Old Bill Clinton example essay topic

William Jefferson Clinton was born in 1946 as William Blythe, the son of a salesman who died before his son was born, and Virginia Dell, a professional nurse who became the single greatest influence in her son's life. Bill Clinton's mother, Virginia Cassidy Blythe, moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, to study nursing. Bill Clinton stayed with his mother's parents in Hope, Arkansas. There his grandparents, Eldrigde and Edith Cassidy, taught him strong values and beliefs such as "equality among all and discrimination to none". This was a lesson Bill will soon pursue. His mother returned from New Orleans with a nursing degree in 1950, when her son was four years old.

From an early age, his instincts drew him to politics. "Civil rights was the defining political issue of my childhood", Bill said, "starting when I was quite young, in the 1950's. The other thing was the fact that we got a television when I was nine years old, and I got to watch, in 1956, the Republican and Democratic Conventions. I watched the whole thing, and I was utterly fascinated by it". In 1963, he took the last name of his stepfather, Roger Clinton, an alcoholic whose rough behavior brought out in Clinton new powers of resilience and empathy.

That same year he was chosen to be part of Boys Nation, a group of young people from around the country sent to experience Washington, D.C., firsthand. There, he got to shake hands with his political hero, John F. Kennedy. The encounter changed Bill Clinton's life forever. "I was elated", said Clinton. "When I went home I had the feeling that if I worked hard and prepared myself, I could have an impact". The following year, Clinton entered Georgetown University, where he became known for his self-confidence, for his intelligence, and for being a man in a hurry.

Twice elected class president, after his junior year he was hired as a part-time clerk on Capitol Hill by Arkansas Senator J. William Fulbright. And following Fulbright's example, in his senior year he won a Rhodes Scholarship. At Oxford, he studied international politics, narrowly avoided the draft, opposed the Vietnam War, and dreamt of one day entering public service. "There is a sense of mission that most of us who grew up in the sixties feel as citizens", Clinton said. "That it is not enough for us just to pursue our own private lives; that we have a larger obligation to our community and to our country". After his return from Oxford University in England, in 1970, Clinton's career advanced rapidly.

At Yale Law School, he met fellow student Hillary Rodham, an active idealist whose no-nonsense working style was the perfect complement to his freewheeling charm". 'Most everything we " ve done has been a partnership", Clinton later said of his wife. "She is profoundly important to what I've done". In 1972, Clinton accepted a position on the faculty of the University of Arkansas Law School and used it as a springboard into Arkansas politics. "I ran for Congress in 1974 and was defeated", Clinton recalled. "And then in 1976 I was attorney general, and I loved that job.

Then a vacancy occurred in the governor's race, and so I ran and I won, and it was exhilarating". Elected governor of Arkansas in 1978, thirty-two-year-old Bill Clinton bristled with ideas and energy. However, he also made a series of political miscalculations. By seeming not to listen to his constituents, by raising licensing fees, and by giving an impression of intellectual arrogance, he lost his bid for reelection in 1980. "I think [the loss] was good for me", Clinton later said. "It's like every other adversity in life.

If you survive it, you normally come out ahead. I was very fortunate to be from a small, rural state with a lot of small towns, where people were very forthright. Because a few months after the election, I went out across the state and I'd ask what I'd done wrong. And they would tell me-in great, stunning, brutal detail.

They then gave me a second chance to serve". Mr. Clinton's way with people, combined with a formidable, organized intelligence, has won himself a lifetime of prizes: delegate to Boys State and Boys Nation, winner of the Hot Springs Elks Youth Leadership Award, Rhodes Scholar, Attorney General of Arkansas, youngest Governor in the nation, chairman of the Democratic Governors' Association, chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council. The face of Bill Clinton does not seem the sort to excite adulation. He is reasonably handsome, with bright blue eyes, a strong chin and a slightly pouting lower lip that lends him sensuality. His voice, a lightly graveled baritone, glides over the words with easy modulation. His big hands work in varied counterpoise, the right forefinger stabbing his points home, the palms cupping, the fists clenching.

His smile runs a dizzying extent, from open-jawed wonder to lip-biting coyness. His eyes work with the smile, opening wide when he drops his lower jaw, crinkling when he grimaces. Mr. Clinton's most obvious strength lies in a talent for language that is rare in politicians. He involves himself heavily in the writing of his formal speeches, but most often speaks without a script. Paul Greenberg, an Arkansas newspaper columnist who has been highly critical of Mr. Clinton during his five terms as Governor, said, "He knows where all the buttons are in his audience's mind, and how to use the answer to just one question to push several buttons at once". After winning again in 1982 and then serving another ten years as governor, Clinton, at age forty-six, decided to take on another challenge.

Is William "Bill" Jefferson Blythe Clinton a "moral" person, according to whose values? Morality is a human concept that doubtlessly evolves in some ways over time, and yet many would say that the basic precepts remain constant. What is considered a moral act to some might seem amoral or immoral to others. Politicians are not a class of people that come to mind when high precepts of morality are mentioned. By their very nature, politicians seem to have become the antithesis of moral people. They seem to pander for votes, and waffle on tough issues.

A politician who dares to assert strong beliefs is more often than not, considered "extreme". If you measured Bill Clinton against his predecessors in government office, you might easily build a case that he is the least moral in post World War 2 history. Although most politicians are looked upon as immoral I feel Bill Clinton through his life has established a foundation for his morality. My views are based upon my life relating to his and knowing what he went through to get to where he stands. After Clinton served his ten years as governor of Arkansas in my eyes I deem his political career capable of proceeding to the presidential election.

With no outrageous political flaws Clinton could very easily be a productive president among the American people.