professor dave here i want to tell you
about bill clinton
he knows a lot about all kinds of stuff
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william jefferson clinton was a
politician of extraordinary gifts
but self-control was not one of them his
lubedinous impulses would bring the
country to a constitutional crisis
and his lawyerly evasions would earn him
the nickname
slick willie despite this no other
politician of his generation
had such a grasp of policy details
the man was a natural-born politician
born in hope arkansas in 1946
his widowed mother remarried and she and
young bill moved to hot springs
then considered the las vegas of the
ozarks
a trip to washington dc in 1963 led to a
meeting with john f kennedy which he
later claimed was one of the two
great inspirational moments of his life
the other being martin luther king's
i have a dream speech on tv that same
year
he attended georgetown university on a
scholarship and was later awarded a
rhodes scholarship to study at oxford
he returned to america to study at yale
law school
where he met his future wife hillary
rodham after his graduation
he returned to arkansas to teach at the
local university
marrying hillary in 1975. he was elected
arkansas attorney general
the following year and in 1978 he won
the governorship
hillary engendered resentment at her
refusal to take her husband's surname
and she was considered pushy by some
because of her active involvement in
state affairs
nor did her frizzy hair thick bottle cap
glasses and 70s style garb go over well
in the conservative southern state
and both reviewed with suspicion as a
pair of hippie liberals
in 1980 clinton was turned out of office
becoming as he joked the youngest
ex-governor in american history
the pair learned their lesson and when
clinton ran again in 1982
hillary had taken his surname upgraded
her wardrobe to that of a southern lady
wore contact lenses and styled her hair
most importantly bill clinton adopted a
much more corporate friendly attitude
clinton became a leading figure among
the new democrats
a group of centrist democrats who
advocated welfare
reform smaller government and other
policies not supported by liberals
this democratic leadership council
argued that the democratic party
needed to adopt a less liberal more
moderate political stance
in order to succeed nationally clinton
served as chairman of the national
governors association
from 1986 to 1987 which gave him
nationwide exposure
there was little democratic interest in
early 1991 to run against president bush
whose approval rating after the gulf war
stood at an
astounding 89 percent but clinton
felt he had little to lose and began
laying the foundation for a presidential
run
as bush began to appear detached from
domestic issues
the economy turned stagnant and
clinton's chances began improving
clinton needed to score big in the new
hampshire primary
but rumors of extramarital affairs with
the nightclub singer
began to hound him he and his wife went
on the cbs
program 60 minutes to refute the charges
and after plunging in the polls
he was able to claw his way back to a
strong second place finish
earning him the nickname the comeback
kid
sweeping the southern primaries clinton
proved that he had more than just
regional appeal
with wins in california and new york
the election was a three-man race with
texas billionaire ross perot
running as an independent clinton won
with 40 percent of the vote to bush's 37
percent
and perot's 18 garnering an impressive
370 electoral college votes
but it had been a bruising campaign and
many of the allegations raised against
clinton
continued to haunt his presidency such
as his marital infidelities
shady business dealings in arkansas and
suspicions about his honesty
from both liberals and conservatives
once in office there were immediate
missteps hillary fired the white house
travel staff
there was the suicide of an aide that
the burgeoning right-wing media began
exploiting
and an attempt to repeal the ban on
homosexuals serving in the military
that wound up as the compromise don't
ask don't tell
which angered both sides of the issue
clinton had been an avid supporter of
the north american free trade agreement
or
nafta but in retrospect it was perceived
as another corporate giveaway
to powerful multinational corporations
who moved american jobs
to lower paying factories in mexico
although many economists dispute its
negative economic impact on the american
economy
arguing that it benefited small
businesses in the u.s
its environmental impact was beyond
debate
it increased fossil fuel consumption
prevented regulation of canadian tar
sands
and increased pollution in the united
states and mexico
but the biggest blunder was clinton's
ambitious national health care proposal
putting hillary in charge was a
political miscalculation that would have
ramifications for decades
she lacked the southern charm that bill
clinton used to such great effect
instead she projected a secretive and
defensive nature
her self-righteousness alienated
potential allies on both sides of the
aisle
republican senate minority leader bob
dole who had long favored health care
reform
due to his own shattered arm from a
world war ii injury
couldn't get hillary to make any
modifications or compromises
and even democrats decried her aloofness
and imperious attitude tragically the
plan she formulated was a good one
but by completely cutting the insurance
industry out of the design
of the massive healthcare reorganization
she doomed its chances for passage
insurance companies mounted a
multi-million dollar ad campaign
to defeat the clinton plan that was
extremely effective
the bill crashed and burned and was a
tremendous setback
for not only the clintons but for the
entire democratic party
which lost control of congress in a
republican landslide
the first time in decades that the gop
controlled both the house
and senate
one of the major distractions during the
development of the health care reform
legislation
was the white water scandal back in 1978
when bill was attorney general of
arkansas he and hillary
partnered with jim and susan mcdougall
to develop real estate for vacation
homes
their whitewater development corporation
failed when interest rates rose
and the clintons lost money in 1993 it
was reported that as
governor of arkansas bill may have
pressured a judge
into giving susan mcdougall's public
relations company
a loan to cover losses incurred by
whitewater
both susan and jim mcdougall were later
convicted of fraud
but the clintons never faced charges a
special prosecutor
investigated the matter but the
republicans demanded
a more vigorous investigation and the
right-wing ideologue
kenneth starr a former reagan aide
became the replacement star pursued the
clintons with relentless fury
he was granted near limitless powers to
investigate any aspect of the clinton's
lives
which invariably led into long-standing
rumors
of bill's marital infidelity as paula
jones
was suing him on charges of sexual
harassment
yet even as he ran for re-election bill
clinton was reckless
while kenneth starr was conducting his
investigation the
president was conducting an affair with
a 22 year old white house intern
named monica lewinsky starr uncovered
the scandal
but when it was exposed clinton went on
television and adamantly denied having
sexual
relations with lewinsky further evidence
contradicted clinton's claims
and clinton admitted in taped grand jury
testimony
on august 17 1998 that he had had
an improper physical relationship with
lewinsky
which he expressed in a nationally
televised statement that evening
but in his deposition for the paula
jones lawsuit he had denied as much
meaning he had committed perjury
the house voted to issue articles of
impeachment against him
which was followed by a 21-day trial in
the senate where he was acquitted of all
charges
the trial had been an enormous
distraction for the clinton
administration
not only forever tarnishing its legacy
but sidling attempts at assassinating
terrorist leader
osama bin laden whose organization al
qaeda
had declared war against america in 1999
clinton finally intervened in the
balkans to bring an
end to the ethnic cleansing of muslims
in bosnia
additionally clinton came close to
achieving a lasting middle east
peace during the last months of his
presidency
after defeating bob dole in the 1996
election
clinton grandly pronounced the era of
big government is over
validating reagan's successful
overturning of 50 years of new deal
orthodoxy that had been embraced by
republicans and democrats
clinton's new democrats were essentially
a gop
light as clinton signed off on
business-friendly legislation
like the telecommunications act of 1996
which enabled media conglomerates to
grow
even larger and weakened fcc regulations
on media ownership
he also repealed 1933's glass-steagall
legislation
which had kept the u.s economy free from
the recurring financial boom and bust
cycles
for nearly 70 years by prohibiting banks
from engaging in risky speculation
with federally insured money
clinton delighted wall street with the
repeal and set the stage for the
financial meltdown
a decade later the greatest tragedy of
clinton's tenure
was his transformation of the democratic
party from the party of the working
class
into a corporate friendly party liberal
on social issues but otherwise
essentially republican in spirit
clinton's vigorous support of nafta and
globalization
accelerated the flight of american
companies from the united states to
cheaper third world countries
when newt gingrich dragged the gop into
right-wing ideological extremism
with his take no prisoners approach to
governance clinton saw
a political vacancy in the ideological
middle ground
and claimed it yet by his abdication of
new deal policies
he let the gop steal the working class
base
with the democrats perceived as out of
touch with the working man
bill clinton remains a cautionary tale
of how an idealistic
ambitious liberal can become corrupted
by the realities of american political
life
chastened by defeat he lost touch with
his core values
and became so corrupted by the electoral
process that he seemed to lack any
fundamental political values at all
ultimately clinton's most notable
accomplishment
was in his tax increase that would
result in a budget surplus when he left
office
but this only proved what many had been
saying bill clinton was the best
moderate republican president in 40
years
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you