During the administration of William Jefferson Clinton, the U.S. enjoyed more
peace and economic well being than at any time in its history. He was the first
Democratic president since Franklin D. Roosevelt to win a second term. He could
point to the lowest unemployment rate in modern times, the lowest inflation in
30 years, the highest home ownership in the country's history, dropping crime
rates in many places, and reduced welfare rolls. He proposed the first balanced
budget in decades and achieved a budget surplus. As part of a plan to celebrate
the millennium in 2000, Clinton called for a great national initiative to end
racial discrimination. 

After the failure in his second year of a huge program of health care reform,
Clinton shifted emphasis, declaring "the era of big government is over." He
sought legislation to upgrade education, to protect jobs of parents who must
care for sick children, to restrict handgun sales, and to strengthen
environmental rules. 

President Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe III on August 19, 1946, in
Hope, Arkansas, three months after his father died in a traffic accident. When
he was four years old, his mother wed Roger Clinton, of Hot Springs, Arkansas.
In high school, he took the family name. 

He excelled as a student and as a saxophone player and once considered becoming
a professional musician. As a delegate to Boys Nation while in high school, he
met President John Kennedy in the White House Rose Garden. The encounter led
him to enter a life of public service. 

Clinton was graduated from Georgetown University and in 1968 won a Rhodes
Scholarship to Oxford University. He received a law degree from Yale University
in 1973, and entered politics in Arkansas. 

He was defeated in his campaign for Congress in Arkansas's Third District in
1974. The next year he married Hillary Rodham, a graduate of Wellesley College
and Yale Law School. In 1980, Chelsea, their only child, was born. 

Clinton was elected Arkansas Attorney General in 1976, and won the governorship
in 1978. After losing a bid for a second term, he regained the office four years
later, and served until he defeated incumbent George Bush and third party
candidate Ross Perot in the 1992 presidential race. 

Clinton and his running mate, Tennessee's Senator Albert Gore Jr., then 44,
represented a new generation in American political leadership. For the first
time in 12 years both the White House and Congress were held by the same party.
But that political edge was brief; the Republicans won both houses of Congress
in 1994. 

In 1998, as a result of issues surrounding personal indiscretions with a young
woman White House intern, Clinton was the second U.S. president to be impeached
by the House of Representatives. He was tried in the Senate and found not guilty
of the charges brought against him. He apologized to the nation for his actions
and continued to have unprecedented popular approval ratings for his job as
president. 

In the world, he successfully dispatched peace keeping forces to war-torn
Bosnia and bombed Iraq when Saddam Hussein stopped United Nations inspections
for evidence of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. He became a global
proponent for an expanded NATO, more open international trade, and a worldwide
campaign against drug trafficking. He drew huge crowds when he traveled through
South America, Europe, Russia, Africa, and China, advocating U.S. style freedom.