971, Bill Clinton first met Hillary Rodham. With similar political ambitions, the two had an awesome chemistry in between them and fell in love instantly. They tied the knot in 1975. In 1980, they were blessed with a daughter, Chelsea.