"You'll have bad times. He'll have good times doin' things you don't understand. But if you love him, you'll forgive him." - Tammy Wynette
"Yet he was so smart, with so much talent, such rare political gifts. That was always it. There was so much promise and he didn't deliver. He led us to expect miracles and all we got was modest good works." - Ernest Dumas
This weekend I babysat my 3-year old niece Maddy. She already has a passion for books. This time, instead of wanting to read her books, she insisted we were going to read Aunt Hilarie's book instead. I read reading "A Complicated Man: The Life of Bill Clinton As Told By Those Who Know Him." Thankfully, there were no Monica pictures, but thanks to a picture of Bill consoling a crying refugee, I got the question I never thought I'd hear a three year old ask "What's Bosnia?"
I'll be curious to see what the historian's of Maddy's generation will have to say about Clinton. I'm a firm believer that at least a generation needs to go by to really be able to examine an administration fairly. You the story of the New Deal didn't really come to a close until about 1980. And we're affected by the choices of presidents, their policies, their choices for the Supreme Court, often year or even decades after they are gone. That being said, for these last 3 presidents I'll give you my all too premature assessment....but ask me what I REALLY think in 25 years.
On May 17, 1946, a young salesman named William Jefferson Blythe Jr. died in a car accident. He left behind a young widow, Virginia, and an unborn son. Thanks to that son's career choice....nearly 50 years later, Virginia would discover that Blythe had 3 previous wives, and 2 other children. 3 months a widow, Virginia gave birth to William Jefferson Blythe on August 19, 1946, in Hope, Arkansas. 4 years later she would marry Roger Clinton Sr., and young Billy eventually took his stepfather's surname. The family would move from Hope to the more (for Arkansas) cosmopolitan Hot Springs. While outwardly a friendly family, Virginia and Roger Clinton had a pretty dysfunctional marriage. Roger was an alcoholic, and would sometimes get physically abusive. Bill would intervene, in one version of the story even shoving his stepfather against the wall.
Bill had an outgoing gregarious personality from early on. He would go up to kids on the playground and introduce himself: "Hi! I'm Bill Clinton." One Thanksgiving he brought a new friend home for the meal. Bill had found the boy sitting alone at a bus stop. "His mom and dad are divorced and he's not going to have Thanksgiving dinner today. Would you mind if he had Thanksgiving with us?"
Passionate about music, particularly jazz and rock, Bill learned how to play tenor saxophone. Arkansas was a great place for a music lover to grow up. One night when he was 15, Bill and his mother went to Little Rock to hear a famous trumpet player in a local club. (I'll have to watch the Elvis Costello interview again to get the guy's name....) The club owner initially refused to let Bill come into the club because he was not legal drinking age. So Bill and Virginia went around back, found the trumpet player's limo, and Bill asked in person if he could attend the show. The Clintons got a seat in the front row and Bill was given a coke. Bill toyed with becoming a professional musician, but he realized that while he had talent, he didn't have enough of it to be the best.
In high school Clinton was involved in such a wide range of clubs, that he was banned for running for class president, so that somebody else could have a chance. One activity that he'd later become famous for was Boys Nation. Delegates in their junior year of high school, two from each state, would get elected to go to Washington D.C. and learn about the federal government. That was when Clinton got to shake John F. Kennedy's hand.
Thanks to scholarships, Clinton was able to go to Georgetown for his undergraduate degree. In 1967 he was an intern for Arkansas Senator Fulbright. After graduation he earned a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford in England. It's in this time period that Bill became eligible for the draft. From what I've been able to glean from the various accounts, accusations of Bill Clinton being a draft dodger are correct. While he never violated the law, he successfully manipulated the situation (such as hinting that he would join ROTC and then reneging on that plan once his draft status changed.) Although the idea that Clinton was a pot-smoking hippie during this era was a gross exaggeration. The draft issue would be a factor in Clinton's awkward relationship with the military when he was Commander in Chief.
In 1971 Clinton returned to the United States to attend Yale Law School. In the past Bill had gone from girlfriend to girlfriend, often dating more than one woman at the same time. However there was one fellow law student who caught his attention who he couldn't quite approach. Finally one day in the library, she confronted him: "Look, if we’re going to spend all this time staring at each other, we should at least get to know who the other is." Hillary Rodham made the first move.
The Bill-Hillary marriage and partnership is a rare one. Lots of future first ladies did not necessarily expect to end up in the White House or even on the campaign trail. Pat Nixon thought she was marrying a lawyer. Rosalynn Carter and Lou Hoover thought they were marrying engineers. However a good chunk of what made Bill and Hillary gel as a couple was they shared similar passions and ambitions.
There was quite the contrast in their backgrounds. Hillary, born in the Chicago suburbs, was the oldest child of Hugh and Dorothy Rodham. Dorothy picked the name Hillary because she thought it sounded exotic. (It was STILL exotic 30 years later when my parents gave the name to me.) There was a bit of a family joke that she was named after Sir Edmund Hillary, but the climb of Mt. Everest didn't actually happen until 5 years later.
One thing Bill and Hillary's childhoods had in common was being around dysfunctional marriages. Roger could be kind and gentle when he was sober. Hugh Rodham....was just an asshole, all the time. Knowing more about their childhoods, I was actually quite impressed by the Clintons. The Clinton marriage, although certainly full of flaws, was a huge step forward for both Bill and Hillary.
Hillary started out as a Goldwater Republican. Jerry Ford, who got a big kick out of Hillary, would later comment regretfully that the Republicans had let her get away. As an undergrad at Wellesley she was the president of the Young Republicans, but her politics would gradually drift further to the left. By the time she got her Bachelor's degree, she realized she wasn't really a Republican anymore. In 1968, against her father's wishes, she and a friend snuck down to the Democratic Convention to see the situation first hand.
Hillary looked like she would have had a promising political career in her own right before she married Bill. In grad school, she worked on a project headed by Senator Walter Mondale to research conditions in migrant camps. After graduation she was part of the legal team that was investigating a potential impeachment for Richard Nixon. (This background would come in handy 20 years later.)
Bill and Hillary's personalities were starkly different. While this was a cause of a lot of their conflicts, it has also factored into how they became a successful team. One of my favorite stories that illustrates this contrast in styles is from their grad school days. Bill and Hillary were in class together. The professor was talking about some sort of a legal problem. Bill appeared to be napping, while Hillary feverishly took notes. At the end of class Bill lifted up his head, said the solution, and went back to sleep.
Bill proposed to Hillary multiple times. Many were perplexed by the relationship. Some of Hillary's friends couldn't understand what she was doing with this guy from Arkansas when she had her own career to focus on. Bill's family was totally bewildered by this fast-talking Chicago girlfriend with the bad hair and coke bottle glasses. Ultimately Hillary was willing to make the sacrifice and move to Arkansas both because of love, and because she saw great potential in Bill Clinton. Even in law school, she thought he could be president some day. Hillary finally accepted the proposal from Bill when he bought a house in Little Rock. They married on October 11, 1975, the exact same day my parents got married. Initially Hillary decided to keep her maiden name of Rodham. Daughter Chelsea was born in 1980. I always found Chelsea to be a testament of what was right with the Clinton marriage. Despite a good chunk of her childhood in the spotlight, Chelsea emerged as a very poised and grounded woman.
I didn't really appreciate at the time what a wunderkind Bill Clinton was in politics. He was ridiculously young when his political career took off. Directly after law school, Bill became a professor at the University of Arkansas Law School. In 1974 he made an unsuccessful run for Congress, which put his name on the political landscape. In 1976 Bill was elected attorney general. In 1978 at age 32, Bill was elected as Governor of Arkansas.
Bill would prove to make a lot of the same mistakes in his first term as governor (which was just a 2 year term in the 70's) that he did in his first years as president. The Clintons tried to take on too much too fast, and as a result, they seemed to be unfocused, and didn't have a unifying cause for people to rally behind. He also made a few mistakes that made it look like he was out of touch with his constituency. Although what probably drove the last nail into the coffin for Clinton's re-election was the Mariel boatlift. In 1980, Fidel Castro allowed 100,000 Cubans to flee Cuba for the United States. Later it was revealed that a significant percentage of the refugees were prisoners and inmates from mental institutions. The refugees were put in military bases until the situation could be cleared up, including Fort Chafee in Arkansas. The refugees would prove to be a major headache, starting riots, and even escaping from the facility. As you might imagine in a state like Arkansas, which was never known for being particularly tolerant to outsiders, this did not go over well. When Clinton called up the White House entreating them to take some of the refugees off his hands, the Carter administration agreed....and then sent him even more refugees. I'm not sure if the Clintons have ever totally forgiven Carter for that move. Clinton lost his bid for re-election in 1980.
Both Clintons learned from the mistakes of the first term. Hillary took Bill's last name, got contacts, got a better haircut, and did her version of being a more traditional candidate's wife. Clinton would serve as governor until 1993. Although the term length did eventually change from 2 years to 4.
Clinton first flirted with the idea of running for president in 1988. He seemed on the verge of declaring his candidacy when he instead announced he was going to spend more time with his family. While the fact that Chelsea was still young, and not onboard with the idea of a campaign, was a factor....Bill's womanizing was a bigger factor. Gary Hart had to drop out of the race after his extra-marital affair was revealed. Given just how promiscuous Clinton had been, and how uncertain his staff was about who would leak what, they decided to wait.
Then Clinton got the opportunity to give the speech introducing candidate Michael Dukakis at the Democratic National Convention. The speech is now notorious for rambling on and on. When Bill said "and in conclusion" the audience cheered. A couple of night's later, Bill managed to revive his reputation by going on the Tonight Show and making fun of his speech.
In 1992 Clinton ran for president. He managed to successful get around issues like Gennifer Flowers talking about their affair, and the draft-dodging issue. With a combination of a poor economy, and 3rd party candidate Ross Perot, Clinton managed to successfully defeat incumbent George H.W. Bush. (I was particularly fond of the 1992 campaign because all 3 candidates were left-handed.) Although with 43% of the vote, it was hardly a mandate.
The beginning of the Clinton administration was....awkward. Once again the Clintons tried to take on too much at once. The Clintons also found out fast that the general public didn't particularly like the whole "two for the price of one" presidency with Bill and Hillary. In hindsight, it was probably inevitable that a go-getting 1970's feminist like Hillary would have problems in more traditional Washington. She later remarked in her memoirs that she was surprised when D.C. proved to be even more conservative than Little Rock. Bill put Hillary in charge of the Health Care initiative, which would prove to be disastrous. Afterwards she'd stay in the background and work more on woman's and children's issues, and writing "It Takes A Village."
One major mistake the Clintons made early on was alienating the press. Traditionally, the press was allowed to have access to the West Wing. The Clintons booted them out. This made for a considerably more hostile press. A lot of the first couple of years had missteps. After a freak-out over Clinton stating he'd lift the ban on gay marriage, he created the majorly lame "Don't ask don't tell" policy....which stopped the freak-out, but didn't make anybody happy.
Then there were the 1994 elections. Traditionally, the midterm elections have some backlash over whatever party has the presidency. This time there was such a backlash that Republicans won control of both houses of Congress for the first time in 40 years. The movement was spearheaded by new speaker of the house Newt Gingrich. For a while, Clinton seemed so eclipsed by the Republicans in Congress, there are actually interviews where he insists that the presidency is still relevant.
Prospects for a second term were looking grim until 1995. On April 19, 1995, the federal building in Oklahoma City was bombed by Timothy McVeigh. Clinton's cool head in the crisis, and his address to the nation later, showed his leadership skills. Clinton would also prove to be a strong speaker at any sort of a funeral.
Clinton and Gingrich would have a decisive stand-out in 1995 over the federal budget. The Republicans insisted on a balanced budget. Clinton decided there was no way to get around a balanced budget, but decided to create one on his own terms. The result was a government shutdown of all non-essential employees that lasted for a total of 28 days between November of 1995 until January of 1996.
It was during that time that interns took on more of the tasks. One day at the White House, an intern lifted up the back of her shirt in the president's direction to reveal a thong, and confessed that she had a crush on the president. Now if Bill Clinton had been anything like his 5 most recent predecessors, the intern probably would have lost her job, and we wouldn't know the name Monica Lewinsky.
Clinton emerged victorious in the budget battle. He would also prove to be victorious in the 1996 election against Bob Dole. The 1996 election will always hold a special place in my heart, because that was the first presidential election that I could vote in. I vividly remember watching the election returns in the dorms, and laughing at Tom Brokaw's total lack of objectivity: "It's a great day for America!"
In 1998 Clinton's affair with Lewinsky was revealed by the press. This issue would prove to dominate his entire second term. Clinton at first lied to his staff, his wife and the public. I'm willing to wager, if many Americans had to sum up Bill Clinton with just one of his quotes, they'd mention "I did not have sexual relations with that woman...Miss Lewinsky." Kenneth Starr, an independent prosecutor whose original job was to investigate Whitewater, (long story short, a bad investment the Clintons made in the 70's)...now was scouring over every detail of the affair. As a college student it wasn't uncommon at the time for somebody to say they had an internship, hear snickers, and chime in "No not THAT kind of internship."
When it came clear that Clinton was going to have to testify, he finally admitted the affair to his staff and to Hillary. There has been a lot of speculation on why Hillary didn't divorce Bill at that point. One theory was she thought it would be better for her political career if she stayed in the marriage. Hillary did seriously contemplate divorce. According to her memoirs, the main reason she stayed was "No one understands me better and no one can make me laugh the way Bill does. Even after all these years, he is still the most interesting, energizing and fully alive person I have ever met."
Bill, thanks to some lawyerly maneuvering of the language such as "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is." managed to squeak through the trial. Congress pushed forward with the impeachment trials. In December 1998 Bill Clinton was impeached by the House, joining Andrew Johnson as only the second president in history to be impeached. The Senate, however, failed to reach a two-thirds majority that they needed to remove him from office.
So after all that draaaamaaaa Clinton had two more years in office. After some stumbles in his first term such as Black Hawk Down in Somalia, Clinton eventually had some foreign policy victories. The biggest one was helping to stop the Catholic vs. Protestant violence in Northern Ireland. Clinton also realized while he wouldn't have the political capital to get any big initiatives through, he could accomplish some small ones. For example, that report we get in the mail every year on how much we'd make in Social Security depending on which age we retired at, that's because of Clinton. Clinton managed to piss people off one more time by making some inappropriate choices for presidential pardons just before he left office.
In 2000, thanks to the specter of the Lewinsky scandal, Al Gore was put in a position similar to Hubert Humphrey in 1968. Technically he was running as a member of the current administration....but Gore didn't want to be associated TOO closely with Clinton. The "Humphrey" factor was a major element in Gore's eventual defeat by George W. Bush. (Besides hanging chads, the Supreme Court, etc. etc....more on that later.)
In contrast, Hillary's reputation was one of the few to emerge as stronger after the Lewinsky scandal. In 2000 she was elected as Senator for the state of New York. Now that she was finally in an office she was elected to, Hillary really came into her own. After a run for the presidency in 2007-08, she agreed to become President Obama's Secretary of State in 2009. Right now she's saying as of 2013 she's done with public life. I'm not sure if I believe her. She'll be 69 in 2016, same age that Reagan was when he was elected president.
As for Bill, he kept busy doing some of the usual ex-president activities: making speeches for lucrative fees, and raising money for charity. One result of the charity work has been a friendship with former rival George H.W. Bush. It sounds like he's been adopted by the whole family, earning the nickname "brother from another mother." After a lot of tension during the 2008 campaign, he also seems to have formed an alliance with President Obama, and has been featured in some of the more recent campaign ads.
The question is, how will the Clinton era be viewed in the future? Personally, I found the 90's a very frustrating era to research. We had the luxury of a strong economy, and the lull between the Cold War and the War on Terror. There was a lot of wasted energy on trivial issues...and I think there is more than enough blame to go around to both the Clintons and their enemies. I think we are still dealing with long-term damage to the presidency as an institution as a result.
However looking past the wasted potential to what was actually accomplished...Clinton was the first president since Eisenhower to have a budget surplus. He also passed welfare reform. It's doubtful that either of these would have been priorities if there hadn't been a Republican Congress, but Clinton was gifted at taking adversarial situations and turning them to his advantage.
One way or another, we can probably bet on Bill resurfacing every 4 years at the Democratic National Convention. As long as he's around he'll continue to be despised by many conservatives, a punchline for Jay Leno....and that flawed boyfriend that we can never quite bring ourselves to leave for the Democrats.
Sources
"A Complicated Man: The Life of Bill Clinton as Told By Those Who Know Him" by Michael Takiff - Thus far this is the best resource I've found on Clinton's life story. It's a narratives cobbled together by interviews of over 100 family members, co-workers and rivals.
"A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton" by Carl Bernstein - While I'd take everything Carl Bernstein has to say with a grain of salt (or a salt lick....) this was the best Hillary Clinton biography I found so far. Come on future Doris Kearns Goodwins and David McCulloughs, get cracking!
"Barack Obama and Bill Clinton's Quasi-Friendship" by Ryan Lizza - http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/09/10/120910fa_fact_lizza
"American Experience: Bill Clinton: - http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/clinton/player/
"Spectacle: Elvis Costello With..." - The Bill Clinton interview. I'd highly recommend watching this interview of Bill Clinton. The focus is entirely on his musical background. Although sadly, he doesn't play with Elvis Costello like most of the guests do.