Bill Clinton, My Life, A Book Report
Bill Clinton, My Life
A Book Report by Bobby Everett Smith
Spoiler Alert
July 28, 2018
Setting
Washington, D.C. and around the world, 1946 to present
Characters
Bill Clinton, 42nd President of the United States. Impeached by the House but acquitted by the Senate
Hillary Clinton, First Lady to Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States, Senator from New York, Secretary of State and Democratic nominee for President in 2016, defeated in the electoral college by Donald Trump, 45th president of the United States, real estate tycoon in the U.S.
Chelsea Clinton, daughter of Bill and Hillary Clinton, Graduate of Stanford University
William Jefferson Blythe, born in Hope, Arkansas, and later took the name of his step-father, Roger Clinton and was elected president of the United States.
Virginia Cassidy Blythe, American Nurse Anesthetist and the mother of Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States.
James Eldridge Cassidy, maternal grandfather of Bill Clinton, President of the United States
Roger Clinton, step-father of Bill Clinton, President of the United States. Bill adopted Roger Clinton’s name in his pre-college years.
John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States, Assassinated in Dallas, Texas in November 1963.
Al Gore, 45th Vice President of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under Bill Clinton. Ran and lost against George W. Bush, 43rd President of the United States.
George McGovern, Candidate for president in 1972, lost in a landside victory for Richard Nixon.
George H. W. Bush served as the 41st President of the United States from 1989 to 1993. Prior to assuming the presidency, Bush served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States from 1981 to 1989.
Ronald Regan, Governor of California, and President of the United States, 1981 to 1989
Gerald Ford, President of the United States after succeeding power from Richard Nixon; previously Congressman from Michigan
Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States for two terms; previously Senator from Illinois
Newt Gingrich, representing Georgia in Congress, and ultimately serving as 50th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999
James Baker, III, served as White House Chief of Staff and United States Secretary of the Treasury under President Ronald Reagan, and as U.S. Secretary of State and White House Chief of Staff under President George H. W. Bush.
Ross Perot, founder of EDS a large Data Processing firm in Dallas, Texas. Ran as independent candidate for president in 1992. Lost to Bill Clinton.
Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1979 to 1990. First woman to serve as Prime Minister
Madeline Albright, United States Secretary of State. She served from 1997 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton.
Mack McLarty, served as President Bill Clinton’s first White House Chief of Staff from 1993 to June 1994, and subsequently as Counselor to the President and Special Envoy for the Americas, before leaving government service in June 1998. Born in Hope, Arkansas and lifetime friend of Bill Clinton.
Leon Panetta, Secretary of Defense, Director of the CIA, White House Chief of Staff, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and as a U.S. Representative from California. Panetta was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993, served as Director of the Office of Management and Budget from 1993 to 1994, and as President Bill Clinton’s Chief of Staff from 1994 to 1997.
Lloyd Bentsen, four-term United States Senator (1971–1993) from Texas and the Democratic Party nominee for vice president in 1988 on the Michael Dukakis ticket. He also served as Secretary of the Treasury under Bill Clinton.
Janet Reno served as the Attorney General of the United States from 1993 until 2001 under Bill Clinton.
Robert Reich, He served as Secretary of Labor from 1993 to 1997 under Bill Clinton
Ron Brown served as the Secretary of Commerce during the first term of President Bill Clinton. Previously, he was chairman of the Democratic National Committee
Yitzhak Rabin, fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–77 and 1992 until his assassination in 1995.
Boris Yeltsin, first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999
Helmut Kohl, Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 (of West Germany1982–1990 and of the reunited Germany 1990–1998) and as the chairman of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 1973 to 1998.
Bob Dole represented Kansas in Congress from 1961 to 1996 and served as the Republican Leader of the United States Senate from 1985 until 1996. He was the Republican presidential nominee in the 1996 presidential election and the party’s vice-presidential nominee in the 1976 presidential election.
Susan McDougal served prison time because of the Whitewater controversy. convicted of federal charges of contempt of court for failure to answer questions about Bill Clinton. Served a total of 22 months.
Nelson Mandela, South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, political leader who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country’s first black head of state and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election.
Larry Summers, served as Treasury Secretary 1991 to 2001 under Bill Clinton, President of Harvard.
Tony Blair served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labor Party from 1994 to 2007.
Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from 1969 to 2004 and President of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) from 1994 to 2004
Vince Foster, Deputy White House Counsel during the first 6 months of Bill Clinton’s administration. partner at Rose Law Firm in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he was a colleague and friend of Hillary Clinton At the White House he was unhappy with work in politics and spiraled into depression and he committed suicide in 1993.
Ken Starr, independent counsel while Bill Clinton was U.S. president. Initially appointed to investigate the suicide of deputy White House counsel Vince Foster and the Whitewater real estate investments of Bill Clinton.
Executive Summary
Southern boy and Southern Baptist, Bill Clinton was raised in Hope, Arkansas in a modest, middle-class family. His mother, Virginia Blythe, working as a nurse to support the family, motivating Bill to become all that he could be. He was smart, ambitious, and determined right from the start, but when he met John F. Kennedy in the Rose Garden, he became determined to go into politics and be a leader. Bill had to overcome some adversities as his step-father, Roger Clinton was an alcoholic and a wife-abuser.
Bill graduated high in his public high school class and went to Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He later earned a Rhodes Scholarship in Oxford, England. Bill avoided service in Vietnam by going to school and participating in the ROTC. He felt guilty about not going to war as many of his friends did.
At Yale Law School, Bill met his future wife, Hillary, and they later married. At age 32, Clinton became the Governor of Arkansas and there, with Hillary’s help, he started a life-long journey on economic growth and government spending discipline, civil rights, health care, and superior education. He always ran in his political races as a Democrat.
On July 16, 1992 Clinton accepted the Democratic Convention’s nomination for president. He chose Al Gore of Tennessee to be his running mate.
In November, when the votes were counted, Clinton was the victor with a 5.5 per cent margin over George H.W. Bush. Perot took 19% of the total vote to Clinton’s 43% and Bush’s 37.5%. Clinton was the President-elect.
During the transition, Clinton identified his greatest goal was to turn around the deficit in government funding. He also faced the issue of recognizing and allowing gays in the military. Clinton pledged to change from “trickle-down” economics to “invest and grow” economics.
Bill was accused by several women of sexual harassment, and because of one of those, Monica Lewinski, he was impeached by the House of Representatives and acquitted by the Senate. He served his full two terms as president and accomplished many major goals with a high approval rating. Achievements included:
- Paid off $360 billion of the national debt
Between 1998-2000, the national debt was reduced by $363 billion — the largest three-year debt pay-down in American history - Converted the largest budget deficit in American history to the largest surplus
- Thanks in large part to the 1993 Deficit Reduction Act, the 1997 Balanced Budget Act, and President Clinton’s call to save the surplus for debt reduction, Social Security, and Medicare solvency, “America has put its fiscal house in order. The deficit was $290 billion in 1993 and expected to grow to $455 billion by this year. Instead, we have a projected surplus of $237 billion.”
- Lowest government spending in three decades
Under President Clinton federal government spending as a share of the economy decreased from 22.2 percent in 1992 to a projected 18.5 percent in 2000, the lowest since 1966.
To implement universal health care in the United States, Hillary led a campaign to research and get that program approved in Congress. She failed.
Clinton attended his first G7 Conference in Tokyo in July 1993. One of his major goals which was achieved was a commitment to reduce tariffs worldwide, stimulating trade. According to Clinton, this was one of the major accomplishments of the 1993 G7 Meeting, with member nations pledging to drop tariffs to zero in ten different manufacturing sectors. Clinton attributes 30% of economic growth over the next eight years to this commitment to reduce tariffs.
George W. Bush and Al Gore ran in the 2001 presidential race to replace Bill Clinton. Bush won due to a Supreme Court decision that evaluated a vote recount in Florida. Bush was inaugurated on January 20, 2001.
Hillary was defeated by Donald Trump in the 2016 Presidential election. Bill continues active in Democratic Politics throughout the United States. Some people like him and some really do not like him.
The Story
Bill Clinton was born in Hope, Arkansas, not far from Texarkana, Texas, on August 19, 1946. His mother was a nurse and his father was a salesman for Manbee Equipment Company. Bill’s birth name was William Jefferson Blythe III after his 28-year-old father who was killed in a car wreck shortly before Bill’s birth. His mom raised him alone until she married the local Buick dealer, Roger Clinton, in 1950. Bill adopted his new step-father’s name and was known as Billy Clinton during his school years.
Bill’s mother, Virginia, got a certification in Anesthesia Nursing and Roger Clinton liked to party and drink, and he was sometimes abusive to Bill’s mother.
In 1955 or so, Roger and Virginia moved to a 400-acre farm near Hope, Arkansas which had everything except a flush toilet. They were a typical southern family, members of the First Baptist Church and conservative in their political ideas. Bill was raised to be ambitious and to work hard. He learned to play the Saxophone and was a member of the high school marching band.
When Bill was seven or eight years old, the family moved to a big house in Hot Springs, Arkansas where he lived until he was 15. Hot Springs was a resort town of 35,000 and during the 1950’s it was still segregated with African Americans separated from whites in schools, restaurants, public bathrooms, housing areas, churches, and transportation. Bill was brought up not thinking much of civil rights for black citizens but when he realized the injustice of it all, he quickly adopted civil rights issues as his own.
When Bill graduated from high school, he chose Georgetown University in Washington, D.C primarily because he wanted to live in the nation’s capital and get closer to the country’s political center. Tuition and expenses were $2,000 per year and without a scholarship, it was expensive, but the family considered it an investment in their future, so they dug up the money to support him.
Clinton was motivated by his mother to believe that he could do anything that he set his mind to. He was a hard-core Democrat and a follower of Lyndon B. Johnson. In Professor Quigley’s class on western civilization, Bill developed a positive attitude about the future: “the future can be better than the past and each individual has an obligation to make that happen.”
In 1966 at the end of his sophomore year, Bill returned to Arkansas and got a job on the staff of Frank Holt, candidate for governor. One day Holt was late for a speech and Bill filled in for him, gaining praise and recognition for the quality and content of his delivery.
Shortly afterwards, Bill got an opportunity to work for Senator Fulbright of the Foreign Relations Committee. This gave him the financial opportunity to stay in Washington and the political opportunity to learn more about how politics works in Washington.
By the middle of 1965, the Vietnam war was starting to heat up and Bill was becoming eligible to enter the armed forces and defend his country. He did not want to go to war and especially not to Vietnam.
In his junior year, Bill ran for president of the student council at Georgetown, but he was defeated. In the summer of 1967, student protests of the Vietnam war cranked up in earnest with Clinton an active supporter.
In his senior year, Bill applied for a Rhodes scholarship at Oxford, England. As a candidate from Arkansas, his chances were somewhat better because the competition from that state was less. After 12 interviews, Bill was notified that he had been accepted.
On October 4, 1968 Clinton and the other Rhodes Scholars for that year boarded the SS United States in New York for their trip to England.
In 1969, Bill was drafted but joined the ROTC at the University of Arkansas Law School to avoid being activated immediately. In 1970, Clinton had the choices of another year at Oxford or going to Yale Law School. He was accepted at Yale and left Oxford for the last time.
Bill met Hillary Rodham at Yale and they married in 1975.
Running for Congress
Arkansas’s Third District was comprised of twenty-one counties in the NW quadrant of the State. In 1974, Bill asked for permission from his employer, the University of Arkansas, to run for the office while still teaching his courses at the law school. Permission was granted.
Clinton lost his first election. On his next attempt at politics, Clinton was elected to be Attorney General for the State of Arkansas. As Attorney General, Bill was in favor of energy conservation and solar power. He resisted a law taxing unmarried couples from living together, and he favored gay rights.
Governor of Arkansas
At age 32, Clinton became the Governor of Arkansas. In his inaugural address, Clinton emphasized his firm beliefs:
- Equal rights for all citizens
- Prevent the abusive use of power previously shown by politicians in Arkansas
- Reduction of fraud and waste in government
- Protect land, air, and water in Arkansas
- Help and protection for the weak and needy
- Enhance economic opportunities for he weak and needy
In the legislative session, Clinton took on the following spending priorities:
- Education
- Highways
- Health
- Energy
- Economic development
They passed the first programs to measure student performance in schools. They established the School for Gifted and Talented Students, and they passed a bill protecting teachers from being fired for no good reason.
To improve highway improvements, Clinton sponsored a bill to raise taxes by increasing the cost of automobile tags. This turned out to be a disaster for Clinton politically.
Under Clinton, Arkansas passed legislation that allowed tax credits for energy conservation and renewal energy expenditures.
Arkansas became the first state to get federal matching grants for the energy tax credits.
In the next election for governor, Clinton was defeated despite all the good things he had done for the states. The population was bitterly opposed to the automobile tag tax and they voted against the governor who initiated it. Clinton went back to legal practice.
In 1982, Bill took a second run for Governor of Arkansas based on these three promises:
- Improving education
- Bringing in more jobs
- Holding down utility rates
On November 2, Clinton won his second term as Governor of Arkansas with 55% of the votes and carrying 56 of 75 counties. Clinton would remain as Governor or Arkansas for ten years.
Clinton argued that to get more jobs, they had to have better education. He wanted kindergarten, maximum number of students in a class, uniform testing in third, sixth and eighth grades, and counselors in all elementary schools. More math, science, and foreign language, and increase in the school year from 175 to 180 days.
Over the next two years, teachers pay went up by $4,400 per year, the fastest growth in the nation. Student test scores increased across the board.
Inauguration as President of the United States
On July 16, 1992 Clinton accepted the Democratic Convention’s nomination for president. He chose Al Gore of Tennessee to be his running mate. President Bush, the incumbent president, won the Republican nomination and he selected Dan Quayle as his running mate. Ross Perot ran as a third-party candidate.
In November, when the votes were counted, Clinton was the victor with a 5.5 per cent margin over Bush. Perot took 19% of the total vote to Clinton’s 43% and Bush’s 37.5%. Clinton was the President-elect.
During the transition, Clinton identified his greatest goal was to turn around the deficit in government funding. He also faced the issue of recognizing and allowing gays in the military. Clinton pledged to change from “trickle-down” economics to “invest and grow” economics. The Russian economy was in shambles. Clinton’s team believed that a deficit reduction would rally the bond market. Clinton started a campaign to open the Japanese market more, and finally, Clinton made plans to authorize a one-shot economic stimulus of $20 billion in government spending.
Clinton delivered his inauguration speech on the theme that he would try to provide “more opportunity for all, but only based on the need for more responsibility from all.” Clinton stressed the need for globalization and for America to continue as the world leader.
Bill Clinton: My Bad
Whitewater
A March 1992 New York Times article published during the U.S. presidential campaign reported that the Clintons, then governor and first lady of Arkansas, had invested and lost money in the Whitewater Development Corporation, a resort real estate venture on the banks of the White River in Arkansas.
(Wikipedia) David Hale, the source of criminal allegations against the Clintons, claimed in November 1993 that Bill Clinton had pressured him into providing an illegal $300,000 loan to Susan McDougal, the Clintons’ partner in the Whitewater land deal. A U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation resulted in convictions against the McDougals for their role in the Whitewater project. Jim Guy Tucker, Bill Clinton’s successor as governor, was convicted of fraud and sentenced to four years of probation for his role in the matter. Susan McDougal served 18 months in prison for contempt of court for refusing to answer questions relating to Whitewater.
Neither Bill Clinton nor Hillary were ever prosecuted, after three separate inquiries found insufficient evidence linking them with the criminal conduct of others related to the land deal. The matter was handled by the Whitewater Independent Counsel, Kenneth Starr. The last of these inquiries came from the final Independent Counsel, Robert Ray, (who replaced Starr) in 2000. Susan McDougal was granted a pardon by President Clinton before he left office.
Gennifer Flowers
In January 1998, Clinton admitted that he had a sexual encounter with Gennifer Flowers, a local actress and singer He stated it was only on one occasion in 1977 but Flowers maintained that the affair had lasted over a period of 12 years.
Clinton first met Flowers in Arkansas in 1977 while he was Attorney General. In the late 80’s, Flowers returned to Arkansas from Texas and asked Clinton to help her find a job. Flowers got a position with the State paying less than $20,000 per year.
CBS 60 Minutes ran a story on Clinton in January 1992 and the anchor host, Steve Kroft, asked Clinton if he had an affair with Flowers. Clinton admitted that he had caused pain to his wife and that he was not going to say anything else.
Paula Jones
On May 8, 1991, Paul Jones claimed that she was escorted to Clinton’s room in the Excelsior Hotel (now Little Rock Marriott) by State Troopers in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he propositioned and exposed himself to her. She claimed she kept quiet about the incident until 1994, when a David Brock story in the American Spectator magazine printed an account. Jones filed a sexual harassment suit against Clinton on May 6, 1994 and sought $750,000 in damages.
On November 13, 1998, Clinton settled with Jones for $850,000, in exchange for her agreement to drop her appeal. Robert S. Bennett, Clinton’s attorney, still maintained that Jones’s claim was baseless, and that Clinton only settled so he could end the lawsuit and move on with his life.
Monica Lewinski
Monica Lewinski, an intern at the White House in 1995, stated that between November 1995 and March 1997, she had nine sexual encounters in the Oval Office with then-President Bill Clinton. According to her testimony, these involved fellatio and other sexual acts, but not sexual intercourse.
News of the Clinton–Lewinsky relationship broke in January 1998. On January 26, 1998, Clinton stated, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky” in a nationally televised White House news conference. The matter instantly occupied the news media, and Lewinsky spent the next weeks hiding from public attention in her mother’s residence at the Watergate complex.
“I did have a relationship with Miss Lewinsky that was not appropriate.” Clinton denied having committed perjury because, according to Clinton, the legal definition[] of oral sex was not encompassed by “sex” per se. Clinton claimed that because certain acts were performed on him, not by him, he did not engage in sexual relations. Lewinsky’s testimony to the Starr Commission, however, contradicted Clinton’s claim of being totally passive in their encounters.
Impeachment
The impeachment of Bill Clinton was initiated in December 1998 by the House of Representatives and led to a trial in the Senate on two charges, one of perjury and one of obstruction of justice. These charges stemmed from a sexual harassment lawsuit filed against Clinton by Paula Jones. Clinton was subsequently acquitted of these charges by the Senate on February 12, 1999. Two other impeachment articles – a second perjury charge and a charge of abuse of power – failed in the House.
Clinton Presidential Achievements
Clinton served two full terms in office from 1993 to 2001. Except for the indiscretions described above, his performance as president was admirable. Here are some of his achievements:
Economic Growth
- During Clinton’s two terms in office, the economy grew at an average rate of 4% based on the following principles:
- fiscal discipline,
- open foreign markets
- investments in the American people
- More than 22 million new jobs created in 8 years
- Lowest unemployment in 30 years from 7% in 1993 to 4% in 2000
- Higher incomes at all levels
- The median family’s income rose by $6,338, after adjusting for inflation, since 1993.
- African American family income increased even more, rising by nearly $7,000 since 1993. The bottom 20 percent saw the largest income growth at 16.3 percent.
- Lowest poverty rate in 20 years
Since Congress passed President Clinton’s Economic Plan in 1993, the poverty rate declined from 15.1 percent to 11.8 percent last year — the largest six-year drop in poverty in nearly 30 years - 7 million fewer people in poverty than in 1993
Debt Reduction
- Paid off $360 billion of the national debt
Between 1998-2000, the national debt was reduced by $363 billion — the largest three-year debt pay-down in American history - Converted the largest budget deficit in American history to the largest surplus
- Thanks in large part to the 1993 Deficit Reduction Act, the 1997 Balanced Budget Act, and President Clinton’s call to save the surplus for debt reduction, Social Security, and Medicare solvency, “America has put its fiscal house in order. The deficit was $290 billion in 1993 and expected to grow to $455 billion by this year. Instead, we have a projected surplus of $237 billion.”
- Lowest government spending in three decades
Under President Clinton federal government spending as a share of the economy has decreased from 22.2 percent in 1992 to a projected 18.5 percent in 2000, the lowest since 1966.
Taxes
- Lowest federal income tax burden in 35 years
President Clinton enacted targeted tax cuts such as the Earned Income Tax Credit expansion, $500 child tax credit, and the HOPE Scholarship and Lifetime Learning Tax Credits. Federal income taxes as a percentage of income for the typical American family have dropped to their lowest level in 35 years.
Health
- Family and Medical Leave Act for 20 million Americans
President Clinton signed the Family and Medical Leave Act in 1993. Over 20 million Americans have taken unpaid leave to care for a newborn child or sick family member. - Lowest infant mortality rate in American history
The Clinton Administration expanded efforts to provide mothers and newborn children with health care. Today, a record high 82 percent of all mothers receive prenatal care. The infant mortality rate has dropped from 8.5 deaths per 1,000 in 1992 to 7.2 deaths per 1,000 in 1998, the lowest rate ever recorded. - Lowest teen birth rate in 60 years
In his 1995 State of the Union Address, President Clinton challenged Americans to join in a national campaign against teen pregnancy. The birth rate for teens aged 15-19 declined every year of the Clinton Presidency, from 60.7 per 1,000 teens in 1992 to a record low of 49.6 in 1999.
Education
- Raised education standards, increased school choice, and doubled education and training investment
Since 1992, reading and math scores increased for 4th, 8th, and 12th graders. math SAT scores increased to a 30-year high. the number of charter schools grew from 1 to more than 2,000. Forty-nine states put in place standards in core subjects. Federal investment in education and training doubled. - Largest expansion of college opportunity since the GI Bill
President Clinton and Vice President Gore nearly doubled financial aid for students by increasing Pell Grants, expanding Federal Work-Study to allow 1 million students to work their way through college, and by creating new tax credits and scholarships such as Lifetime Learning tax credits and the HOPE scholarship. At the same time, taxpayers have saved $18 billion due to the decline in student loan defaults, increased collections and savings from the direct student loan program. - Connected 95 percent of schools to the Internet
President Clinton and Vice President Gore’s new commitment to education technology, including the E-Rate and a 3,000 percent increase in educational technology funding, increased the percentage of schools connected to the Internet from 35 percent in 1994 to 95 percent in 1999. - Welfare Reform
- Smallest welfare rolls in 32 years
Clinton pledged to end welfare as we know it and signed landmark bipartisan welfare reform legislation in 1996. Since then, caseloads were cut in half, to the lowest level since 1968, and millions of parents have joined the workforce. People on welfare today are five times more likely to be working than in 1992.
- Smallest welfare rolls in 32 years
Second Amendment
- Enacted most sweeping gun safety legislation
Since the President signed the Brady bill in 1993, more than 600,000 felons, fugitives, and other prohibited persons have been stopped from buying guns. Gun crime has declined 40 percent since 1992.
G7 Summit 1993 and following
Clinton attended his first G7 Conference in Tokyo in July 1993. One of his major goals which was achieved was a commitment to reduce tariffs worldwide, stimulating trade. According to Clinton, this was one of the major accomplishments of the 1993 G7 Meeting, with member nations pledging to drop tariffs to zero in ten different manufacturing sectors. Clinton attributes 30% of economic growth over the next eight years to this commitment to reduce tariffs.
Clinton left his first G7 Conference with renewed confidence and belief that he could enhance America’s trade interests around the world while helping other nations grow their trade and economies as well.
In the State of the Union message in 1994, Clinton asked Congress to pass legislation for health care reform (including insurance provisions for “pre-existing conditions” and welfare reform.
Clinton won re-election by a margin of 49 to 41% against his Republican rival, Bob Dole. Ross Perot also ran as a third-party candidate.
Chelsea Clinton entered Stanford University in the fall of 1997 and majored in history.
Hillary ran for and won a seat in the U.S. Senate from the State of New York. She was sworn in as freshman Senator on January 3, 2001.
George W. Bush and Al Gore ran in the 2001 presidential race to replace Bill Clinton. Bush won due to a Supreme Court decision that evaluated a vote recount in Florida. Bush was inaugurated on January 20, 2001.
As president, Bill Clinton had his ups and downs. During his second term, he was impeached and acquitted by the Senate. He admitted to an affair in the Oval Office with Monica Lewinski and he settled a law suit with Paula Jones for $850,000 which charged sexual harassment back in Arkansas when he was governor.
Bill believed in Civil Rights and he did everything possible to help African Americans and other minorities to achieve them. Bill believed in balanced budgets and a reduced size of government. He achieved several government surpluses despite Republican opposition. In his last budget, he projected a level of $600 Billion which could be used to pay down the national debt and he forecast that the United States would be debt free by 2010 if it stayed on that course, which it did not.
He worked in a bipartisan manner with opponents across the aisle in Congress. He worked with Russia and settlement of disputes in the Middle East.
Clinton passed the baton to George W. Bush and he and Hillary moved to New York where she was their junior Senator.
Rating
Four stars out of five. This auto-biography is an excellent account of Bill Clinton’s life in politics and personal activities. It is biased as one might expect from an auto biography, but it is also fair and somewhat balanced. It’s too long but covers a lot of detail. It describes what motivated a modest southerner to become president of the United States and to serve two full terms. I admire Bill Clinton as a person and a politician. Please read this excellent account of his life.
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