IN T R OD President Bill Clinton and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton have taken turns supporting each other as they ran for different political
A J CTION I n 1992 the world was changing in major ways The Cold War the period of tension that existed between the United States and the Soviet Union was coming to an end Now that the Soviet Union was broken up into several smaller nations the United States remained as the only superpower in the world In addition to this global transformation important changes were also taking place in Is the United States The Republican Party had won every presidential election since 1976 This streak ended when a Democrat won in 1992 Governor William Jefferson Bill Clinton of Arkansas was elected the forty second president of the United States A popular president Clinton oversaw the country's longest peacetime economic expansion President Clinton and his wife Hillary Rodham Clinton became household names Unlike many First Ladies before her Hillary Clinton took an active role in politics While UYETT
BLAND HILLARY CLINTON AMERICA S FIRST COUPLE in Arkansas she worked on programs that aided children and the disadvantaged and maintained a successful law practice During President Clinton's presidential campaign Hillary greeted voters gave speeches and was one of his chief advisers In 1999 Hillary launched her candidacy for a U S Senate seat representing the state of New York where the Clintons had moved following the end of Bill s presidency Eventually Hillary would become a presidential hopeful and the secretary of state under President Barack
CHAPTER 1 MEET THE CLINTONS illiam Jefferson Blythe III was born on August 19 1946 in Hope Arkansas a small town near the Texas Oklahoma border His father a traveling salesman died in a car crash three months before Bill was born A few years later his mother Virginia Dell Blythe married Roger Clinton He moved the family to Hot Springs Arkansas An alcoholic Roger sometimes beat Virginia the two divorced but then remarried As a gesture to help hold the family together Bill eventually took his stepfather s name A BILL S EARLY INTEREST IN POLITICS Bill Clinton became interested in politics at an early age In high school he traveled to Washington D C as a senator of the American Legion Boys Nation There he met President John F Kennedy an encounter that solidified his political
