The name William Jefferson “Bill” Clinton either creates a negative image or a positive image in the minds of most Americans. Bill Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States of America and served two consecutive terms. He is one of the most popular presidents in history – right up there with Kennedy and even Abraham Lincoln. Nevertheless, there are a group of Americans that remember President Clinton in a negative light. These Americans could be described as the “moral majority” or the “Christian right.” These Americans remember the disgrace and shame that the office of the presidency suffered throughout the sex scandal and impeachment of President Clinton. Did the sex scandal and eventual impeachment of President Clinton have a negative impact on his political strength? Did any of these negative events affect the way his presidency is viewed historically? The answers to these questions are a bit surprising; yet, President Clinton’s political strength remained strong and even strengthened in some respects. He is looked upon favorably in the context of history and remains very popular even to this day. There are many explanations for Bill Clinton’s general and long-term popularity, which include his ability to reach out to the common man, his contagious personality, and his non-partisan ability to meet in the middle concerning politics. Another contributing factor to Clinton’s popularity and strength, in spite of the negative scandal, should also be considered; that being – the moral decay of our country. If the events that took place with President Clinton had happened twenty or thirty years earlier, that particular president would most likely have been impeached/thrown out of office, been very unpopular, and left a black...
... middle of paper ...
...andom House, Inc., 2004. Print.
Works Cited
Abcnews.go.com. “Politics, Poll: Good Job by the Bad-Boy President.” Analysis by Gary
Langer. Accessed December 8, 2011. Web.
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/DailyNews/poll_clintonlegacy010117.html
Adler, Ben. “U.S. Politics, Why is Bill Clinton So Much More Popular Than Barack Obama?”
TheDailyBeast.com. Accessed December 10, 2011. Web.
< http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/blogs/the-gaggle/2010/09/29/why-is-bill-clinton-so-much-more-popular-than-barack-obama.html>
Brands, H. W. The United States Since 1945, American Dreams. New York: Penguin Group
USA, Inc. 2010. Print.
“Bill Clinton.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Accessed
December 10, 2011. Web.
< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Clinton>
Clinton, Bill. My Life. New York: Random House, Inc., 2004. Print.
The “Whitewater” scandal was a real estate scheme by the White Water Development Corp. Both President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton were involved in the scandal to make a land deal. Many people were involved in the scheme, which was held in the 1980s in Arkansas. Bill Clinton and his wife maintained their funds by the support of the Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan, which represented the Clintons in the overthrow of their Whitewater shares. The Clintons were being investigated when there were improper campaign contributions, political and financial favors, and tax benefits.
The U.S. president is a person deemed to be the most fitting person to lead this country through thick and thin. It’s been such a successful method that it has led to 43 individual men being put in charge of running this country. However, this doesn’t mean that each one has been good or hasn’t had an issue they couldn’t resolve when in office. But no matter what, each one has left a very unique imprint on the history and evolution of this nation. However when two are compared against one another, some rather surprising similarities may be found. Even better, is what happens when two presidents are compared and they are from the same political party but separated by a large numbers of years between them. In doing this, not only do we see the difference between the two but the interesting evolution of political idea in one party.
In 1992, President Bill Clinton was a little known former governor from the poor state of Arkansas who thwarted President George H.W. Bush’s effort to be reelected and became the 42nd president of the United States. During the primary and general election, President Clinton’s campaign made extensive use of television to introduce himself and his ideas to the general public. Three examples were chosen as representative of the type of imagery seen during campaign. The first is a TV ad called “Hope”, the next is a picture from President’s appearance on the Arsenio Hall TV show and the last is a TV ad called “1988.” These examples serve to represent key moments that occurred during the presidential campaign.
The recent scandal in the White House has brought my attention to the American Presidents as people and Presidents. Looking into the American history and her presidents I have found out that presidents are not just political figures but that they are also people. In my research I will compare and contrast two of the American presidents - Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon.
Retrieved from http://content.time.com/time/specials/2007/la_riot/article/0,28804,1614117_1614084_1614831,00.html. Levy, W. (2013). The 'Standard'. United States presidential election of 2000.
‘Confidence in the government declined between 1968 and 1980 largely due to political scandal’. To what extent do you agree?
Impeachment is the ultiomate punishment for a president. It is a long and complicated rout to removing a public official from office. The Constitutional process Article II, section 4 specifies the procedures to be used to remove a public official from office(CNN/All Politics). The constitution states that and president found guilty for bribery, treason, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. There has been a long debate on what should be considered a high crime. Different people in the House share different views. Ultimately it is up to the Hose to decide to drop the charges or further the investigation. If the public official is found guilty a two thirds majority vote from the Senate is necessary. The most recent president to face an impeachment hearing was Bill Clinton. A previous case involving Richard Nixon, Watergate, was held in 1974. Rather than facing an embarrassment with impeachment Nixon chose to resign in disgrace.
James Carville has been one of President Clinton’s most adamant supporters throughout the impeachment crisis. Carville is a veteran campaign strategist who headed Clinton’s campaign in 1992 and has advised him since the campaign. His harsh and sometimes wild criticisms of Clinton’s opponents have made Carville the rhetorical attack dog of the Democratic Party. The purpose of Carville’s attacks was to rally support for Clinton. Fighting for Clinton was both helpful to Carville’s career and financially beneficial for him. Carville used a few concise points that he presented in his aggressive partisan style to argue against Clinton’s critics. The media frequently covered Carville’s attacks because of their brevity and excessiveness. Carville skillfully used the media to his advantage. He plays an active role in personalizing political issues by attacking the character of his opponents. These personal assaults divert attention away from the issues themselves. However, questioning the character of those who are often running smear campaigns of their own can bring to light some the faults of Carville’s political adversaries.
On August 17, 1998, exactly one year after making the statement above, President Bill Clinton prepared to deliver a speech concerning a scandal that had gripped the nation for months. It is needless to say that this was an important moment during the Clinton administration. After accusations of sexual harassment, Clinton addressed the nation and admitted to having a relationship with Monica Lewinsky. In this critical speech Clinton set out to admit to wrong-doings, provide a few reasons for his action, and ultimately persuade the audience into moving on and forgetting the scandal. This essay will break down his speech into sections and examine the most and least effective strategies that Clinton employed and how well he executed those strategies. This is an interesting speech given under rare circumstances. Not since Watergate had an American president been under such harsh moral criticism from the public. By looking critically at this speech we are able to gain valuable insight into Clinton's motives.
In conclusion, President Clinton’s apologia was a successful speech considering its overall effectiveness on the general public. The speech repaired his image and turned the public sentiment tilted more strongly toward his side by emphasizing that he mislead people only because of his embarrassment and his desire to protect his family. While there are still weaknesses in the speech, the public opinion polls conducted later suggested that the majority of Americans were fairly satisfied with his debate, and again proving that his apologia speech accomplished his aim and purpose.
This discourse analysis attempts to answer several questions regarding Chairman Hyde's speech against the president. Firstly an attempt has been made to uncover some of the more prevalent themes and discourses in the hope that they will give some kind of enlightenment of American society and culture. Secondly, this analysis describes the many ways in which Chairman Hyde attempts to persuade his audience of his cause. The portrayed image of President Clinton is then focused on, and finally there is a discussion relating to the various social codes implied within Hyde's speech. It has been found that many of these areas overlap to a greater or lesser degree. However it is believed that the four questions should be answered separately at the risk of sounding repetitive, as this gives the reader a chance to identify and understand how ideas and themes can serve quite different purposes when expressed in different contexts and discourses, and with particular motivations.
During the November 2000 presidential elections, two children tried to make daddy proud. First there was Albert Gore Jr. – the son of a powerful and respected senator of Tennessee – who was no stranger to politics and privilege. As a child he attended the prestigious St. Alban’s School and while growing up, it was common to see then Vice President Richard Nixon as a guest at the family dinner table. Then there was George W. Bush – a third-generation politician, with his grandfather a former senator, his brother the governor of Florida, and his father being former president. The November 2000 presidential elections would become the battle of dynastic supremacy. Whose silver spoon was shiniest? In the end, Bush’s spoon was voted most polished (at least by the electoral standards, certainly not by the popular) and was given the presidential seat. The election had many Americans frustrated, echoing columnist Lars-Erik Nelson’s protest, “Bush’s spectacular career rebuts the notion that America has become a meritocracy, in which we are all born equal and then judged upon our intelligence, talent, creativity, and aggressiveness” (qtd. in Maass 10).
Shugart, Matthew. "Elections: The American Process of Selecting a President: A Comparative Perspective." Presidential Studies, 34, 3 (September 2004): 632-656.
On September 11, 1998, former president Bill Clinton delivered the infamously self-proclaimed speech entitled “I Have Sinned.” In an attempt to convert the public suspicion and hatred back to trust and loyalty, Clinton finally confessed to the inappropriate relations with Monica Lewinsky. By deeply expressing his sorrow through his foreboding and apologetic tone, Clinton constructs various examples of ethos, uses stiff body language and blank facial expressions, direct eye contact, and crafts the majority of his speech on short and choppy sentences. The overall purpose of this speech was for Clinton to ultimately express his remorse for the regretful acts he committed, and also to ensure the American people that he will remain trustworthy throughout
Lately, the top story in the news day after day, months after months have been about William Jefferson Clinton, also known as Bill. Who could blame them, there is nothing better than a story out of the ordinary, especially one with presidential status. For the past months he has been the most talked about figure, being the essential topic for news, talk shows, late night comedy and even going as far as the big screen. Talk about 'Primary Colors' and 'Wag the Dog.' What has gotten to me the most however, were the constant flow of Republicans, along with a few Democrats, who just want to say how shocked and embarrassed they are along with the people of the United States.The president had not just become the most talked about figure, but also one history had ever seen, so far that is, breaking the record and becoming a topic of conversation and debate 'twenty-four seven.' The people, who I think were most affected by this crisis and feel very sad for, are the Republicans, since they had lost severe amount of sleep over the president's bedroom crisis. They had to perform their republican duties by shocking our brains with the president's affair with Monica Lewinsky. We had to ignore the rest of the world news and its issues while they plough through the valley of lies, abuse of power and something they called high crimes and misdemeanors.