1990's Government and Politics | Clinton, Bill 1946-

PESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (1993-2000)

Lost Opportunities.

Historians, political scientists, and psychologists will write at length about Bill Clinton and his presidency. First elected in 1992 with only 43 percent of the popular vote, and reelected in 1996, Clinton dominated the U.S. political landscape for most of the 1990s. He was the first president to be born after the end of World War II (1945) and he symbolized the rise to political maturity of the baby boomers. He began his presidency with the intention of resolving several high-profile, but seemingly intractable, political issues including national health insurance, balancing the budget, civil rights, and education. Like all presidents, Clinton soon learned that progress on any of these issues required spending political capital, and that significant progress on all of them was impossible. As the first president elected after the end of the Cold War, he enjoyed...