President Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe III on August 19, 1946 in Hope, Arkansas. Three months before his birth, his father was killed in a car accident, forcing his mother to move to Louisiana to find work. While her mother attended nursing school in New Orleans, President Clinton went to live with his grandparents, who raised him until his mother's return four years later.
Virginia, President Clinton's mother, remarried in 1950 to Roger Clinton, an auto salesman. Roger raised William as his own, and also had a child with Virginia in 1956. A few years after Roger Jr. was born, William changed his surname to Clinton on his own accord, in deference to his step-father's support.
During his senior year of high school, William was afforded the opportunity to travel to Washington to meet the president as a member of a youth leadership conference during the Kennedy Administration. An accomplished saxophonist, he demonstrated his skills by winning the first chair in the Arkansas state band's saxophone section. Inspired by his interest in politics, William chose to attend Georgetown University for his undergraduate education, graduating with a degree in International Affairs in 1968. During that time, he interned for Senator J. William Fulbright, and was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship. At Oxford, Mr. Clinton played fullback on the Rugby Club and protested the American involvement in Vietnam.
Upon returning to the United States, Clinton enrolled at Yale Law School, where he met his future wife, Hillary Rodham. He received his Juris Doctorate in 1973, and immediately returned to his home state to teach law at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. Not content to teach, however, his ultimate motivation was to prepare to run for a seat in the House of Representatives. Although he lost the 1974 campaign, he returned two years later to be elected Attorney General of Arkansas, the youngest in state history. During this time, he married Hillary, who had moved to Arkansas to help with his Congressional campaign. They were wed on October 11, 1975.
Aggressive in moving up the political chain, William decided to run for Governor halfway through his term as Attorney General. In 1978, Bill became Governor of Arkansas at the tender age of thirty-two, making him the youngest governor in the United States at the time, and one of the youngest in U.S. history. During that first term, the Clintons' only daughter, Chelsea, was born on February 27, 1980.
Perhaps suffering from hubris at his quick ascent into the Arkansas political spotlight, Clinton lost to Republican Frank White in the 1980 election [at that time, Arkansas Governors served two-year terms.] Clinton recast himself, (a skill he has practiced many times over his career,) into a more corporate friendly and "responsible" candidate, and regained the Governor's office in the 1982 election, continuing to hold the office until his 1992 campaign for President.
President Clinton's main political themes have consistently rotated around economic and educational issues, perhaps influenced by his experiences with Senator Fulbright. He is a brilliant campaign tactician, effectively stealing the focus on traditional Republican issues such as crime and governmental fiscal responsibility. As a chairman of the Democratic Leadership Conference and the National Governor's Association, Clinton demonstrated a willingness to attempt to redefine Democratic Party positions in a more centrist light. In the 1992 election, he succeeded in upsetting George Bush, who had record approval ratings only a year before during the Gulf War, to become the 42nd president of the United States.
For President Clinton's home page: http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/EOP/OP/html/OP_Home.html