Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton

William "Bill" Jefferson Clinton (born August 19, 1946) was the 42^nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He is married to the current Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.

Early Life

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.

Governor of Arkansas

After graduating from Yale Law School in 1973, Clinton became a professor at the University of Arkansas. In 1974 he ran for the House of Representatives for Arakansas, but was defeated by the incumbent, John Paul Hammerschmidt. In 1976, he was elected Arkansas Attorney General. In 1978 Clinton ran for governor of Arkansas, defeating Lynn Lowe and becoming the youngest governor in the country at age thirty-two. He served as governor until 1992.

President of the USA

Clinton won the 1992 presidential election (43.0% of the vote) against Republican incumbent George H. W. Bush (37.4% of the vote) and billionaire populist Ross Perot, who ran as an independent (18.9% of the vote) on a platform focusing on domestic issues. He was inaugurated as the 42nd President of the United States on January 20, 1993.

Impeachment

In 1995, 22-year-old Monica Lewinsky was hired to work as an intern at the White House during Clinton's first term, and began a personal relationship with him, the details of which she later confided to her friend and Defense department co-worker Linda Tripp, who secretly recorded their telephone conversations.

On Jan. 26, 1998, Clinton made a public statement regarding his alleged relationship with Lewinsky, during which he stated:

"Now, I have to go back to work on my State of the Union speech. And I worked on it until pretty late last night. But I want to say one thing to the American people. I want you to listen to me. I'm going to say this again: I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time; never. These allegations are false. And I need to go back to work for the American people. Thank you."

However on August 17, 1998, Clinton admitted in a taped grand jury testimony that he had had an "improper physical relationship" with Lewinsky. That evening he gave a nationally televised statement admitting his relationship with Lewinsky which was "not appropriate".

Bill Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives on December 19, 1998, and acquitted by the Senate on February 12, 1999. The two charges passed in the House (largely on the basis of Republican support but with a handful of Democratic votes as well) were for perjury and obstruction of justice. The perjury charge arose from Clinton's testimony about his relationship to Monica Lewinsky during a sexual harassment lawsuit (later dismissed, appealed and settled for $850,000) by Lewinsky's former colleague, Linda Tripp.

The Senate concluded a twenty-one day trial on February 12, 1999, with the vote on both counts falling short of the Constitutional two-thirds majority requirement to convict and remove an office holder. The final vote was generally along party lines, with no Democrats voting guilty. Some Republicans voted not guilty for both charges. On the perjury charge, fifty-five senators voted to acquit, including ten Republicans, and forty-five voted to convict; on the obstruction charge the Senate voted 50-50.

Philanthropy

Upon completing his second term as President of the USA, Clinton dedicated himself to philanthropy and continued public service, particularly through the William J. Clinton Foundation.

William J. Clinton Foundation

Clinton is the founder of the William J. Clinton Foundation which promotes and provides for a number of humanitarian causes. The foundation has focused on supporting AIDS awareness campaigns and making treatment for HIV/AIDS more affordable. Receiving funding from a number of foreign governments, the foundation also seeks to address such problems as global public health, climate change, poverty alleviations and religious and ethnic conflict.

Humanitarian Action

In addition to his Foundation work, President Clinton joined with former President Bush to help with relief and recovery following the tsunami in the Indian Ocean, and to lead a nationwide fundraising effort in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. He also served as U.N. Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery from 2005 to 2007.

External links

• Clinton's biography with the White House
• William J. Clinton Foundation website

References

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