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Learn about the life and achievements of Bill Clinton, the 42nd president of the United States and a former governor of Arkansas. Find out his education background, from Georgetown University to Yale Law School, and his political and legal career before and after the White House.
- Overview
- Early life
- Governor of Arkansas
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Bill Clinton was the 42nd president of the United States (1993–2001). He oversaw the country’s longest peacetime economic expansion. In 1998 Clinton became the second U.S. president to be impeached; he was acquitted by the Senate in 1999.
What was Bill Clinton’s childhood like?
Bill Clinton’s father was a traveling salesman who died before his son was born. His widow, Virginia Dell Blythe, married Roger Clinton, and her son eventually took his stepfather’s name. Bill Clinton developed political aspirations at an early age; they were solidified (by his own account) in 1963, when he met Pres. John F. Kennedy.
What is Bill Clinton’s family like?
Bill Clinton is married to Hillary Clinton, who served as a U.S. senator (2001–09) and as secretary of state (2009–13) in the administration of Pres. Barack Obama and was the first woman presidential nominee of a major party in the United States. They have one daughter, Chelsea, and three grandchildren.
What is Bill Clinton’s occupation?
Bill Clinton’s father was a traveling salesman who died in an automobile accident three months before his son was born. His widow, Virginia Dell Blythe, married Roger Clinton, and, despite their unstable union (they divorced and then remarried) and her husband’s alcoholism, her son eventually took his stepfather’s name. Reared in part by his maternal grandmother, Bill Clinton developed political aspirations at an early age; they were solidified (by his own account) in July 1963, when he met and shook hands with Pres. John F. Kennedy.
Clinton enrolled at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., in 1964 and graduated in 1968 with a degree in international affairs. During his freshman and sophomore years he was elected student president, and during his junior and senior years he worked as an intern for Sen. J. William Fulbright, the Arkansas Democrat who chaired the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Fulbright was a vocal critic of the Vietnam War, and Clinton, like many young men of his generation, opposed the war as well. He received a draft deferment for the first year of his studies as a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford in 1968 and later attempted to extend the deferment by applying to the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program at the University of Arkansas School of Law. Although he soon changed his plans and returned to Oxford, thus making himself eligible for the draft, he was not chosen. While at Oxford, Clinton wrote a letter to the director of the Arkansas ROTC program thanking the director for “saving” him from the draft and explaining his concern that his opposition to the war could ruin his future “political viability.” During this period Clinton also experimented with marijuana; his later claim that he “didn’t inhale” would become the subject of much ridicule.
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After an eventful two-year term as governor, Clinton failed in his reelection bid in 1980, the year his daughter and only child, Chelsea, was born. After apologizing to voters for unpopular decisions he had made as governor (such as highway-improvement projects funded by increases in the state gasoline tax and automobile licensing fees), he regained the governor’s office in 1982 and was successively reelected three more times by substantial margins. A pragmatic, centrist Democrat, he imposed mandatory competency testing for teachers and students and encouraged investment in the state by granting tax breaks to industries. He became a prominent member of the Democratic Leadership Council, a group that sought to recast the party’s agenda away from its traditional liberalism and move it closer to what it perceived as the centre of American political life.
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Clinton declared his candidacy for president while still governor of Arkansas. Just before the New Hampshire presidential primary, his campaign was nearly derailed by widespread press coverage of his alleged 12-year affair with an Arkansas woman, Gennifer Flowers. In a subsequent interview watched by millions of viewers on the television news program 60 Minutes, Clinton and his wife admitted to having marital problems. Clinton’s popularity soon rebounded, and he scored a strong second-place showing in New Hampshire—a performance for which he labeled himself the “Comeback Kid.” On the strength of his middle-of-the-road approach, his apparent sympathy for the concerns of ordinary Americans (his statement “I feel your pain” became a well-known phrase), and his personal warmth, he eventually won the Democratic presidential nomination in 1992. Facing incumbent Pres. George Bush, Clinton and his running mate, Tennessee Sen. Al Gore, argued that 12 years of Republican leadership had led to political and economic stagnation. In November the Clinton-Gore ticket defeated both Bush and independent candidate Ross Perot with 43 percent of the popular vote to 37 percent for Bush and 19 percent for Perot; Clinton defeated Bush in the electoral college by a vote of 370 to 168. Clinton thus became the first member of the baby boom generation to occupy the White House.
Learn about Bill Clinton's life, career, and achievements as the 42nd president of the United States. Find out where he was educated, from Georgetown University to Oxford, and how he became a Rhodes Scholar.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Apr 2, 2014 · Education. Clinton attended Hot Springs High School, a segregated all-white school, where he was a stellar student and a star saxophonist for the school band.
- Bill Clinton: Early Life and Education. Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe III on August 19, 1946, in Hope, Arkansas. He was the only child of Virginia Cassidy Blythe (1923-94) and traveling salesman William Jefferson Blythe Jr.
- Bill Clinton: Family, Arkansas Political Career and First Presidential Campaign. On October 11, 1975, Clinton and Rodham were married in a small ceremony at their house in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
- Bill Clinton: First Presidential Term: 1993-1997. Clinton was inaugurated in January 1993 at age 46, making him the third-youngest president in history up to that time.
- Bill Clinton: Second Presidential Term: 1997-2001. During Clinton’s second term, the U.S. economy was healthy, unemployment was low and the nation experienced a major technology boom and the rise of the Internet.
Nov 21, 2023 · Learn how Bill Clinton's childhood, college, and law school experiences shaped his political aspirations and policies. Find out how he became a Rhodes Scholar, a lawyer, and the 42nd President of the United States.
- A Rhodes Scholar needs more than just academic excellence. The recipient must also prove a history of being a leader and a commitment to service. A...
- Bill Clinton was inaugurated as the 42nd President of the United States. He is the third-youngest President to be elected to the office of Presiden...
- Bill Clinton supported multiple educational policies during his career. Some policies included helping states establish standards of excellence for...
Bill Clinton graduated from Georgetown University in 1968 and was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford. He received a law degree from Yale in 1973. After graduation, he returned to Arkansas and taught law at the University of Arkansas before entering politics.
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Learn about the early life and education of Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States. Find out how he went from a poor childhood in Arkansas to a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford and Yale Law School, and how he met his wife Hillary Rodham.