Bill Clinton was born in the year 1946 as William Jefferson Blythe, III, in a humble household in the Hempstead County in southern Arkansas, United States. A member of the Democratic Party, Clinton was elected as the 49th President of the United States of America in the year 1993 and continued to stay in office till the year 2001.
Prior to being the President Clinton was the governor of his native state, Arkansas. However presidency was his dream since college aiming at which he filed a nomination for the role of the president of the United States in the year 1992 and went on to become the president in the consecutive year. Clinton’s time as the president, however controversial it might be, was the time when America enjoyed an era of peace and prosperity, marked by low unemployment, declining crime rates and a budget surplus. Clinton was known to appoint a number of women and people belonging to the minorities in top government positions, which included Janet Reno, the first female U.S. attorney general, and Madeleine Albright, the first female U.S. secretary of state. While serving a second term as the president, Clinton was impeached in the year 2001 by the House of Representatives on charges connected to having a sexual relationship with a White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. Even after his impeachment, Clinton has remained active in public life showing support for the campaign of his wife running for senator and Barack Obama’s much celebrated and publicised Presidential campaign.
Personal Life
Bill Clinton or rather William Jefferson Blythe, III, spent his childhood with his grandparents who supported the family by running a grocery store. His official surname comes from his step father who his mother married after the death of her first husband, Bill's father.
As a young student Bill was bright, enigmatic and motivated to be a part of the public sector. He was an avid reader and leader of the class. These leadership qualities have helped him all throughout his life. Clinton went to the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., to obtain a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service (B.S.) degree in 1968 with the aid of a scholarship. In his college years Clinton also spent a short period of time interning with the Arkansas Senator J. William Fulbright. Clinton had a brief stint studying Philosophy masters at the Oxford University with a Rhodes scholarship however he discontinued his studies at Oxford to Join the Yale Law School and subsequently obtained Juris Doctor Degree in the year 1973. It was in Yale where Clinton met his future wife Hilary Rodham, whom he married in the year 1975. The couple was blessed with a daughter, Chelsea, their only child, in the year 1980. In spite of various turmoils in the relationship, including Bill Clintons alleged affair with white house intern Monika Lewinsky, the couple still remains married.
Political Career
As President of the United States of America, Bill Clinton has been instrumental in bringing some much needed reforms and regulations in the country which have supported the social, cultural and economic development of the state.
Clinton’s political career began with his election as governor in his home state Arkansas. However before his election as governor Clinton had contested the elections once in the year 1974 against Republican John Paul Hammerschmidt for the House of Representatives which he lost with a very short margin. However he was elected as the Arkansas Attorney General in 1976. Clinton became the youngest governor of Arkansas at the age of 32. As a governor he worked on educational and road reforms with his wife Hilary.
Clinton served as president for two terms from 1993-2001. During his years as president he worked on a number of new laws and reforms most notably the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, North American Free Trade Agreement and welfare reforms. Clinton is also known for the implementation of the controversial Department of Defence directive known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", which allowed gay men and women to serve in the armed services provided they kept their sexuality a secret, and forbade the military from inquiring about an individual's sexual orientation. This reform was a major breakthrough in conserving the gay and lesbian rights in the United States. Clinton was instrumental in maintaining the longest peaceful economic expansion in American history, and the Congressional Budget Office reported a surplus of $69 billion in 1998, $126 billion in 1999, and $236 billion in 2000, during the last three years of his presidency.
Even though Clinton had a successful run as president for two consecutive terms his time in office was surrounded by a number of controversies and scandals the most prominent of them being the Lewinsky scandal which lead to his impeachment in the year 2001. Clinton was accused of having and illicit sexual relationship with the white house intern Lewinsky, which he denied under oath. He was impeached on the grounds of shaming the entire nation and lying on national television while still under oath of office. Clinton was the second of the only two presidential impeachments in the United States as yet.