It All Began In A Town Called Hope. Essay, Research Paper

It All Began in a Town Called Hope

Bill Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe III on August 19, 1946, in the small town of Hope, Arkansas. He was named after his father, William Jefferson Blythe II, who had been killed in a car accident just three months before his son’s birth. Needing a way to support herself and her new child, Bill Clinton’s mother, Virginia Cassidy Blythe, moved to New Orleans, Louisiana to study nursing. Bill Clinton stayed with his mother’s parents in Hope. There his grandparents, Eldrigde and Edith Cassidy, taught him strong values and beliefs such as “equality among all and discrimination to none”. This was a lesson Bill never forgot. His mother returned from New Orleans with a nursing degree in 1950, when her son was four years old. Later that same year, she married an automobile salesman named Roger Clinton. When Bill was seven years old, the family moved to Hot Springs, Arkansas for it offered a better employment opportunities. Roger received a higher paying job as a service manager for his brother’s car dealer-ship and Virginia discovered a job as a nurse anesthetist. In 1956, Bill Clinton’s half-brother, Roger Clinton Jr., was born. When his brother was old enough to enter school, young Bill had his last name legally altered from Blythe to Clinton.

Clinton’s life continued and during his High school years he was awestruck by two successful leaders, John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was inspired by them so much that he worked on fulfilling their dreams. He raised money and organized charity events, but most of all he learned how to work with people and the concept of being a good citizen. In his spare time, he indulged himself in literature and played a saxophone. He loved music, and each summer he would attend a band camp in the Ozark Mountains. His hard work paid off when he became top saxophone player at his school and won first chair in state band.

Bill Clinton recognized that although college would be expensive, it would give him the education he needed to accomplish his goals. His hard work in school, combined with his music ability, earned him many academic and music scholarships. With the aid of those scholarships and loans from the government, he was able to attend Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He chose Georgetown because it had an excellent Foreign Service program and it was located in the nation’s capital.

He earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in International Affairs and worked as an intern in the office of Arkansas Senator J. William Fulbright. He then continued college in Oxford University in England and Yale University. At Yale, he maintained his interest in government by campaigning for a Senator candidate in Connecticut. He also met Hillary Rodham, whom he would later marry on October 11, 1975.

He graduated and returned to Arkansas to teach law at the University of Arkansas. In 1974, he ran for congress and lost. In 1976, Bill was elected Attorney General of Arkansas and two years later, at the age of 32, he became the youngest governor in the U.S. On February 27, 1980, the Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea Victoria, was born. Also that year he lost his second term race but he regained it in 1982. He then proceeded to enhance education for all in the state and as chairman of the National Governors’ Association in 1986 to ‘87 he reformed welfare.

Not long after, Bill was nominated as the Democratic presidential candidate and he chose Al Gore from Tennessee as his running mate. Campaigning on the slogan “putting people first” and concepts such as preserving the American Dream, restoring the hopes of the middle class, and reclaiming the future for the nation’s children lead him to the 42nd Presidency in the United States over George Bush. Running on the slogan “a bridge to the future” in 1996, Bill hoped to maintain this glorifying position. Throughout his life, he has worked to make a difference in the lives of others. To him, Hope means more than just a small town in Arkansas; it means working to ensure that each American has the opportunity to fulfill his or her dream. At 46 the youngest man elected President since John F. Kennedy, came to the White House pledging to end the era of drift and deadlock and begin a new season of American renewal. In an address before Congress on the 29th day of his Presidency, he outlined a strategy to help the economy through increased public and private investment while cutting $500 billion from the Federal deficit.

Clinton had a certain style of action. He is a very domestic-oriented president. In domestic affairs, Clinton signed into law measures to revitalize the economy and renew the American community. To boost living standards and create jobs, he won Congressional approval of a massive deficit reduction plan, a barrier-breaking trade agreement with Mexico, aid to Russia, and tax cuts for small businesses and the working poor. He also signed the Brady Bill, which required a waiting period for gun purchases. Clinton had certain ideas for his presidency and things he thought should change. Eighteen people joined President Clinton’s administration as heads of government departments. Past presidents used mostly white men for their cabinet. Clinton had promised to make his cabinet “look more like America.” As a result, his cabinet included five women, four African Americans, and two Latinos. Another promise Clinton had upheld was to lift the ban on homosexuals in the United States military. His executive order forced recruiters to stop asking about a person’s sexual preference. Also, homosexuals could not be punished unless committing “offenses of conduct.” This caused many problems so a policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” was compromised. Clinton is the type of President to listen to the people and to make decisions that will work for them. He gained this habit after making the mistake of not listening to the people in his first term as governor.

Clinton has also worked for lower unemployment rates in his two terms. During the first two years of Clinton s administration, 6 million jobs were created, 7.7 million during the first 34 months. Americorps, formed to help people pay for college and job training, helped to tutor students, immunize children, and restore urban parks. Clinton s Northwest Forest Plan was contrived to provide jobs in the Northwest and preserve ancient forests at the same time. Since Clinton became president, the unemployment rate has decreased from 7% to 5.6% and the United States currently has its lowest combined rate of inflation and unemployment since the beginning of Nixon s Administration in 1968. Clinton has also continued several programs that were pioneered by Roosevelt, such as Social Security and Bank Security. Clinton s Social Security Independent Agency Act, Interstate Banking Bill, and the Community Development Banking Financial Institutions Act s roots can be traced back to Roosevelt s Social Security Act of 1935 and Glass-Steagall Banking Reform Act. Both Clinton and Roosevelt also advocated the rights of workers. Roosevelt secured the unions right to form and to bargain with a representative of their choice with his National Labor Relations Act, and created a minimum wage, maximum hours, and limited the ages of young workers with his Fair Labor Standards Act. Clinton has increased the minimum wage twice in the past three years, and signed for the Family and Medical Leave Act, which allowed for a guaranteed leave of up to 12 weeks without pay in the case of child birth, adoption, or personal or family illness. This secured the jobs of Americans who needed to stay home.

Every good and even presidents considered as bad have left a legacy to their name. President Clinton, I believe, has been a very effective President. But will that be his legacy? Unfortunately, it probably won’t. It all started when Paula Jones claimed that she had a sexual relation with Clinton. That was a hard blow but the most detrimental hit was Monica Lewinsky. Clinton had denied the allegations and most people believed him. Eventually the president was found out and he was forced to admit it to the American people. Clinton was charged with lying under oath, perjury, and conspiring to obstruct justice. This event was on the top of the news for about a year. Just goes to show the effect of the media on the president. Surprisingly enough, the media converage didn’t effect the president’s approval ratings much. If anything, they stayed neutral or increased. In the 1998 mid-term Congressional elections, Democrats won more seats than was expected, indicating that a majority of Americans continued to support the president. But on December 19, the House of Representatives on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice impeached Clinton. On February 12, the president was easily acquitted on both the impeachment and perjury charges, with his accusers failing to get a majority on either vote. But soon after the Senate verdict, the Lewinsky affair caused him further embarrassment. Clinton was found to be in contempt of court and fined nearly $90,000 for giving false testimony in the Paula Jones case in 1998. Thus he became the first president to be cited for contempt. As the case moved to the Senate for trial, popular support for the president grew, making removal from office appear unlikely. But when there was more than a year left in his second term, there were signs Clinton was losing his public appeal. An ABCNEWS/Washington Post poll taken in September 1999 found 53 percent of Americans said they’re tired of President Clinton. Nearly half polled said Vice President Al Gore was too close to Clinton to give the country a fresh start.

Clinton’s ability to make a comeback in the face of seemingly overwhelming odds was a hallmark throughout his career. He retained that ability, even when the public acknowledged doubts about his character. Clinton’s motives were questioned when the bombings of suspected terrorist sites in Afghanistan and Sudan, and of Iraq over Baghdad’s refusal to submit to U.N. arms inspections, both in 1998, during high points of the Lewinsky scandal. This raised serious questions about the president’s motivations.

Following his impeachment and acquittal, Clinton sought to emphasize his achievements as president and salvage his legacy. He continued to be a fund-raising magnet, drawing in large sums for the Democratic Party. Foreign affairs, once a weak point for a man elected on a domestic economic agenda, became a proving ground for Clinton. Clinton’s administrations claimed a number of foreign policy successes, including its role in bringing an end to civil conflict in Bosnia, support for peace in Northern Ireland and the Middle East, and the withdrawal of rampaging Serb forces from Kosovo following 10 weeks of U.S. bombing by NATO.

In his final year of office, the president maintained a relatively low profile but took several major trips overseas, to South Asia, Europe, and Africa. He also prepared for the 2000 elections, lending his support not only to presidential hopeful Al Gore, but also to his wife, Hillary Clinton, who ran for U.S. senator from New York. Clinton leaves the white house this year of 2001. He will be on the prowl and searching for another position. Will he be on the United States Supreme Court or be an Ambassador of Peace as Jimmy Carter had done after leaving the office. Also, he might consider a seat in the United States Senate or the House of Representatives like John Quincy Adams had done fifty years earlier. There are many roads Clinton can follow. Whatever it is, the chances are he will be an important contribution to the United States as he had been for his entire adult life.