Was Bill Clinton A Good President? Essay, Research Paper

Was William Jefferson Clinton a good president? In my opinion, Bill Clinton was not a good president. I am not saying he was the worst one we have ever had, but he did a lot of things to give himself a bad name to the citizens of the United States of America.

Bill Clinton, the 42nd president of the United States, was born in 1946 in Arkansas. Clinton is the second president to get impeached. He is married to Hillary Rodham Clinton, and he has one daughter, Chelsea Victoria Clinton. Clinton served two terms from 1993 to 2001. From the very beginning of his term to the very end, it always seemed as though he was in some form of trouble.

The Whitewater scandal was the first, and heaviest investigated item of accused wrongdoings by the Clintons. Whitewater is a development of land for tract housing in Arkansas. The Clintons invested into Whitewater before his term of Governor of Arkansas. This would be just a normal, everyday investment. The partners that the Clintons were in with bought a small savings and loan. When this savings and loan went bankrupt, it was bailed out by the Resolution Trust Corporation. The Resolution Trust Corporation is a Federal Agency, and questions were raised that the Clintons involvement with politics may have influenced Resolution Trust to bail the savings and loan out to protect the Clintons interest. Word of the Whitewater scandal can still be heard on TV occasionally.

In 1994, a woman named Paula Jones hit Clinton with a civil lawsuit. Jones claimed that her civil rights were violated when Clinton made a sexual proposition to her while Clinton was serving as Governor in Arkansas. She also claimed that Clinton punished her for denying his sexual advancement, by blocking any pay raises, and promotions. The suit was going to be delayed until Clinton was out of office, but then it was ruled that the president had no protection from civil lawsuits. Jones eventually settled for $850,000.

The man in charge of investigating the Whitewater scandal, and the Paula Jones case, Ken Starr, just kept digging up dirt on Clinton. His investigation found that Clinton had an affair with a Whitehouse aide Monica Lewenski. This would turn out to be the most embarrassing event in Clinton’s term. The fact that both Clinton, and Lewenski lied under oath is what made it so bad. While Lewenski was busy trading testimony for immunity, Clinton was busy trying to apologize to the whole country, which he had just lied to.

Near the same timeframe as the Lewenski scandal, Clinton ordered air strikes on Iraq. Saddam Hussein kept UN inspectors from inspecting its weapon factories. The belief was that heavy warheads were being manufactured in secret warehouses. After the air strikes were ordered, most of the attention was pulled off of the Lewenski scandal. Many people believed that Clinton might have over reacted with the air strikes in order to focus some of the attention off of him. I for one strongly stand by any decision a president makes which involves any for of military activity. I also personally think that Iraq, and Saddam Hessian should have been completely dealt with in 1991.

I will give Clinton some credit for what he had accomplished during his terms. The economy seemed to be pretty strong. Buying a home became something that was not only for the middle class. More people were going to college. I even remember Rush Limbaugh saying that Clinton was not really doing a bad job running the country, which in a way says a whole lot.

Being in the military during Clinton’s term, I am glad to say that he did not micromanage us. It seemed that other than a few trips to some military bases, he stayed out of the game. The pay raises were nice, although I feel it was nowhere near enough.