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| Sunday, 4 December 2005 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Dominant force in White House then, Bill or Hilary ? by Ranga Jayasuriya Bill Clinton is the first Baby Boomer president of the United States.
Once during his campaign to presidency in 1993, he appeared on the Arsenio Hall show playing the saxophone; he was even described, though with in an intended negative light, as the "MTV president". He is a pioneer of using pop-culture on the campaign stage and won among Generation X voters in the 1993 election, which saw the highest Gen X turnout ever. And he is a lovable president, this is not a reference to allegations of a string of extra-marital affairs linking him to Paula Jones, Jennifer Flowers, Kathleen Willey, and White House intern, Monica Lewinsky who nearly rocked Clinton's presidential boat. He may have a charisma which lured the opposite gender, but Clinton legacy has a much broader fellowship. In September in a BBC poll, he was voted the second choice, next to anti-apartheid icon, Nelson Mandela to lead a fantasy world government. Clinton tamed the American economy and facilitated to bring peace to Palestine and Ireland. He took too long a time to decide on the intervention in the disastrous Bosnian conflict, which cost nearly half a million civilian lives, while he was contemplating the US role. His reluctance for intervention was partly due to the failed US military operation in Somalia, the Battle of Mogadishu which killed 18 US soldiers and over 1000 Somali militants and civilians. When he intervened for the second time in the Balkan, that time in Kosovo, he let the NATO's transatlantic ally, Britain to take the lead. He did not intervene to stop Rwandan genocide, a decision which he later lamented as a "personal failure". William Jefferson Bill Clinton was born on August 19, 1946. He is the 42nd President of the United States, and the third youngest to Presidency, behind Theodore Roosevelt (the youngest president) and John F. Kennedy (the youngest to be elected president). He is the second Republican president after Franklin D. Roosevelt to serve the two full terms in the office. According to Clinton's autobiography, 'My Life', he had earned less income than his wife, till his election to the presidency. And he had the smallest net worth of any president in modern history. His wife, Hilary Rodham Clinton, is currently the junior U.S. Senator from New York and speculation is that she would run for the 2008 presidential race. Many people saw the couple as an unprecedented political partnership. Some even suspected that Hilary, and not Bill, was the dominant force behind the team, and many jokes implied that Hilary, not Bill, was the real President of the United States. During his tenure as president, Clinton's domestic priorities included efforts to create a universal health care system, upgrade education, to restrict handgun sales, to strengthen environmental regulations, to improve race relations, and to protect the jobs of workers during pregnancy or medical emergency. His domestic agenda also included more conservative themes such as reforming welfare programs, expanding the "War on Drugs", and increasing law enforcement funding. Among his priorities in international politics are preventing nuclear proliferation, and mediating the Northern Ireland peace process and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts reducing trade barriers. Clinton's personal life was a bit of a controversy, he is the only US president to be impeached by the Congress on perjury regarding of his personal indiscretions with Monica Lewinsky. The Senate tried him, but acquitted. Hippie The conservative Right charged that he had been a hippie in 1960, in his coming-of-age era. His marijuana experimentation, which he clumsily excused in a statement that he "didn't inhale" further reinforced his critics. But, he was perhaps to the right of previous Democratic candidates for the presidency on many issues - he supported the death penalty, curfews, uniforms in public schools, and other measures opposed by youth rights supporters, and he expanded the War on Drugs greatly while in office. Harlem office Clinton's close relationship with the African-American community has been highlighted in his post-Presidential career with his opening of his personal office in the Harlem section of New York City. In February 2004, Clinton, along with Mikhail Gorbachev and Sophia Loren won a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children for narrating the Russian National Orchestra's album . Clinton won a second Grammy in February 2005, for the Best Spoken Word Album for 'My Life'. The collection of his memoirs, 'My Life', made an unprecedented three appearances on the amazon.com best sellers' list, even before the launch of the book. Commenting on memoirs in general, he said "some are dull and self-serving, hopefully mine will be interesting and self-serving." On January 3, 2005, President George W. Bush named Clinton and George H. W. Bush (Snr.) to lead a nationwide campaign to help the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. Later he was picked by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to head the United Nations earthquake and tsunami relief and reconstruction effort. Later he and Bush made joint appearances in tsunami fund raising events and travelled to the tsunami hit areas, an endeavour which Bush described as "transcending politics." Clinton visited Sri Lanka last week on his third visit to monitor tsunami reconstruction activities in the island. During the visit, he travelled to tsunami devastated Kinniya and met NGOs and local civil society organisations and warned that war could hamper tsunami reconstruction work. **** Trivia Clinton struggled with poor eating habits which led to heart problems. Clinton is 6' 2 1/2" (1.89m) in height. Clinton is left-handed. Clinton is allergic to dust, mould, pollen, cats, beef, and dairy products. Clinton owned two pets during his presidency: a male chocolate-coloured Labrador Retriever named "Buddy" and a cat named "Socks". Buddy and the Clinton's pet cat Socks fought frequently at the White House and were kept at separate quarters. Since this would be no longer possible at the Clintons' smaller home in New York, Socks was given away to President Clinton's secretary when he left office. Buddy died after being run over by a car Centraal Beheer, a Dutch insurance company famous for its humoristic commercials, once had a TV commercial involving president Clinton and a voodoo doll. This commercial was taken down after a few weeks at the request of the White House. Clinton's initial reluctance to fulfil a campaign promise relating to the acceptance of openly homosexual members of the military which garnered criticism from both the left (for being too tentative in promoting gay rights) and the right (for being too insensitive to military life). After much debate, Clinton implemented the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy, which remains official military policy. The most important item on Clinton's legislative agenda, however, was a complex health care reform plan, the result of a task-force headed by Hilary Clinton, aimed at achieving universal coverage. Though initially well-received, it was ultimately doomed by well-organised opposition from conservatives and the health insurance industry. (source:en.wikipedia.org) |
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And he was seen as a variance from the presidents of the World War II
generation during his candidacy and presidency. 
