William J. Clinton

Bill Clinton 42nd President of the United States (1993-2001)


Clinton sites that I have seen:

Clinton birthplace, boyhood homes and gravesite of his parents and grandparents. Hope, AR

Bill Clinton's parents and grand parents are buried in this fenced in cemetery plot. Hope, AR

Me at the gravesite of Clinton's parents and grandparents

This sign at the gravesite explains it better than I could

Me at the birthplace marker for Bill Clinton. My first Presidential birthplace of a living President.

A close up of Clinton's birthplace marker

Clinton's grandparents home, where he lived for the first 4 years of his life.

We visited Clinton sites in Hope, AR on our way down to Texas in June 2011. We saw the gravesites of his parents and grandparents, his birthsite, and 2 of his boyhood homes. His first boyhood home is the most recent addition to the National Park Service parks, as shown above. His birth name was William Jefferson Blythe III. His father William Jefferson Blythe II was killed in a car accident before Bill was born. After he was born his mother Virginia Cassidy Blythe went away to nursing school, leaving  Bill with her parents. Eldridge and Edith Cassidy. It was at his grandparents house that he would live from 1946-1950. This is the house that the National Park Service took over. Virginia would eventually marry Roger Clinton, who adopted Bill as a teenager changing his name to William Jefferson Clinton.

Clinton's first home, his grandparents house, now part of the National Park Service.

Living room in Clinton's first house

Young Bill's room

Clinton's 2nd home from 1950- 1953. Where he lived with his mother in Hope, AR. The small brick monument in the front by the fence is made of bricks from the hospital where he was born.

I actually got the chance to hear Bill Clinton speak twice. When my sister graduated from Ohio State University in 2007, Clinton was the speaker. I enjoyed it. I remember him speaking of recently befriending George Bush the elder when they worked together on a charity for Hurricane Katrina victims. 

Living in the swing state of Ohio the last few election cycles I've been trying to go to campaign events for both candidates as they come nearby, trying to cover all my bases in my attempt to see the next President in person. During the primaries I went over to Fort Wayne, Indiana and saw Trump. I've been keeping an eye on Hillary Clinton's website to see if she might be coming near me when I saw that Bill Clinton was actually coming to campaign for her in Toledo. As I mentioned above I had seen Clinton speak once before but it was in a stadium and I didn't get a very good look at him and I had no pictures. So everything came together, I was able to get the day off and I ended up taking my five-year-old son with me. Here are some pictures of the event. 

    Former President Clinton in Toledo, Ohio on September 27, 2016

    We got a lot closer than I had thought

   My son Nicky and I both got to shake his hand. There were people all around behind and from the side pushing to get their hands up to shake his hand so it was tough to get pictures. As he talked a little with my son I got a couple pictures of him reaching for his hand and shaking it. It was a pretty cool experience.

   Here President Clinton is shaking hands with my son

    Nicky, President Clinton and I 

Bill Clinton was Governor of Arkansas before being elected President in 1992. He is the first Democrat elected to 2 full terms since FDR. It is interesting to note that if it wasn't for Ross Perot running as an Independent then Clinton probably wouldn't of won either election. In 1992 Clinton only received 42% of the vote and in 1996 he received 49% of the vote. Both times Perot took enough votes away from the Republican that Clinton won. Even though more people voted against him then voted for him.

For the most part he governed from the center and made decisions based on public opinion polls. His administration was plagued by several sex scandals. Most notable the Monica Lewinsky affair. When he lied under oath about the affair, it led to him being the 2nd President in history to be Impeached. Just like Johnson he avoided removal from office.