Bill Clinton: Survivor

01VOA Learning English presents America's Presidents.

02Today we are talking about William Jefferson Clinton, better known as Bill Clinton.

03Clinton took office in 1993 and was re-elected in 1996.

04In many ways, historians consider his time in office a success.

05The economy expanded and the country was largely at peace.

06But Clinton had some notable failures, too.

07He could not persuade Congress to accept a plan to reform the nation's health care system.

08And in his second term, the House of Representatives took steps to remove him from office.

09But the Senate decided not to act.

10Clinton finished his second term with high approval ratings.

11Yet, he is also remembered for being only the second U.S.

12president to be impeached.

13Bill Clinton came from a town with a memorable name, Hope.

14He grew up there and in another nearby town in the southern state of Arkansas.

15For most of his early life, Bill was raised by his grandmother and his mother, both nurses.

16His father had died in a car accident before he was born.

17People who knew Bill as a young man remember him as very intelligent, charming with people, and talented in music.

18His mother told him he would be president one day.

19Sure enough, Clinton pursued activities that would lead to a political career.

20He attended college at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., where he studied international affairs, led student government groups, and took a position as a clerk in the U.S.

21Senate.

22He went on to study at Oxford University in England on a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship.

23Then he graduated from law school at Yale University.

24There, he met another student who would be his wife, Hillary Rodham.

25The two went on to have one child together, a daughter named Chelsea.

26After finishing his studies, Clinton returned to his home state of Arkansas and pursued political office.

27At 32, he became one of the youngest governors ever in the country.

28Two years later, he was voted out of office, and, as historian Russell Riley notes, he became the youngest former governor.

29And that is how a good deal of Clinton's political career continued, in a pattern of successes and failures.

30His successes often came as a result of his centrist policies, which appealed to people of different political beliefs.

31He also was an effective public speaker, and, to many, a likable, charismatic person, who seemed to care deeply about others.

32But, his critics pointed out, Clinton also appeared to make many decisions simply for political advantage, and he sometimes tried to please so many people that he pleased no one.

33Following a series of increasingly national roles, as well as a series of setbacks, Clinton campaigned for president in 1992.

34At first, he did not do well in the campaign.

35He was young and not well known.

36He also suffered from reports that he had relationships with women who were not his wife.

37But, in time, Clinton began winning primary contests.

38Reporters called him the comeback kid.

39He earned a public image as a politician who could survive problems.

40In the general election, Clinton competed against the sitting president, Republican George H.W.

41Bush.

42The two men also faced an unusually strong third-party candidate named Ross Perot.

43On election night, Clinton prevailed.

44Because Americans had split their votes among three major candidates, Clinton earned less than 50% of the popular vote.

45But he won enough electoral votes to become the next U.S.

46president.

47The people who worked on Bill Clinton's presidential campaign, adopted an informal motto.

48They said, It's the economy, stupid.

49In other words, campaign officials believed that most Americans cared primarily about how a president's policies would affect their financial concerns.

50So, President Clinton quickly set about making a series of economic changes.

51They included raising taxes on wealthier Americans and cutting spending to help poorer Americans.

52In a few years, the U.S.

53budget deficit was gone, the federal government had a surplus, and the country's financial situation was strong and healthy, although not everyone approved of the steps Clinton took to get there or believed he should get all the credit.

54Early in his first term, Clinton sought an additional reform he believed would help voters' financial concerns, affordable health insurance for all Americans.

55Most people in the U.S.

56either bought private health insurance or did not have any insurance to help pay for medical costs.

57Clinton wanted to find a way for the U.S.

58government to support Americans' health-related expenses.

59He appointed his wife, First Lady Hillary Clinton, to lead a health care reform effort.

60Hillary Clinton, a lawyer, had led a similar effort to reform education in Arkansas when her husband was governor there.

61But some lawmakers in Congress, as well as some voters, rejected her efforts.

62The reform effort failed.

63Clinton also struggled in some early foreign policy moves.

64He withdrew American troops from Somalia after their humanitarian efforts there turned into a bloody military struggle.

65He was also criticized for failing to intervene quickly in the genocide in Rwanda, where hundreds of thousands of people were killed.

66Later, Clinton won praise for some of his foreign policy.

67His government helped restore the elected president in Haiti after a coup.

68It also helped negotiate peace agreements in Bosnia and Ireland.

69And it cooperated with NATO to intervene in the Kosovo area and stop attacks on Albanians there.

70In general, Clinton believed the U.S.

71had an important role to play in maintaining peace and protecting human life around the world.

72At the same time, he did not want to use too many American resources to do so.

73He aimed to cooperate with other nations and to set moderate goals.

74As usual, Clinton adopted an approach that was not too extreme on one side or another.

75During most of his time as president, Clinton had been under investigation.

76Federal judges had appointed a special counsel named Kenneth Starr to find out if the president had committed any crimes related to financial investments before he took office.

77During the investigation, Starr learned that the president had been having a sexual relationship with a young woman who worked in the White House.

78Starr asked Clinton about the affair under oath.

79Later, Starr accused Clinton of lying about his relationship with the woman.

80Starr said that Clinton had also tried to prevent others from telling the truth about some of his activities.

81In time, the president publicly admitted the relationship and he apologized to voters and his family.

82But he said he had not lied or told anyone else to lie for him.

83Lawmakers in the House of Representatives did not accept Clinton's defense.

84They advanced two articles of impeachment.

85Lawmakers in the U.S.

86Senate then considered the case.

87It is their job to examine the evidence and decide whether to remove a president from office.

88A majority did not believe the actions Clinton was accused of were serious violations against the country.

89They voted to acquit Clinton of the charges and permit him to continue as president.

90in the U.S.

91a president can serve only two full terms.

92After his second, Bill Clinton and his wife settled in a town outside New York City.

93In time, Hillary Clinton became the U.S.

94senator from New York as well as a secretary of state and the Democratic Party's candidate for president.

95Bill Clinton, like many other U.S.

96presidents, wrote about his experiences and helped develop his presidential library.

97military.

98He also worked on humanitarian, health, and economic issues with his family's organization, the Clinton Foundation.

99For many, Clinton's time in office is remembered as a mixed experience.

100The economy was at one of its strongest in U.S.

101history.

102Most people could find jobs and many Americans bought homes for the first time.

103In the mid-1990s especially, the Internet and other new developments created a technology boom.

104In addition, Clinton was an effective public speaker, and he inspired new groups of people to support his Democratic Party.

105Many voters approved of his appointments of women and minorities to positions of power in his government.

106They also liked the steps he took to reduce the use of handguns, protect the environment, and provide paid time off work for some people to care for themselves or their families.

107But both Democrats and Republicans found fault with some of Clinton's efforts, and even his supporters note that the president had to spend much of his time in office answering charges of wrongdoing.

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