Bill Clinton

Background

William Jefferson Blythe III, better known as Bill Clinton, was born on August 19, 1946, in Hope, Arkansas, and grew up there for the first six years of his life. Clinton’s father died in a car accident about a month before he was born. Clinton received a Rhodes Scholarship in 1968, allowing him to attend Oxford University after finishing his undergraduate studies at Georgetown University. He earned his law degree from Yale in 1973 before entering politics. Upon his return, he started teaching law at the University of Arkansas. Clinton wed Hillary Rodham in 1975 after they first met at Yale Law School. Clinton returned to Arkansas after earning his law degree and was elected state attorney general. This was followed by two non-consecutive terms as governor of Arkansas. He oversaw the state’s educational system while governor and presided over the National Governors Association. Clinton defeated incumbent Republican President George H.W. Bush as well as independent businessman Ross Perot to win the 1992 presidential election. He was the first president born in the Baby Boomer generation and the third-youngest president of the United States when he took office at the age of 46.

The longest economic expansion in peacetime in American history occurred under Clinton’s administration. He signed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act (NCCLAE) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) into law, but his national healthcare reform proposal was not successful. Clinton was easily re-elected in 1996, being the first Democrat to do so since Franklin D. Roosevelt, despite the Republican Party taking control of both houses of Congress for the first time in 40 years. Beginning in the middle of the 1990s, he underwent an ideological transformation as he adopted a much more conservative stance on domestic policy, supporting and signing the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, and financial deregulation laws.

The President’s involvement with a White House intern led to Clinton’s impeachment in 1998. He was found not guilty of all allegations in a Senate trial. Clinton apologized and promised to keep working hard for the American people. As a consequence, Clinton departed office with record-high job approval ratings. Since leaving office, Clinton has focused on developing global projects via his Foundation. The William J. Clinton Foundation’s employees and volunteers work to combat childhood obesity in America. The Clinton Global Initiative brings together global leaders to solve problems such as health care, education, sustainable energy, the environment, job training, and entrepreneurship in developing nations.