President Clinton was born in the little southern town of
Hope, Arkansas, on August 19, 1946. But his name was not Bill Clinton. It was
William Jefferson Blythe. His mother named him for his father, who had been
killed in a car accident a few months earlier. When Bill was four years old, his
mother married Roger Clinton who then legally became Bill’s father, Roger
Clinton and Bill’s mother had a son, Roger Jr. Bill Clinton grew
up in the town of Hot Spring, Arkansas. He knew he wanted to be involved in
politics by the time he was 16 years old. He says he was influenced by President
John F. Kennedy and Arkansas Senator William Fulbright. Bill
Clinton studied international affairs at Georgetown University in Washington,
D.C. He won a Rhodes scholarship to study at Oxford University in Britain.
There, he met other students with whom he has continued life-long friendships.
One of them is Robert Reich, who was just nominated to be Secretary of Labor.
After Oxford, Bill Clinton earned law degree at Yale University.
In 1973 Bill Clinton became a law professor at the University of Arkansas.
But he was too interested in politics to stay at the university. He campaigned
for the House of Representatives but was defeated. In 1976, he was elected
Attorney General for the state of Arkansas, the state government’s chief
lawyer. Two years later, Bill Clinton was elected Governor of
Arkansas. He was defeated for re election after his first two-year term. But he
was elected Governor again in 1982, He has been re-elected to that office every
two years since then. Bill Clinton married lawyer Hillary R0dham
in 1975. She kept Rodham as her last name until it became an issue during her
husband’s 1980 campaign for governor. Since then, she has been known as Hillary
Rodham Clinton. The Clintons have a daughter, Chelsea, who is 12 years old. And
Chelsea has a cat named Socks, who lives with the Clintons in the White
House! To be elected as ______ was Clinton’s first successful step of political career.