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...
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...andom House, Inc., 2004. Print.
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On the turntable of American politics Dick Morris has established himself as a masterful disk jockey. However, his ability to artistically mix campaign messages has earned him a scratched personal reputation. The rhetoric of Dick Morris transcends partisan boundaries to such a degree that it lacks foundation. His career has earned him praise but at the expense of intense scorn. His political strategy and poll based campaigning have earned him a reputation as both a genius and amoral. In many ways the controversial aspects of his messages reflect contemporary discussion of American politics. The flaws of his character reveal some of the flaws in our representative system. The recent Impeachment Trial of President Clinton has also brought attention to flaws in our representative system. Dick Morris's political commentary on the Impeachment and the work of his career offers insight with which to examine a growing discontent among the American public towards our nation's politics.
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
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.
Mr. Clinton left office with low public ratings and a title of conflict. In 1998 this was the number one topic you would speak about and to this day thinking back on the 90s this scandal surely comes to mind. Since the start of Hillary’s run for presidency we have been reminded of the mistakes of Bill Clinton that happened over a decade ago forgetting to separate his life from presidency and privacy. There were many consequences that followed Bill around at the time of the scandal many of those publicized. “President Clinton made a brief appearance in the White House Rose Garden and stated: ' 'Now that the Senate has fulfilled its constitutional responsibility, bringing this process to a conclusion, I want to say again to the American people how profoundly sorry I am for what I said and did to trigger these events and the great burden they have imposed on the Congress and on the American people."(The History Place) Mr. Clinton is known to be the most controversial president to date. “Widely considered the most investigated President ever, the Clinton administration was dogged by controversy from the very beginning.” (The History
Almost ten years in the past, Bill Clinton’s story in the White House is all but written in stone. No matter the accomplishments the administration accomplished in its time, Clinton’s extramarital affair and subsequent impeachment will pervade, if not dominate, the president’s legacy. The major facts stand mostly undisputed: the president engaged in sexual activity with Monica Lewinsky and maneuvered to keep the affair secret, culminating in explicit lies to a grand jury. Republican opponents of the president had unreserved political motivations to remove the president from office. Revisiting this scandal with these facts would be both fatiguing and evasive of the underlying issues at stake. To truly gauge the justness of Clinton’s impeachment, one must look at the original intent of impeachment as well as its history with regard to other presidents. Furthermore, analyzing the investigation itself requires understanding specific motives and laws that both Democrats and Republicans took advantage of. Here we examine the ethics of the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton with regard to original Constitutional intent, historical precedent, and the political climate during his administration.
an article named "Another Lesson about Pubkic Opinion" by Stephen Earl Bennett, when looking at public approval ratings of president clinton regarding the scandal was a shock. the author explains that although the ratings have dropped in the beginning of the scandal, it remained high through out the scandal. he stated that the reason for that is the public saw president clinton was effective regardless of his loose morality. in this case, the public seemed to accept the idea that not all public officials will be completely flawless when it comes to morality. also the public had chosen to to look at the situation as having a glass half full of water instead of it being half empty. after all, if president clinton is getting his duties done in his term in office, the public may possible be able to forgive him for his mistakes regarding the Lewknski
In 1992 the incumbent president George Bush was seeking reelection. It was the general consensus that he would be the 'hands down, no contest winner'. When the smoke had cleared and the votes were tallied, many were shocked at the results. Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton had defeated the incumbent by a landslide! How could this be? How did the commander and chief of what could be considered the greatest victory in modern American history defeat the Iraqi army and one year later lose the election for the presidency? The answers to these questions as well as explanations for the outcome lie within the campaign strategies and tactics used by each candidate. There were various major political events and public opinion data that occurred throughout the general election stage of the campaign. This paper will analyze both the political events and the public opinion data, in hopes of developing a better understanding as to what helped shape the overall outcome. There were three candidates in the race for the presidency, President Bush (R), Bill Clinton (D), and Ross Perot (I). Each of the three, to a greater or lesser extent, focused their campaign on the economy. President Bush focused more of his campaign on criticizing his opponents primarily Bill Clinton. He would often compare the economy to that of other nations, claiming it wasn't all that bad and resumed attacking his opponents. Bill Clinton on the other hand focused his campaign strategy on implementing the need for 'change.' At that time the national debt and unemployment was rising. Clinton vowed to improve the economy and the quality of life for the American people by bringing about change. Ross Perot was more of a crusader against Washin...
As Jimmy Carter became President of the United States of America, he emphasized his background as a Washington outsider who aspired to “clean up the mess” in Washington. Carter skillfully campaigned by playing on the public’s anti-government mood by attacking the establishment of Washington while delivering uplifting speeches about spiritual and economic renewal. However, once elected president, these same qualities that won him the office unintentionally alienated both his political enemies and his own party. Carter’s public image suffered once he was elected to office, and improved once he left. It was shaped by his enemies and the way the press handled the scandals associated with his office and his dealings with international crises. Carter’s public image was poor not just because of the difficulty of the issues his administration faced, but because of his own poor handling of the media tools available to him.
Hillary Clinton is an important character in the impeachment process and the sex scandal in general. As Bill Clinton’s wife, she is the most personally involved with the President, as well as the most personally involved in the subject matter involved with the impeachment. Since Bill Clinton’s wrong-doings stem from sexual misconduct, as his wife, Hillary Clinton has an extremely great involvement. Due to her great involvement in this personal matter, the public audience seems to associate their thoughts with her own (34% of the public thought that the scandal was a personal matter as long as Hillary Clinton was fine with it [U.S. News]). Meaning, the public feels that if Bill Clinton’s sexual affairs are accepted by Hillary, then they should be accepted by the country as well. It is important to look at how Clinton gets her points, what her motives are in doing so, and where her motives stem from because she is so influential regarding the President’s image. It is also important to look at the sexual misconduct between the President and Ms Lewinsky, as well as Hillary’s decision to support her husband, from the First Lady’s situation since women and their concerns are often forgotten when analyzing political discourse.
He served as President from 1993-2001. During the time of his presidency America saw many changes. Some changes were good and some changes were bad. In 1994 NAFTA was passed which allowed free trade between Mexico, the United States and Canada. One change that shocked the American people was a change of morals. On the days of November 1995 Clinton began an affair with Monica Lewinsky, a 21-year-old unpaid intern (History Staff 2). In January 1998 the Monica Lewinsky scandal begins. The scandal begins when President Clinton says he did not have an affair with her. That statement turns out to be a lie. Clinton is put on trial for the charge of prudery. On December 11, 1999 the House impeaches President Clinton (History 2). Five weeks later the senate votes on removing Clinton from office, but the vote falls in favor of Clinton and he remains in office until the end of his presidency. Clinton gets to stay president after lying to the American people and having an affair in the white house and the consequences are the loss of morals for the American people which had been held to a high standard up until that
Throughout history, there have been two impeachment cases in the United States, involving President Andrew Johnson and President Bill Clinton. The following paper will discuss their impeachments and trials, along with ethical dilemmas in their cases. It will also discuss the almost impeachment of Richard Nixon and his resignation to avoid impeachment and conviction, along with ethical dilemmas in his case. Lastly, it will include a personal input of these cases.
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.
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.
On November 1995, Bill Clinton made a huge mistake that would cost him his position as the president of the United States. Having sexual relations with then intern, Monica Lewinsky has affected many people all over the world in different ways. Since 2005,Clinton has been rated as one of the top presidents according to an ABC News poll. Although he is considered a prime president since scandal has affected his family, supporters, the national government and relations with other countries. I believe the speech; “I Have Sinned” was intended mainly for the U.S citizens, his family and friends, the national government, allied countries, his religion and anyone else affected by this scandal.
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.