42nd President of the United States

In office:
January 20, 1993 - January 20, 2001

Vice President:
Al Gore

Preceded by
George H. W. Bush

Succeeded by:
George W. Bush

Political party:
Democrat

William Jefferson Blythe III
(August 19, 1946)

William Clinton is an American politician who served as president of the United States.  Prior to the presidency, he was the governor of Arkansas and serving as the attorney general of Arkansas as well. Clinton was ideologically a New Democrat, and many of his policies reflected a centrist "Third Way" political philosophy.

After graduating college, Clinton returned to Arkansas and won election as the Attorney General of Arkansas.  As Governor of Arkansas, he overhauled the state's education system and served as chairman of the National Governors Association.  Clinton was elected president in 1992, defeating incumbent Republican opponent George H. W. Bush.  At age 46, he became the third-youngest president and the first from the Baby Boomer generation.

Clinton presided over the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in American history.  He signed into law the North American Free Trade Agreement but failed to pass his plan for national health care reform.  In the 1994 elections, the Republican Party won unified control of the Congress for the first time in 40 years.

In 1996, Clinton became the first Democrat since Franklin D. Roosevelt to be elected to a second full term.

Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives for perjury and obstruction of justice following allegations that he committed perjury and obstructed justice to conceal an affair that he had with Monica Lewinsky, a 22-year old White House Intern.

Clinton was acquitted by the Senate in 1999 and completed his term in office.  He is only the second U.S. president—following Andrew Johnson 131 years earlier—to ever be impeached.

Clinton left office with the highest end-of-office approval rating of any U.S. president since World War II, and has continually scored high in the historical rankings of U.S. presidents, consistently placing in the top third.  Since leaving office, he has been involved in public speaking.

He has remained active in politics by campaigning for Democratic candidates, including the presidential campaigns of his wife and Barack Obama.

Born:
August 19, 1946 (age 73)
Hope, Arkansas
U.S.

Died:

Resting place: