President Bill Clinton
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Historical Quotes
President Bill Clinton
By Tom Kirvan
Inspired to pursue a career in politics after meeting President John F. Kennedy during a visit to the White House as a high school student, Bill Clinton rose to prominence as a multi-term governor of Arkansas, a platform from which he launched his presidential bid in 1992 against incumbent George H.W. Bush and upstart third-party candidate Ross Perot.
Clinton, an alumnus of Georgetown University who won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford in 1968, pulled off his stunning election victory by garnering 43 percent of the popular vote in the three-way race, capturing the Electoral College tally by an overwhelming 370 to 168 margin against Bush. Interestingly, Perot failed to garner a single Electoral College vote, though he did earn nearly 19 percent of the popular vote.
Despite being dogged by an ethics investigation into his alleged involvement with the Whitewater housing development in Arkansas, Clinton helped boost the nation’s economic outlook during his first years in office, curbing inflation and lowering the unemployment rate while balancing the budget. In 1996, Clinton became the first Democratic president since Franklin D. Roosevelt to win a second term in office, easily defeating Republican candidate Bob Dole by a nine percent margin.
President Bill Clinton*
His popularity, at home and abroad, began to wane in 1998 when he was accused of having an affair with White House intern, Monica Lewinsky, a long-running scandal that resulted in impeachment charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. He was acquitted of the impeachment charges by the U.S. Senate in 1999, prompting him to issue his own version of a mea culpa.
“If you live long enough, you’ll make mistakes,” said Clinton. “But if you learn from them, you’ll be a better person. It’s how you handle adversity, not how it affects you. The main thing is never quit, never quit, never quit.”
Widely credited for his peacekeeping efforts in the Middle East and in Northern Ireland, Clinton became the first U.S. president to visit Vietnam since the end of the Vietnam War. Upon leaving office, Clinton has remained active in global politics and in philanthropic efforts surrounding HIV/AIDS and the environment. He also has been a force on the campaign trail for a host of Democratic candidates, including his wife, Hillary, who narrowly lost her bid for the presidency in 2016 after serving as Secretary of State during the administration of President Barack Obama.
Among his most memorable quotes:
- “People are more impressed by the power of our example rather than the example of our power.”
- “There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.”
- “The real differences around the world today are not between Jews and Arabs; Protestants and Catholics; Muslims, Croats, and Serbs. The real differences are between those who embrace peace and those who would destroy it. Between those who look to the future and those who cling to the past. Between those who open their arms and those who are determined to clench their fists.”
- “We cannot build our future without helping others to build theirs.”
*Chris Savas, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons