Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton, in my opinion, was one of the best presidents of all time.

He had America in a trade Surplus, and we were debt free. Clinton was impeached, though, for lying under oath. His legacy will last, for the good, and the bad. On the fall morning of August 19, 1946, William (or Bill) Jefferson Blythe III was born in the town of Hope, Arkansas. In May of 1946, Bill’s father, William Junior, was killed in a car accident.

Bill’s mother, Virginia Blythe, was devastated. Bill and his mom were then forced to live with Virginia’s parents. A year later, Bill’s mom left for New Orleans to study to be a nurse. When Virginia returned to Arkansas, three years later, she met a car salesman named Rodger Clinton. Virginia and Rodger got married, and Bill and his mother switched their last names to Clinton. But after they were married, Virginia found out that her husband was an alcoholic, he had a gambling addiction, and he was physically abusive to his family.

When Bill was a teenager all he did is try to protect his mom from drunken attacks from his father. Bill once said, “I was 40 when I was 16”, because he had to be a man at such a young age. In 1956, Bill’s younger half brother, Rodger Clinton Jr. was born. In school Bill was very academic and smart and was a big leader. The thought of his father’s death fuelled him to exceed because he thought he needed to do as much as he can before he dies.

In his senior year in High School, Bill was selected to be a delegate of his state, to go to a boy’s leadership conference in Washington D.C. There he met his number one role model and hero, John F. Kennedy. This was just four months before the assassination of Kennedy. Because of Clintons leadership, and excellent academics, Bill Clinton got a full scholarship to Georgetown University in Washington D.

C. During his time at Georgetown, Clinton got a Rhodes scholarship, which allowed him to study politics for two years at Oxford University in England. He had to return to the United States early, because of the Vietnamese War. He was drafted for the war, but he never had to go because of his Rhodes scholarship. There is controversy about that because a lot of people said he did shady things to avoid being in the war.

When Clinton came back to the United States, he went to Yale to study law. In 1970, at Yale, Bill Clinton met his future wife, Hillary Rodham. Hillary grew up in a conservative family in Chicago, but by the time she was in College, she became a fiercely outspoken liberal. After Clinton got his law degree, he moved back to Arkansas, and taught Law at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. He then planned his political career.

In 1974, Bill Clinton ran for congress against the Republican, John Paul Hammertion. Hillary, who was also a teacher at the University of Arkansas, helped Bill with the Campaign. He did not win the election, but he learned a lot about politics and met a lot of people that would become his friends for life. In 1978 after being elected Arkansas attorney general, Bill got a call from a Dick Morris, who wanted to be his political consultant. Bill set his sights on the Arkansas governor election.

With the help Dick Morris Clinton, at thirty-two years old, became the governor of Arkansas. He was the youngest governor in the history of the United Sates of America. Him and his young staff, made a Liberal plan to challenge lumber and utility interests. Because of this strong leadership style his popularity went down and he was bombarded with negative campaign ads by the Republican challenger Frank White. Clinton decided not to fight back to the ads. By doing this he lost by a landslide to Frank White.

Shortly after the election, his daughter, Chelsea Victoria Clinton was born. But this did not cheer him up from the loss. Clinton fell into deep depression. He then started a small law firm. Clinton hired Dick Morris again and they worked to take back the governors mansion. He then easily won.

During his tenure of being the governor, Clinton heavily emphasized trying to raise teacher’s salaries and give more funding to education. After his time as governor was over, more seniors graduated in Arkansas than any other southern state. Because of his success as the Arkansas governor, Clinton ran for president. He called up Dick Morris again to help him, but he couldn’t. Morris referred Clinton to his friend, James Carville. Running against Clinton was the incumbent Republican president, George W.

Bush, and the independent from Texas, Ross Perot. If it was just Bush and Clinton, Bush would win. But because Ross Perot ran, the votes of Republicans were split between Bush and Perot, but most of the Democrat votes went to Clinton. In 1992, Clinton, and his running mate Al Gore, became the 42nd President of The United States of America. Clintons first year in office was unsuccessful.

They called him a “Lame Duck President”, because he didn’t get many things done. He also lost the Democrat House and Senate. But they also call Clinton the comeback kid for a reason. In Clintons second year, his approval ratings went up as he increased the police force and harshened the national minimum wage. In 1996, Republican Bob Dole challenged Bill Clinton for the presidency.

It was a very easy win by Clinton, and he won a second term. During his second term, Clinton greatly reduced the national debt and created a trade surplus. This was the height of his presidency. The last part of Clinton’s term was dogged by accusations of having an improper relationship with a White House intern. Under oath he denied all allegations, but accusations kept coming to the point where he confessed to it.

He was then impeached. He was only the second president to get impeached. Clinton was charged with perjury before the Grand Jury, and obstruction of justice. The Senate voted for perjury, not guilty: 55, guilty: 45. For obstruction of justice, guilty: 50 not guilty: 50. But Clinton was acquitted of his charges because there wasn’t two-thirds Clinton’s life after his presidency was, for the most part, relaxing.

He gave the spotlight to Al Gore, because Al was running for president. Clinton said one day he might want to run for senate. He supports Barack Obama, and other democrats. Clinton’s presidency brought many highs, and lows for the United States of America. Bottom Line is Clinton will be the most remembered president of the United States.