🎷Bill Clinton

42nd President · 1993–2001 · Democratic

Bill Clinton won the presidency in 1992 as a centrist "New Democrat" at age 46. His two terms coincided with a long economic expansion, a federal budget surplus, and the early internet revolution. The Lewinsky scandal led to his impeachment by the House in 1998, but he was acquitted by the Senate and served out his term with high approval ratings. He was the first Democrat to serve two full terms since Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Arkansas Traveler

Clinton grew up in Hot Springs, Arkansas, attended Georgetown University, won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford, and graduated from Yale Law School — where he met his future wife Hillary Rodham. He was elected Arkansas attorney general at 30 and governor at 32. After a brief one-term loss, he won the governorship back in 1982 and served five total terms before the 1992 presidential race.

The Comeback Kid

Clinton finished a strong second in the New Hampshire primary in 1992 despite early scandals and called himself "the Comeback Kid." He won the Democratic nomination and the presidency with just 43% of the popular vote in the three-way race with George H.W. Bush and Ross Perot. His presidency brought the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Brady Bill gun control measure, and a 1993 deficit reduction package that passed without a single Republican vote.

Triangulation and the Boom

After Democrats lost Congress in 1994, Clinton pivoted to centrist "triangulation" between Republicans and liberal Democrats. He signed welfare reform (1996), the Defense of Marriage Act (1996), and balanced budgets that produced federal surpluses for four consecutive years (1998–2001). The late-1990s economy boomed — unemployment fell to the lowest level in decades and the Dow Jones Industrial Average tripled during his two terms.

Impeachment and Acquittal

In 1998, an independent counsel investigation into financial dealings morphed into an investigation of Clinton's relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Clinton was impeached by the House on December 19, 1998 on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice — becoming only the second U.S. president to be impeached (after Andrew Johnson). The Senate acquitted him in February 1999. His approval rating actually rose during the crisis.

Post-Presidency

Clinton founded the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative, wrote memoirs, gave expensive speeches, and campaigned actively for his wife Hillary's 2008 and 2016 presidential bids. Hillary served as U.S. senator from New York (2001–2009) and as Barack Obama's Secretary of State (2009–2013). She lost the 2016 presidential election to Donald Trump.

Clinton Trivia

• Clinton is the only U.S. president to have been impeached and not resigned or lost office (Andrew Johnson survived impeachment but was not a two-term elected president).
• He played the saxophone on the Arsenio Hall Show during the 1992 campaign — a moment credited with humanizing his candidacy.
• The Family and Medical Leave Act was the first bill he signed as president.
• He and Jimmy Carter are the only Democratic presidents from the Deep South elected since the Civil War.

🎩 Related Presidents

Continue exploring the chronology:

→ See all presidents in order