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Presidency

In 1992, Bill Clinton easily defeated his competitors in the Democratic primaries to become the
party's nominee for the presidency, choosing Tennessee Senator Al Gore as his vice presidential
running mate. The Republican incumbent George H.W. Bush was vulnerable in the election of
1992 because he had broken his celebrated campaign promise not to raise taxes and, especially,
because the national economy was mired in recession. Although Clinton's campaign was troubled
by accusations of draft dodging and rumors of marital infidelity, he campaigned effectively by
harping on economic issues. His political strategist James Carville posted a sign at Clinton
campaign headquarters that pithily captured his message: "It's the economy, stupid." Clinton was
also aided by the surprisingly successful third-party campaign of billionaire Ross Perot, who
siphoned off a significant portion of the Republican vote from President George H.W. Bush. On
November 3, 1992, Bill Clinton was elected the 42nd president of the United States.

Despite several notable accomplishments, including the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993,
the implementation of the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy and the ratification of the North
American Free Trade Agreement, Clinton's first years in office were largely unsuccessful.
Through a task force headed by First Lady Hillary Clinton, he endorsed a massive health-care
reform act that was designed to provide universal health coverage. The bill failed to move
through Congress, however, and became a massive political disaster, leading to Republicans
regaining control of both houses of Congress in 1994.

However, in an impressive political comeback, President Clinton again embraced centrist


policies and rhetoric to restore his popularity in advance of the 1996 election. In 1994, he signed
the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, a law that added 100,000 policemen and
instituted harsher punishments for a variety of crimes, and in 1996 he signed a law increasing the
national minimum wage. Despite the fact that a one-term presidency seemed a foregone
conclusion two years earlier, in 1996 Clinton handily defeated Republican challenger Bob Dole
to secure a second term in office.

Clinton's greatest accomplishment as president was leading the nation to a period of strong
economic prosperity. While Clinton was in office, the nation enjoyed the lowest unemployment
rates in recent times, the lowest inflation rate in decades, the highest homeownership rates in its
history, and improving economic equality.

Clinton's foreign policy achievements included presiding over the 1993 signing of the Oslo
Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, at which the famous
handshake between Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat occurred, stabilizing war-torn Bosnia

through the Dayton Peace Accords and helping to end Serbia's ethnic cleansing of Albanians in
Kosovo. However, the failure of the American military mission in Somalia and the United States'
inaction in the face of genocide in Rwanda stand out as major blemishes on Clinton's foreign
policy record.

Clinton's reputation also suffered from scandal in his personal life. His second term in the White
House was dominated by the Monica Lewinsky scandal; the president at first denied, and then
later admitted, that he had sexual relations with the 22-year-old White House intern. Congress
appointed an independent prosecutor, Kenneth Starr, to investigate the affair; he produced a very
explicit report with salacious details, known as the Starr Report. In 1998, the Republicandominated House of Representatives impeached Clinton for perjury and obstruction of justice for
his actions in the Lewinsky affair. However, the Senate acquitted him on all charges in 1999.

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Post-Presidential Career

In the years since his presidency concluded in 2001, Bill Clinton has remained active on the
global stage. Through the William J. Clinton Foundation (which he founded in 1997), Clinton
created the Clinton Climate Initiative, dedicated to fostering research to combat climate change;
the Clinton Global Initiative, an annual meeting of world leaders to discuss global issues; and the
Clinton Foundation Haiti Fund, dedicated to rebuilding Haiti in the aftermath of its devastating
2010 earthquake. According to Clinton, the foundation's mission is "to alleviate poverty, improve
global health, strengthen economies and protect the environment by fostering partnerships
among governments, businesses, nongovernmental organizations and private citizens."

Clinton also played an active role in wife Hillary Clinton's failed 2008 presidential bid and,
afterward, on Barack Obama's successful presidential campaign. In 2004, Clinton wrote a
bestselling autobiography, My Life.

The only Democrat to win more than one presidential election since Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
Bill Clinton is one of the most important American political leaders of modern times. Despite
facing an enormous backlash from the Monica Lewinsky scandal, he has rejuvenated his image
and remains a popular political figure.

Bill Clinton's presidency is still too recent to be judged by disinterested academic historians.
Assessments of his successes and failures still necessarily reflect the sharp political divides of the
moment, and history has yet to reveal the full consequences of many of his policies.
Nevertheless, Clinton himself offered his own preliminary evaluation of his presidency in his
memoirs. He wrote, "I judge my presidency primarily in terms of its impact on people's lives.
That is how I kept score: all the millions of people with new jobs, new homes and college aid;
the people who left welfare for work; the families helped by the family leave law; the people
living in safer neighborhoodsall those people have stories, and they're better ones now."

In Recent Years

Clinton showed his support for Democratic 2012 election candidates, incumbents President
Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, at the 2012 Democratic National Convention. In
his speech at the convention, Clinton said that he wanted Obama to be "the next standard-bearer
of the Democratic," calling him a president who's "cool on the outside, but who burns for
America on the inside." The speech garnered wide success for Clinton, in the form of positive
news reports and social-network posts by fans.

In November 2013, Clinton received a special award from President Barack Obama. Obama
gave him the Presidental Medal of Freedom, which is the highest honor given to civilians.
Recipients of the medal are chosen for their meritorious contributions to the security or national
interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private
endeavors, according to the White House website.

On September 26, 2014, Clinton became a grandfather when daughter Chelsea gave birth to
Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky.

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