William
Jefferson Clinton came from a poor working class Arkansas family
with an abusive step-father, to become the nation's youngest governor
at 32, and then the nation's 42nd President of the United States
at 46, the third-youngest president in history. Growing up, Bill
Clinton was an excellent musician, singing in the chorus and playing
the saxophone, and also thought about going into medicine, but
when he was 16 he decided he wanted to go into politics. Two life-changing
experiences occurred in 1963 to convince him of his life path:
meeting President John F. Kennedy on a trip to the White House
as a Boys Nation senator, and hearing Dr. Martin Luther King's
"I have a dream" speech. Although his two terms as president were
controversial, with a scandal resulting in his becoming one of
only two presidents ever to be impeached after his first term,
Bill Clinton had the distinction of being president during the
longest period of economic expansion in US history. When he left
office, he had the highest approval rating of any president since
World War II, and continues to rank in polls as one of the highest
regarded presidents in history. Bill Clinton has remained in the
public eye since leaving office, as the husband of Hillary Clinton,
presidential candidate and then Secretary of State, and also as
a leader in promoting humanitarian causes. The William J Clinton
Foundation works to "meet the challenges of global interdependence"
addressing numerous social issues such as health, global climate
change, ending poverty through economic development, citizenship
and leadership development, and ethnic and religious tolerance
and reconciliation. The Clinton Foundation funds the Clinton Global
Initiative, which brings together and empowers global leaders,
NGOs and corporate donors to work together to find solutions to
address these social issues.
