America's Greatest 20th Century Presidents (37 page)

From 1994-1996, Gingrich and the Republicans continued to push Clinton to the brink, culminating with a government shutdown at the end of 1995. However, when the shutdown had ended, Clinton managed to come away from the political crisis with even higher popularity ratings, while Gingrich had sullied his reputation.

Clinton continued to catch the Republicans off-guard in 1996, beginning with his famous Republican-sounding talking point that “the era of big government is over.” That year, Clinton embraced parts of the “Contract with America” and treated them like they were his own initiatives. Throughout the 1996 reelection campaign, the Democratic President adopted the most popular parts of the Republicans’ political platforms and acted as though they were his policies. Clinton signed legislation that reduced regulations and balanced the federal budget, receiving the bulk of the credit even though the legislation had been drafted by the Republican led Congress. It seemed no matter what Republicans tried or said, Clinton deftly outmaneuvered him and used his popularity to coast to an easy victory over Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole in the 1996 presidential election.

Bob Dole

The Lewinsky Scandal

Clinton’s next escape act may have been his most stunning. In January 1998, a story broke that Clinton had engaged in sexual conduct with a 22 year old White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. Clinton flatly denied the story initially, notoriously remarking, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky." More importantly, he had made the same claim testifying in the Paula Jones suit.

Lewinsky, however, literally had proof of the affair, which she had discussed with friend Linda Tripp, and she gave the infamous “blue dress” to special prosecutor Kenneth Starr, whose investigation had now covered everything from Whitewater to Vince Foster to Paula Jones before seemingly stumbling upon a goldmine in Lewinsky.

That July, Clinton fessed up to the affair, admitting that he had an “inappropriate relationship” with the intern, though he continued to deny that it was a “sexual relationship”, at least by his understanding of that definition. The political circus truly came to town, as Americans watched the former lawyer dance through grand jury testimony, including one famous answer in which he discussed what the definition of the word “is” is. Clinton was never indicted for perjury, but he was subsequently disbarred by the state of Arkansas.

The Republican controlled Congress naturally thought Clinton had committed perjury and obstruction of justice, among other things, and began the process of impeaching the president. For only the second time in the nation’s history (the first being Andrew Johnson during the Reconstruction period), the president was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives in 1998, but eventually acquitted in the Senate after a twenty-one day trial in 1999. The nub of the charges — there were four charges in total
[27]
and only two (perjury and obstruction of justice) of them received even a majority in the Senate, let alone a super-majority (two-thirds consent of the Senate being what the Constitution requires) — was that Clinton had lied about and had asked others to lie about his improper sexual relationship with Lewinsky.

Almost unbelievably, Clinton remained extremely popular among Americans, and his approval rating hit an all time high in the days after his impeachment. In the months after Clinton admitted to the “inappropriate relationship”, the Democrats picked up seats in the midterm elections, a stunning rebuke that led to the resignation of Gingrich as Speaker of the House. On February 12, 1999, the Senate acquitted Clinton on both articles of impeachment, and Clinton had managed to outlast his political opponents yet again.

Wrapping Up the Clinton Presidency

In October 2000, President Clinton signed the U.S.–China Relations Act of 2000. This statute granted permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) trade status to the People's Republic of China. This was immensely pragmatic since the United States had always had friendly relations with Taiwan. Clinton now stated that free trade would gradually open China to democracy; this was undoubtedly one place where Clinton broke with his hero John F. Kennedy's embargo on Cuba due to Fidel Castro's rule of the island. Dialogue, Clinton basically stated, is a superior force for making good on change than taking oneself out of the conversation could ever be.

Clinton’s presidency has been rated highly since the moment it ended, particularly for the peacetime expansion of the American economy during his two terms. As Americans are too painfully aware now, it was under President Clinton that the United States had a projected federal budget surplus for the first time since 1969. Not even the budget hawks during the Reagan and the first President Bush presidencies could claim this particular mantle, and it promises to be a very long time before a president hands over as solid an economy as Clinton left to incoming president George W. Bush.

When Clinton was replaced in January 2001 by President Bush, he left office with the highest approval rating for an outgoing president in 40 years.

Chapter 10: Post-Presidential Years

Bill Clinton greets a wheel chair bound evacuee in the Reliant Center at the Houston Astrodome. He and President George Walker Bush were at the Astrodome to announce a new relief fund. In the background holding his jacket is Senator Barack Obama. Photo by Ed Edah

Since leaving office in January 2001, Clinton has dedicated himself to building his Presidential Library, his causes (HIV/AIDS, malnutrition, education, and so on) associated with the Clinton Foundation, and of course defending his Presidential legacy.

In 2004, three years after leaving office, Bill Clinton published his rather candid autobiography, simply entitled as
My Life.
Particularly when Clinton’s failure to capture Osama Bin Laden is raised, he becomes even more defensive. In recent years, President Clinton unsuccessfully campaigned in the Democratic primaries for his wife Hillary and then successfully campaigned for Democratic nominee and political neophyte President Barack Obama. Clinton has seen his daughter wed and may, in 2016, see his wife run again for President if some rumor mills are in fact accurate.

Clinton has not been president for over a decade, but he continues to be one of the most visible and recognizable Americans. Still extremely popular, Clinton has given speeches, participated in initiatives with the other living former presidents, acted as an informal national ambassador, and, of course, as the Democratic Party’s best surrogate and fundraiser.

Former Presidents Clinton and George H.W. Bush filming a public service announcement seeking donations for tsunami relief in 2005.

Naturally, Clinton’s outspoken ways and his embrace of the spotlight have led to more controversy. His remarks during the South Carolina primary in 2008, which were widely viewed as too negative of Senator Barack Obama and painted by some as tinged with racism, hurt his wife’s campaign. Certainly, for a man often described as America’s first black president, being accused of racism was as painful as it was patently false.

It’s been widely believed and assumed that Clinton and Obama continue to have a terse, frosty relationship, even as his wife became the Secretary of State and seemingly worked in her rival’s administration without a hitch during his first term. And intentionally or not, Clinton has stepped on Obama’s toes even while campaigning for him, at times seeming to repudiate the Obama reelection campaign’s attacks on Mitt Romney and most famously seeming to take command of a White House press conference from President Obama himself. Nevertheless, Obama has tapped Clinton as an informal envoy to places like Haiti and North Korea, where the diplomatic skills of the former president were put on display to secure the release of two Americans from captivity in the isolated Communist nation.

Clinton, Obama, and adviser Valerie Jarrett

Bill Clinton has led an extraordinary life, and he continues to endure as the ultimate baby-boomer and Comeback Kid. It will certainly be a long time before Clinton and his legacy truly leave the world stage.

[1]
Section 2.
Powers reserved to the states

No State, territory, or possession of the United States, or Indian tribe, shall be required to give effect to any public act, record, or judicial proceeding of any other State, territory, possession, or tribe respecting a relationship between persons of the same sex that is treated as a marriage under the laws of such other State, territory, possession, or tribe, or a right or claim arising from such relationship.

Section 3.
Definition of marriage

In determining the meaning of any Act of Congress, or of any ruling, regulation, or interpretation of the various administrative bureaus and agencies of the United States, the word 'marriage' means only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife, and the word 'spouse' refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife.

[2]
347 U.S. 483 ("We conclude that, in the field of public education, the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. Therefore, we hold that the plaintiffs and others similarly situated for whom the actions have been brought are, by reason of the segregation complained of, deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment.").

[3]
“Declaration of Constitutional Principles” (1956) [colloquially known as the
Southern Manifesto
] ("Though there has been no constitutional amendment or act of Congress changing this established legal principle almost a century old, the Supreme Court of the United States, with no legal basis for such action, undertook to exercise their naked judicial power and substituted their personal political and social ideas for the established law of the land. This unwarranted exercise of power by the Court, contrary to the Constitution, is creating chaos and confusion in the States principally affected. It is destroying the amicable relations between the white and Negro races that have been created through 90 years of patient effort by the good people of both races. It has planted hatred and suspicion where there has been heretofore friendship and understanding. Without regard to the consent of the governed, outside mediators are threatening immediate and revolutionary changes in our public schools systems. If done, this is certain to destroy the system of public education in some of the States. With the gravest concern for the explosive and dangerous condition created by this decision and inflamed by outside meddlers: We reaffirm our reliance on the Constitution as the fundamental law of the land. We decry the Supreme Court's encroachment on the rights reserved to the States and to the people, contrary to established law, and to the Constitution. We commend the motives of those States which have declared the intention to resist forced integration by any lawful means. We appeal to the States and people who are not directly affected by these decisions to consider the constitutional principles involved against the time when they too, on issues vital to them may be the victims of judicial encroachment. Even though we constitute a minority in the present Congress, we have full faith that a majority of the American people believe in the dual system of government which has enabled us to achieve our greatness and will in time demand that the reserved rights of the States and of the people be made secure against judicial usurpation. We pledge ourselves to use all lawful means to bring about a reversal of this decision which is contrary to the Constitution and to prevent the use of force in its implementation. In this trying period, as we all seek to right this wrong, we appeal to our people not to be provoked by the agitators and troublemakers invading our States and to scrupulously refrain from disorder and lawless acts.").