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| Birth Name(s) : Bill Clinton |
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Full Bill Clinton Biography
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III on August 19, 1946) was the forty-second President of the United States, serving from 1993 to 2001. Before his presidency, Clinton served nearly twelve years as the 50th and 52nd Governor of Arkansas. He was the third-youngest person to serve as president, behind Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy. He took over the presidency at the end of the Cold War, and is known as the first baby boomer president.
In 1982, Clinton reclaimed his old job as governor and kept it for another 10 years, helping Arkansas transform its economy and significantly improving the state's educational system. He became a leading figure among the New Democrats. The New Democrats, organized within the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) were a branch of the Democratic Party that called for welfare reform and smaller government, a policy supported by both Democrats and Republicans. He served as Chair of the National Governors Association from 1986 to 1987, bringing him to an audience beyond Arkansas.
In 1992, Clinton was the early favorite of the Democratic Party for the presidential nomination and was able to garner the support of many superdelegates even before the first nominating contests were conducted. However, Clinton's presidential bid ran into difficulty in the opening weeks. First he finished well behind in the Iowa caucus, which was largely uncontested due to the presence of Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, who subsequently won. Secondly the campaign encountered difficulty when, during the New Hampshire Primary campaign, revelations of a possible extramarital affair with Gennifer Flowers began to surface. Clinton and his wife Hillary decided to go on 60 Minutes following the Super Bowl to refute these charges of infidelity, as Clinton had fallen far behind former Massachusetts Senator Paul Tsongas in the New Hampshire polls.
Also in 1993, Clinton promoted another controversial issue during this period regarding free trade when he supported the North American Free Trade Agreement for ratification by the U.S. Senate. Clinton, along with most of his Democratic Leadership Committee allies, strongly supported free trade measures. Opposition came from anti-trade Republicans, protectionist Democrats and supporters of Ross Perot. However, despite this opposition, the treaty was ratified by the Senate and signed into law by the President on 1 January 1994.
Initiatives
- Tried to get Ehud Barak of Israel and Yasser Arafat of the Palestinian National Authority, to agree to a final settlement agreement.
- Initiated the Don't ask, don't tell policy toward gays in the military, 1993.
- Reversed a ban on senior Sinn Féin politicians entering the U.S.
- Proposed a national challenge to end the racial divide in America, the One America Initiative.
- Extraordinary rendition got approval for the first time in the USA from the Clinton administration.
On July 26, 2004, Clinton spoke for the fifth consecutive time to the Democratic National Convention, using the opportunity to praise candidate John Kerry. In it, he criticized President George W. Bush's depiction of Kerry, saying that "strength and wisdom are not opposing values." Unfortunately for Kerry, despite Clinton's strong speech, the post-convention bounce to his poll numbers was less than was hoped for.
Clinton dedicated his presidential library, the William J. Clinton Presidential Center, which has the largest archives of any presidential library, in Little Rock, Arkansas on November 18, 2004. Under rainy skies, Clinton received words of praise from former presidents Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush, as well as from the current president, George W. Bush. He was also treated to a musical rendition from Bono and The Edge from U2, who expressed their gratitude at Clinton's efforts to resolve the Northern Ireland conflict during his presidency.
He received an honorary doctorate of laws from Tulane University in New Orleans (along with George H. W. Bush), and also from the University of Michigan. He is the recipient of an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Pace University's Lubin School of Business, from Rochester Institute of Technology, and from Knox College.
On November 22, 2004, New York Republican Governor George Pataki named Clinton and the other living former presidents (Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and George H. W. Bush) as honorary members of the board rebuilding the World Trade Center.
In a separate case, Clinton was disbarred from his Arkansas law license for five years and ordered to pay $25,000 in fines to that state's bar officials. The agreement came on the condition that Whitewater prosecutors would not pursue federal perjury charges against him. In October 2001, Clinton was suspended by the Supreme Court and, facing disbarment from the high court as well, Clinton resigned from the Supreme Court bar in November.
Clinton’s 1994 Omnibus Crime Bill expanded the application of the federal death penalty, including to crimes not resulting in death such as running a large-scale drug enterprise. Clinton remarked enthusiastically during his re-election campaign, "My 1994 crime bill expanded the death penalty for drug kingpins, murderers of federal law enforcement officers, and nearly 60 additional categories of violent felons." |
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