Bill Clinton'S Presidential Campaign: After-Graduation And Political Experience

Bill Clinton. A Father, Son, Husband and the forty-second president of the United States. As well as a Yale University Law School Alumni, and with twelve years on his back serving as Governor of Arkansas prior to becoming President. Within the first two years of Clintons Presidency, his many accomplishments were already being noted. His first term was worthy of attention which is no surprise that with his success, determination and motivation Americans trusted him to continue to lead the country and elect him on to his second term.

His experience includes working on Joe Duffy’s campaign while studying in at Yale Law School during the seventy’s and he also managed the Texas campaign of a Democrat known as George McGovern who was running for Presidential nominations all while being in his early to mid-twenty’s. When he first started to get involved in politics he started off as running campaigns for others and eventually he was inspired to become a governor himself. Professor Russell L. Riley in his article ‘Bill Clinton: Life before Presidency’ states ‘After graduation, Clinton moved back to Arkansas with a job teaching law at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. Almost as soon as he arrived home, Clinton threw himself into Politics, running for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.’ He won his first election as a governor in Arkansas but failed to be reelected. In the third paragraph of Professor Riley’s article he says ‘In the 1982 race, Clinton admitted his mistakes and used his incredible charm and well-honed TV ads to convince the voters to give him another chance. He won in 1982 and again in 1984. Voters then supported him for two, four-year terms in 1986 and 1990.’ After serving an impressive five terms as governor he decided to run for a President.

His charm and charisma helped him to run and continue to serve terms as a governor. By openly admitting his mistakes he shows the residents of Arkansas that he has the maturity and responsibility to own up to his problems and is willingly ready to face the consequences if any.

With his journey as a governor, along the way he also starts to build a legacy that will help him gain more honor and prestige in the long run before he decides to run for President. Finally, in 1993 he was elected President for his first term until 1997. He was reelected and served until 2001. When running for his reelection (his second term) his main opponent was Ross Perot from the Reform Party, and he too had governor experience prior to running for President. Ross Perot had already run against former President Bill Clinton during Clinton’s first term but lost. Perot tried for the second time and lost once again. In Professor Riley’s article ‘Bill Clinton: Campaigns and Elections’ in paragraph thirteen he briefly explains disadvantages from Ross Perot while running up against a Republican and a Democrat (Bill Clinton). Perot did have the attention in the first election while running for President against Clinton but the second time he decided to run against Clinton he didn’t get much attention from the media. His campaign was mostly bashing opposing candidates and the Democratic and Republican Party. With an opponent with not much attention from the public, this made Clinton more noticeable and have a higher chance of winning, which he later did.

In the article ‘Keeping Faith with America: A Look at President Clinton's Accomplishments During the First Two Years’ (No Publisher found) goes into great detail on the accomplishments former President Bill Clinton did in the first two years of his first term which once again, gave him a pretty good path to his reelection to his second term. The list includes creating 6 million jobs during his first two years of his election and also creating the Crime Bill which helps criminals avoid the death penalty to a certain extent. In 1994 Clinton said after signing the Crime Bill that “because of that bill we had a 25-year low in crime, a 33-year low in the murder rate.” The Crime Bill also put more than one hundred thousand police officers in communities therefore creating a safer environment and causing crime to decrease along with more jobs being available. Clinton also strengthen the income taxes of low-income working families. Education for college students and adults was also heavy on his mind which made young Americans more open to going to college and having the ability and money to pay off their loans borrowed from the government with a payment plan included. Not only did Clinton have the vote of the college students but also the majority of the Democratic vote.

In an article titled ‘Ten major accomplishments of Bill Clinton’ published by Anirudh in the fifth paragraph she explains to us how Clinton shifted his attention to the young and future leaders of America. Education is something that is important to young adults therefore the new voters. A sentence from the fifth paragraph and from the author stated above ‘Implementing standards and accountability; improving student performance; expanding access to technology; and making higher education more affordable.’ Not only this caused young students to be able to learn more efficiently but it also caused jobs in education to rise due to more funding being available and an increase in new and better technology which was an eye opener especially in the ninety’s during this time. Bill Clintons successful first term paved a road for him to continue on to his second term. It was no surprise that with his accomplishments he was considered one of the top Presidential Candidates and went on to win his second reelection.