Bill Clinton's Rise to Presidency and His Biggest Achievements

Bill Clinton began as a governor in Arkansas and resumed his political career as running as President of the United States in 1993. He was elected as president twice, and ran for two terms, until he was impeached. He not only was he impeached, but he was accused of multiple (at least 4) sexual misconduct allegations during and after his presidency. His wife, Hillary Clinton, also played a role in a few of his own scandals (some accusations remain as theories, but will be introduced as food for thought).

Clinton’s rise to presidency was quite sturdy. He was well liked, and along with that he had high approval ratings among the nation. This was aided by his particularly youthful facade and appearance, charisma, and his inciting speech. He was elected as the Attorney General of Arkansas in 1976, and was then elected Governor of the State in 1978. But in the fall of 1980, he lost his reelection as Governor. After this, he began working at a law firm in Little Rock, AR. In 2007, a survey was taken and the question of, “Who was the greatest president of the US,” was explored. He was placed in fourth place. Another question such as, “Who is the worst president to have taken place since World War II,” Bill was placed in third place, 1% behind Richard Nixon.

During Bill Clinton’s presidency, he began with creating policies, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and Welfare Reform. The North American Free Trade Agreement was signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States which made North America a free trade zone. The Welfare Reform was created to decrease the number of people dependent on assistance from the government by keeping welfare systems affordable and easier to access, making the individual independent and self-sufficient. A policy of Fiscal Conservatism advocated lower taxes and deregulation. This helped reduce budgetary matters. Each year, the gross national debt rose. Bill Clinton added $1.396 trillion, a 32 percent increase from the $4.4 trillion debt at the end of George H.W. Bush's last budget.

A multitude of different responsibilities to take care of different problems flourished when Clinton came into presidency. One of the biggest of many problems would be the decision that Clinton is being forced to make. He has to decide which side he’s on. There’s a problem with the people, the unemployment rate has skyrocketed since 1980, but so has the federal debt. Clinton was once preaching “investment in people,” and promised to spend $20 million on new roads and building, therefore creating new jobs for the unemployed. Since then, he had lowered his standards, cutting the budget in half for infrastructure, and encouraging (forcing) employers to use 1.5% of their pay roll on order to better their own employee’s skills. The healthcare industry is another big issue that is dragging the economy down. Clinton wants to make health insurance more affordable for those who aren’t covered, but also wants to cut costs for the amount that is being distributed to the people. This particular industry accounts for 13% of the economy while medicare for the poor consumed about 14% of the state budget. I would say that the biggest issue of all is the divide in the nation. He believed in policies and rolls that were more similar to Reaganomics instead of the newer and more modern trend. He has to run a nation that is divided by race, class, and status.

For the remaining portion, I will be introducing the scandals that President Clinton was accused for and had direct documentation and evidence of. One of the most popular and most shocking events is when Bill Clinton was having an affair with White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. She became associated with Clinton during the government shut down, and since the interns were capable of still working (because they weren’t on the payroll), all of them were moved into the West Wing. This gave room for Lewinsky to flirt with the President, and they had their first sexual contact on November 15 in the White House. Later that same month, she accepted a job in the Office of Legislative Affairs. Coming straight from Lewinsky, her and Bill had seven more sexual encounters. Once she was seen in the Oval Office, she drew in people's attention and then was moved to job at the Pentagon due to suspicion. After two more encounters with Clinton, they stayed in contact over the phone. While Lewinsky was at the Pentagon, she decided to share all of the explicit details between her and the President with one of her coworkers, Linda Tripp, who then told all of the information to an Anti-Clinton conservative, Lucianne Goldberg. After this, Tripp began (unlawfully) recording her conversations that she had through the telephone with Lewinsky.

These recording made it to lawyers, and once Lewinsky was confronted, she began to deny all of it. Clinton was then addressed with the situation and he also denied all accusations. Once the news hit the media, it exploded. During a press conference, he famously said, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.” Lewinsky was told that she would be immune to any charge in exchange for her own testimony about the scandal. Clinton had confessed and he apologized for his behavior, and on behalf of Lewinsky, he said that he had not told anyone to lie or demand the situation to be kept a secret. The House of Representative voted Clinton’s impeachment and he was then forced to stand trial where he was freed from any criminal charge.

Both of the Clinton’s have both been placed in unfortunate situations, such as allegations of Hillary Clinton being involved in the Benghazi attack in 2012. Libya attacked an embassy holding Ambassador Chris Stevens, and killed him, including three other Americans. During the investigations, there was an email found that Hillary Clinton sent to her daughter stating that Al-Qaeda was responsible for killing her employees. These allegations led Clinton to say that this wasn’t a planned attack, but the Prime Minister stated otherwise. The evidence for this is that once the Libyan police officers evaded, 70 heavily armed men fired at the building. The investigation was quietly closeted, and the truth will never come out I guess.

In conclusion Bill Clinton had his uproars and his downfalls, along with Hillary Clinton. All in all, Bill Clinton was partially a wise president, but some information and statistics about him say otherwise. The Lewinsky scandal, and the Benghazi controversy have all torn the Clinton’s both down, but as you can see today, they are still prominent leaders on the political side.