Bill Clinton

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III on August 19, 1946) was the 42nd President of the United States, serving from 1993 to 2001. Prior to the White House, Clinton served a total of nearly 12 years as the 50th and 52nd Governor of Arkansas. His wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, is the junior U.S. Senator from New York. Presenting himself as a moderate and a member of the New Democrat wing of the Democratic Party, he headed the center-right Democratic Leadership Council in 1990 and 1991. He was a darkhorse candidate but won the nomination and was elected President in 1992 and 1996 with Vice President Al Gore. His domestic priorities as President included efforts to create a universal health care system, improve education, increase local police forces, restrict handgun sales, balance the federal budget, strengthen environmental regulations, improve race relations, promote gay rights, and protect the jobs of workers during pregnancy or medical emergency. With approval from Congress, he raised income taxes in 1993. His most dramatic domestic move was the radical reform of the welfare system in 1996 in cooperation with Republicans who had taken control of Congress. Internationally, his priorities included reducing trade barriers, support for the North American Free Trade Agreement, preventing nuclear proliferation, and mediating the Northern Ireland peace process and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts, and military intervention to end the Bosnian War and the Kosovo War. He engaged in air attacks on Iraq, most notably in Operation Desert Fox, and funded efforts to overthrow Saddam Hussein. Clinton was the first baby boomer President and the first Democratic President to be re-elected since Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944. Clinton was the third youngest President in history at 46, while Vice President Al Gore was 44. Clinton was one of only two Presidents in American history to be impeached. The vote to impeach was along party lines in the Republican-dominated congress [3]. He was acquitted by a vote of the United States Senate on February 12, 1999. Clinton remained popular with the public throughout his two terms as President, ending his presidential career with a 65% approval rating, the highest end-of-term approval rating of any President in the post-Eisenhower era.