The Clinton YearsThe Clinton YearsHow does prosperity & partisanship

mark the Clinton White House

1992 Election

• President Bush has two challengers in 1992 election: Gov Bill Clinton (Democrat) and businessman H. Ross Perot (Reform)

• Many question if Clinton can win, past allegations haunt him• Many question if Perot has experience• Clinton appeals to traditional democratic base and youth, Bush

& Perot split traditional Republican vote• Voters focus on economy, Clinton wins

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A “New” Democrat• Clinton wants to bring modern liberalism to the White House• First Lady Hilary Clinton pushes Congress for universal health

care but Republican lobbying kills the bill• After two years in office little done, economy is still poor

Contract with America• Republicans take over House of Reps in 1994 midterm

elections, promise to fix economy• However, House Speaker Newt Gingrich blocks much of

Clinton’s economic plan

• To prove he will work with Republicans, Clinton works with Congress to reform the welfare system

• Limits placed on how long people could stay on welfare, welfare to work programs begin

• Clinton also begins a program to balance the budget by cutting certain social programs, country had a surplus at year’s end

• Surplus was used to pay down huge national debt of the 80s• Paying off debt causes a major boom in the economy, with new

jobs createdDot Com Bubble

•Many of the new jobs created in technology field

•Internet stocks soar, despite many unproven companies

•End of 90s, many dot coms are bankrupt, bubble bursts

The Right Attacks Clinton• Right wing conservatives were looking to derail the Clintons• Early in his Presidency, a special prosecutor was appointed to look into a possibly

illegal real estate deal known as Whitewater• Hilary Clinton also looked into for firing White House employees and hiring

relatives instead (Travelgate)• Former Arkansas State employee sues President Clinton for sexual harassment,

looking to prove Clinton is a womanizer

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•Special Prosecutor Kenneth Starr, changes his investigation from Whitewater to Clinton’s affairs

•A White House intern named Monica Lewinsky is asked to testify in the Jones case

•Lewinsky denied an affair with Clinton but told her friend Linda Tripp she did have an affair

Clinton’s Impeachment• Tripp recorded conversation with Lewinsky and tells Sp. Pros Starr

• Starr and Paula Jones want Clinton & Lewinsky to testify

• Clinton publicly denies the affair

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• Lewinsky testifies under oath she did have an affair with Clinton

•Republican Congress starts impeachment proceedings against Clinton charging him w/ perjury

•Clinton is found non-guilt in the Senate

• Clinton testifies under oath he did not have an affair• However, later evidence proves Clinton did have an affair

Clinton Foreign Policy• 1994: Clinton signs historic agreement NAFTA, free trade w/ Mexico/Canada

• 1995: Yugoslav leaders accused of genocide against Bosnian Muslims

• Clinton approves air strikes against Yugoslavia

• 1998: Serbian/Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic accused of Ethnic Cleansing campaign against Muslims in Kosovo

• Clinton has US troops join NATO in putting to stop the genocide

• 1998: Clinton helps negotiate peace treaty in Northern Ireland

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Terrorism

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• 1993: World Trade Center garage is bomb by Muslim extremists• Ramzi Yousef was mastermind bomber, hoped towers would fall

• 1995: Oklahoma City Federal building bombed• American terrorists Timothy McVeigh & Terry Nichols responsible for bombing, 169 people killed

• Unabomber hits more targets in US, concern over domestic terrorism

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• 1998: Osama bin Laden declares “jihad” on America, his Al-Queda network bombs two US embassies in Africa

• 2000: USS Cole is bombed by Al Qaeda

• Clinton orders airstrikes at Al-Queda camps, Republicans criticize him for trying to take attention away from impeachment

• Clinton chooses not to respond to Cole bombing, since its an election year and US will have a new President soon