Name	Maya Angelou
Birthname	Marguerite Ann Johnson
Caption	Groundbreaking for the African Burial Ground, October 5, 2007
Birthdate	April 04, 1928
Birthplace	Saint Louis, Missouri,
Occupation	Poet, civil rights activist, dancer, film producer, television producer, playwright, film director, author, actress, professor
Ethnicity	African American
Movement	Civil rights
Website	http://www.mayaangelou.com

Maya Angelou (; Three weeks after completing school, she gave birth to her son, Clyde, who also became a poet.

]]

In the late 1950s, Angelou moved to New York City and began to concentrate on her writing career. She joined the Harlem Writers Guild, headed by her friend, novelist James O. Killens. She met a number of major African American authors, including her close friend and mentor James Baldwin, and published for the first time. After meeting and hearing civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speak in 1960, she and Killens organized "the legendary" When Clinton's campaign ended, Angelou put her support behind Senator Barack Obama,

Angelou's work

Although Angelou wrote her first autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, without the intention of writing a series, O'Neale also states that although Angelou avoids a "monolithic Black language", it is obvious through direct dialogue that she is capable of what O'Neale calls a "more expected ghetto expressiveness". as she expanded positive interactions with whites. In Angelou's second volume, Gather Together in My Name, Angelou was concerned with what it meant to be a black female in the US, but she focused upon herself at a certain point in history. As Cudjoe has said, "It is almost as though the incidents in the text were simply 'gathered together' under the name of Maya Angelou". from the character-defining experience of her parents' abandonment to her relationships with her son, husbands, and lovers throughout all of her books. Motherhood is a "prevailing theme"

The woman who survives intact and happy must be at once tender and tough.

Maya Angelou, Wouldn't Take Nothing For My Journey Now (1994)

Scholar Mary Burgher has stated that black women autobiographers like Angelou have debunked the stereotypes of African American mothers of "breeder and matriarch" and have presented them as having "a creative and personally fulfilling role". Scholar Sondra O'Neale agrees, and insists that Angelou's autobiographies present black women differently than literature had portrayed them up to that time. O'Neale goes on to state that "no Black woman in the world of Angelou's books are losers", and that Angelou herself is the third generation of "brilliantly resourceful females" who overcame the obstacles of racism and oppression. Angelou describes throughout her books her connection of mother and child—with herself and her son Guy, with herself and her own mother, and with herself and her grandmother. Although Angelou's grandmother ("Momma") dies early in the series, in Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas, her third autobiography, Momma is quoted throughout the entire series. Other themes include the absent and/or substitute father, the use of food as a psychosexual symbol, and the use of staring or gazing for dramatic and symbolic effect. They are also related through literary elements such as the ambivalent autobiographical voice, the flexibility of structure to illustrate the disjointedness of life, and Angelou's commentary on character and theme. Like elements within a prison narrative, the caged bird represents Angelou's confinement resulting from racism and oppression. This metaphor also invokes the "supposed contradiction of the bird singing in the midst of its struggle". the condition of African Americans in the US, but without alienating her readers. For example, Angelou promotes the importance of hard work, a common theme in slave narratives, throughout all her autobiographies, in order to break the African American stereotype of laziness.

"I write because I am a Black woman, listening attentively to her people".

Maya Angelou, 1984

Critic Pierre A. Walker has placed Angelou's autobiographies in the African American literature tradition of political protest written in the years following the American Civil Rights movement. Walker has emphasized that the unity of Angelou's autobiographies serves to underscore one of Angelou's central themes: the injustice of racism and how to fight it. Walker has also stated that Angelou's biographies, beginning with Caged Bird, consist of "a sequence of lessons about resisting racist oppression".

Awards and honors

Angelou is one of the most honored writers of her generation. She has been honored by universities, literary organizations, government agencies, and special interest groups. Her honors include a National Book Award nomination for I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, a Pulitzer Prize nomination for her book of poetry, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie, In 1995, Angelou's publishing company, Bantam Books, recognized her for having the longest-running record (two years) on The New York Times Paperback Nonfiction Bestseller List. In 1998, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. She has served on two presidential committees, and was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2000 and the Lincoln Medal in 2008. Musician Ben Harper has honored Angelou with his song "I'll Rise", which includes words from her poem, "And Still I Rise." She has been awarded over thirty honorary degrees.

References

Notes

Bibliography

Angelou, Maya (1969). I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-375-50789-2

Angelou, Maya (1984). "Shades and slashes of light". In Black women writers (1950–1980): A critical evaluation, Mari Evans, ed. Garden City, N.Y: Doubleday . ISBN 0-385-17124-2

Angelou, Maya (1993). Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-394-22363-2

Baisnée, Valérie (1994). Gendered resistance: The autobiographies of Simone de Beauvoir, Maya Angelou, Janet Frame and Marguerite Duras. Amsterdam: Rodopi Publishers. ISBN 90-420-0109-7

Braxton, Joanne M. (1999). "Symbolic geography and psychic landscapes: A conversation with Maya Angelou". In Maya Angelou's I know why the caged bird sings: A casebook, Joanne M. Braxton, ed. New York: Oxford Press. ISBN 0-1951-1606-2

Cudjoe, Selwyn R. (1984). "Maya Angelou and the autobiographical statement". In Black women writers (1950–1980): A critical evaluation, Mari Evans, ed. Garden City, N.Y: Doubleday . ISBN 0-385-17124-2

Foerstel, Herbert N. (2006). Banned in the USA: A reference Guide to Book Censorship in Schools and Public Libraries. Information Age Publishing LLC. ISBN 1593113749

Hagen, Lyman B. (1997). Heart of a woman, mind of a writer, and soul of a poet: A critical analysis of the writings of Maya Angelou. Lanham, Maryland: University Press. ISBN 0-7618-0621-0

Lauret, Maria (1994). Liberating literature: Feminist fiction in America. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-4150-6515-1

Lupton, Mary Jane (1998). Maya Angelou: A critical companion. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-30325-8

Lupton, Mary Jane (1999). "Singing the black mother". In Maya Angelou's I know why the caged bird sings: A casebook, Joanne M. Braxton, ed. New York: Oxford Press. ISBN 0-1951-1606-2

McPherson, Dolly A. (1990). Order out of chaos: The autobiographical works of Maya Angelou. New York: Peter Lang Publishing. ISBN 0-820411-39-6

Moyer, Homer E. (2003). The R.A.T. real-world aptitude test: Preparing yourself for leaving home. Sterling, Virginia: Capital Books. ISBN 1-931868-42-5

O'Neale, Sondra (1984). "Reconstruction of the composite self: New images of black women in Maya Angelou's continuing autobiography". In Black women writers (1950–1980): A critical evaluation, Mari Evans, ed. Garden City, N.Y: Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-17124-2

Sartwell, Crispin. (1998). Act like you know: African-American autobiography and white identity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226735-27-3

Tate, Claudia (1999). "Maya Angelou". In Maya Angelou's I know why the caged bird sings: A casebook, Joanne M. Braxton, ed. New York: Oxford Press. ISBN 0-1951-1606-2

External links

Maya Angelou – The Official Website

Maya Angelou's oral history video excerpts at The National Visionary Leadership Project

Maya Angelou reciting her inaugural poem, 1993 (YouTube)

Maya Angelou performing in the film Calypso Heat Wave, 1957 (YouTube)

Maya Angelou at the Internet Off-Broadway Database

Category:1928 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century women writers Category:African American memoirists Category:African American poets Category:African American writers Category:American activists Category:American dramatists and playwrights Category:American television actors Category:American women writers Category:Duke University faculty Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Lecturers Category:People from San Francisco, California Category:People from St. Louis, Missouri Category:Wake Forest University faculty Category:Writers from Arkansas Category:Writers from Missouri Category:Spingarn Medal winners Category:Rock Bottom Remainders members

Name	Michelle Obama
Image name	Michelle Obama official portrait headshot.jpg
Alt	|imagesize = 225px
Office	First Lady of the United States
Term start	January 20, 2009
Predecessor	Laura Bush
Birth date	January 17, 1964
Birth place	Chicago, Illinois
Birthname	Michelle LaVaughn Robinson
Nationality	American
Party	Democratic
Spouse	Barack Obama (m. 1992)
Children	Malia and Sasha Obama
Residence	Kenwood, Chicago (private)The White House (official)
Alma mater	Princeton University (A.B.)Harvard Law School (J.D.)
Profession	Lawyer
Religion	Protestant Christian
Signature	Michelle Obama Signatrue.svg

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama (born January 17, 1964) is the wife of the 44th and incumbent President of the United States, Barack Obama, and is the first African-American First Lady of the United States. Raised on the South Side of Chicago, Obama attended Princeton University and Harvard Law School before returning to Chicago and to work at the law firm Sidley Austin, where she met her future husband. Subsequently, she worked as part of the staff of Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley, and for the University of Chicago Medical Center.

Throughout 2007 and 2008, she helped campaign for her husband's presidential bid and delivered a keynote address at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. She is the mother of two daughters, Malia and Sasha, and is the sister of Craig Robinson, men's basketball coach at Oregon State University. As the wife of a Senator, and later the First Lady, she has become a fashion icon and role model for women, and a notable advocate for poverty awareness and healthy eating.

Family and education

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson was born on January 17, 1964, in Chicago, Illinois to Fraser Robinson III, a city water plant employee and Democratic precinct captain, and Marian (née Shields), a secretary at Spiegel's catalog store. Her mother was a full-time homemaker until Michelle entered high school. The Robinson and Shields families can trace their roots to pre-Civil War African Americans in the American South. Her paternal great-great grandfather, Jim Robinson, was an American slave in the state of South Carolina, where some of her paternal family still reside. Her maternal great-great-great grandmother, Melvinia Shields, also a slave, became pregnant by a white man. His name and the nature of their union have been lost. She gave birth to Michelle's biracial maternal great-great grandfather, Dolphus T. Shields.

She grew up in a two-story house on Euclid Street in Chicago's South Shore community area. Her parents rented a small apartment on the house's second floor from her great-aunt, who lived downstairs. She was raised in what she describes as a "conventional" home, with "the mother at home, the father works, you have dinner around the table".

She attended Whitney Young High School, Chicago's first magnet high school, where she was on the honor roll for four years, took advanced placement classes, was a member of the National Honor Society and served as student council treasurer. She graduated from high school in 1981 as salutatorian. "I remember being shocked," she says, "by college students who drove BMWs. I didn't even know parents who drove BMWs." Robinson majored in sociology and minored in African American studies and graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in 1985. She earned her Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from Harvard Law School in 1988. At Harvard she participated in demonstrations advocating the hiring of professors who were members of minorities and worked for the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, assisting low-income tenants with housing cases. She is the third First Lady with a postgraduate degree, after her two immediate predecessors, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Laura Bush.

and Michelle Obama.|alt=Barack and Michelle Obama, wearing dark outdoor clothes, in front of a crowd. His expression is muted; she has a wide smile.]] She met Barack Obama when they were among the few African Americans at their law firm, Sidley Austin (she has sometimes said only two, although others have pointed out there were others in different departments), and she was assigned to mentor him as a summer associate. Their relationship started with a business lunch and then a community organization meeting where he first impressed her. The couple married in October 1992, and they have two daughters, Malia Ann (born 1998) and Natasha (known as Sasha, born 2001). After his election to the U.S. Senate, the Obama family continued to live on Chicago's South Side, choosing to remain there rather than moving to Washington, D.C. Throughout her husband's 2008 campaign for President of the United States, she made a "commitment to be away overnight only once a week — to campaign only two days a week and be home by the end of the second day" for their two children. She is the sister of Craig Robinson, men's basketball coach at Oregon State University. She is the first cousin, once removed, of Rabbi Capers C. Funnye Jr., one of the country’s most prominent black rabbis.

She once requested that her then-fiancé meet her prospective boss, Valerie Jarrett, when considering her first career move. The marital relationship has had its ebbs and flows; the combination of an evolving family life and beginning political career led to many arguments about balancing work and family. Barack Obama wrote in his second book, , that "Tired and stressed, we had little time for conversation, much less romance". However, despite their family obligations and careers, they continue to attempt to schedule date nights.

The Obamas' daughters attended the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, a private school. As a member of the school's board, Michelle fought to maintain diversity in the school when other board members connected with the University of Chicago tried to reserve more slots for children of the university faculty. This resulted in a plan to expand the school. She stated in an interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show that the couple does not intend to have any more children. They have received advice from past first ladies Laura Bush, Rosalynn Carter and Hillary Rodham Clinton about raising children in the White House.

Career

Following law school, she was an associate at the Chicago office of the law firm Sidley Austin, where she first met her future husband. At the firm, she worked on marketing and intellectual property. In 2002, she began working for the University of Chicago Hospitals, first as executive director for community affairs and, beginning May 2005, as Vice President for Community and External Affairs. She continued to hold the University of Chicago Hospitals position during the primary campaign, but cut back to part time in order to spend time with her daughters as well as work for her husband's election; she subsequently took a leave of absence from her job. According to the couple’s 2006 income tax return, her salary was $273,618 from the University of Chicago Hospitals, while her husband had a salary of $157,082 from the United States Senate. The Obamas' total income, however, was $991,296, which included $51,200 she earned as a member of the board of directors of TreeHouse Foods, and investments and royalties from his books.

She served as a salaried board member of TreeHouse Foods, Inc. (), a major Wal-Mart supplier with whom she cut ties immediately after her husband made comments critical of Wal-Mart at an AFL-CIO forum in Trenton, New Jersey, on May 14, 2007. She serves on the board of directors of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

2008 Presidential election

Although Obama has campaigned on her husband's behalf since early in his political career by handshaking and fund-raising, she did not relish the activity at first. When she campaigned during her husband's 2000 run for United States House of Representatives, her boss at the University of Chicago asked if there was any single thing about campaigning that she enjoyed; after some thought, she replied visiting so many living rooms had given her some new decorating ideas.

At first, Obama had reservations about her husband's presidential campaign due to fears about a possible negative effect on their daughters. She says that she negotiated an agreement in which her husband gave up smoking in exchange for her support of his decision to run. About her role in her husband's presidential campaign she has said: "My job is not a senior adviser." During the campaign, she has discussed race and education by using motherhood as a framework.

In May 2007, three months after her husband declared his presidential candidacy, she reduced her professional responsibilities by 80 percent to support his presidential campaign. Early in the campaign, she had limited involvement in which she traveled to political events only two days a week and traveled overnight only if their daughters could come along; She wrote her own stump speeches for her husband's presidential campaign and generally spoke without notes.

Throughout the campaign, the media often labeled her as an "angry black woman," and some Web sites attempted to propagate this image, prompting her to respond: "Barack and I have been in the public eye for many years now, and we've developed a thick skin along the way. When you’re out campaigning, there will always be criticism. I just take it in stride, and at the end of the day, I know that it comes with the territory." By the time of the 2008 Democratic National Convention in August, media outlets observed that her presence on the campaign trail had grown softer than at the start of the race, focusing on soliciting concerns and empathizing with the audience rather than throwing down challenges to them, and giving interviews to shows like The View and publications like Ladies' Home Journal rather than appearing on news programs. The change was even reflected in her fashion choices, wearing more informal clothes in place of her previous designer pieces.

The presidential campaign was her first exposure to the national political scene; even before the field of Democratic candidates was narrowed to two, she was considered the least famous of the candidates' spouses. Early in the campaign, she told anecdotes about the Obama family life; however, as the press began to emphasize her sarcasm, she toned it down.}}

On the first night of the 2008 Democratic National Convention, Craig Robinson introduced his younger sister. She delivered her speech, during which she sought to portray herself and her family as the embodiment of the American Dream. She also emphasized loving her country, in response to criticism for her previous statements about feeling proud of her country for the first time. That keynote address was largely well received and drew mostly positive reviews. A Rasmussen Reports poll found that her favorability among Americans reached 55%.

On an October 6, 2008 broadcast, Larry King asked her if the American electorate was past the Bradley effect. She stated that her husband's achievement of the nomination was a fairly strong indicator that it was. The same night she also was interviewed by Jon Stewart on the Daily Show where she deflected criticism of her husband and his campaign. On Fox News' America's Pulse, E. D. Hill referred to the fist bump shared by the Obamas on the night that he clinched the Democratic presidential nomination as a "terrorist fist jab"; Hill was taken off air and the show itself was cancelled.

First Lady of the United States

Public image and style

With the ascent of her husband as a prominent national politician, Michelle Obama has become a part of popular culture. In May 2006, Essence listed her among "25 of the World's Most Inspiring Women." In July 2007, Vanity Fair listed her among "10 of the World's Best Dressed People." She was an honorary guest at Oprah Winfrey's Legends Ball as a "young'un" paying tribute to the 'Legends,' which helped pave the way for African American Women. In September 2007, 02138 magazine listed her 58th of 'The Harvard 100'; a list of the prior year's most influential Harvard alumni. Her husband was ranked fourth. In July 2008, she made a repeat appearance on the Vanity Fair international best dressed list. She also appeared on the 2008 People list of best-dressed women and was praised by the magazine for her "classic and confident" look.

Many sources have speculated that, as a high-profile African-American woman in a stable marriage, she will be a positive role model who will influence the view the world has of African-Americans. Her fashion choices were part of Fashion week, but Obama's influence in the field did not have an impact on the paucity of African-American models who participate, as some thought it might.

She has been compared to Jacqueline Kennedy due to her sense of style, Her white, one-shoulder Jason Wu 2009 inaugural gown was said to be "an unlikely combination of Nancy Reagan and Jackie Kennedy". Obama's style is described as populist. She often wears clothes by designers Calvin Klein, Oscar de la Renta, Isabel Toledo, Narciso Rodriguez, Donna Ricco and Maria Pinto, and has become a fashion trendsetter, in particular her favoring of sleeveless dresses that showcase her toned arms.

She appeared on the cover and in a photo spread in the March 2009 issue of Vogue. Every First Lady since Lou Hoover (except Bess Truman) has been in Vogue, but only Hillary Clinton had previously appeared on the cover.

The media have been criticized for focusing more on the first lady's fashion sense than her serious contributions. She has stated that she would like to focus attention as First Lady on issues of concern to military and working families. U.S.News & World Report blogger, PBS host and Scripps Howard columnist Bonnie Erbe has argued that Obama's own publicists seem to be feeding the emphasis on style over substance. Erbe has stated on several occasions that she is miscasting herself by overemphasizing style.

Work undertaken and causes promoted

During her early months as First Lady, she has frequently visited homeless shelters and soup kitchens. On her first trip abroad in April 2009, she toured a cancer ward with Sarah Brown, wife of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. She has begun advocating on behalf of military families.

Obama has become an advocate of her husband's policy priorities by promoting bills that support it. Following the enactment of the Pay equity law, Obama hosted a White House reception for women's rights advocates in celebration. She has pronounced her support for the economic stimulus bill in visits to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development and United States Department of Education. Some observers have looked favorably upon her legislative activities, while others have said that she should be less involved in politics. According to her representatives, she intends to visit all United States Cabinet-level agencies in order to get acquainted with Washington.

She has gained growing public support in her early months as first lady. As the public is growing accustomed to her, she is becoming more accepted as a role model. Newsweek described her first trip abroad as an exhibition of her so-called "star power" and MSN described it as an display of sartorial elegance. and Michelle reciprocated a touch on her back by the Queen during a reception, purportedly against traditional royal etiquette. Palace sources denied that any breach in etiquette had occurred.

On June 5, 2009, the White House announced that Michelle Obama was replacing her current chief of staff, Jackie Norris, with Susan Sher, a longtime friend and adviser. Norris will become a senior adviser to the Corporation for National and Community Service. Then in February 2010, the resignation of White House Social Secretary, Desiree Rogers was announced to be effective the following month. Rogers had been at odds with other administration officials, such as David Axelrod, and then the White House State Dinner snafu occurred on November 24, 2009. Rogers was replaced by Julianna Smoot.

After a year as First Lady, she undertook her first lead role in an administrationwide initiative. Her goal was to make progress in reversing the 21st century trend of childhood obesity. She stated that her goal is to make this effort her legacy: "I want to leave something behind that we can say, ‘Because of this time that this person spent here, this thing has changed.’ And my hope is that that’s going to be in the area of childhood obesity." This effort does not supplant her other efforts: supporting military families, helping working women balance career and family, encouraging national service, promoting the arts and arts education, and fostering healthy eating and healthy living for children and families across the country. She has earned widespread publicity on the topic of healthy eating by planting the first white house vegetable garden since Eleanor Roosevelt served as first lady.

See also

Family of Barack Obama

References

Further reading

External links

First Lady Michelle Obama, Whitehouse.gov

"Meet Michelle", biographical entry at BarackObama.com

"Michelle Obama On Love, Family & Politics", interview with Katie Couric of CBS News

Photoessay in Newsweek

Archive at The New York Times

Archive at U.S.News & World Report

archive at Chicago Tribune

"Michelle Obama's plea for education", on TED (conference), May 2009

Category:1964 births Category:African American history Category:African American lawyers Category:African-American people Category:American female lawyers Category:First Ladies of the United States Category:Harvard Law School alumni Category:Illinois Democrats Category:Illinois lawyers Category:Living people Category:Obama family Category:People from Chicago, Illinois Category:Princeton University alumni Category:Spouses of Illinois politicians Category:Spouses of United States Senators Category:United Church of Christ members Category:Women in Illinois politics

Caption	Dave Chappelle, 2007
Birth name	David Khari Webber Chappelle
Birth date	August 24, 1973
Birth place	Washington, D.C., U.S. Martin Lawrence , Bill Cosby
Influenced	Chris Tucker
Signature	Dave Chapelle Signature.svg
Spouse	Elaine Chappelle (2001-present) 3 children
Notable work	Himself and Various in Chappelle's ShowHimself in Dave Chappelle's Block PartyAchoo in Thurgood Jenkins in Half Baked
Website	davechappelle.com

David Khari Webber "Dave" Chappelle (; born August 24, 1973)

Early life

Chappelle was born in Washington, D.C. Chappelle grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland and attended Woodlin Elementary School.

Career

Early work

Chappelle moved to New York City to pursue a career as a comedian. He gathered the courage to perform at Harlem's famed Apollo Theater in front of the infamous "Amateur Night" audience. The performance resulted in him being booed off the stage. Chappelle has described the experience as the moment that gave him the courage to continue his show business aspirations. Chappelle played another supporting movie role in 1994's little-seen Getting In. He attracted the attention of TV network executives and developed numerous pilots but none of them were picked up for series. He followed this up with an appearance as "Conspiracy Brother" in the 2002 racial satire Undercover Brother.

2003 - 2006 standup and Chappelle's Show

In 2003, Chappelle debuted his own weekly sketch comedy show on Comedy Central called Chappelle's Show. The show parodied many aspects of American culture including racial stereotypes, politics and pop culture. Along with comedy skits, the show also featured musical performances by mostly hip-hop and soul artists. Chappelle's pointed social and political commentary quickly helped the show garner critical and commercial success as well as controversy. Richard Pryor, one of Chappelle's comedic influences, was a fan of the show and stated that he had "passed the torch" to Chappelle. Chappelle received two Emmy nominations for the show.

Additionally, the DVD set became the best-selling DVD of a television show to date, overtaking the previous best-selling, The Simpsons first season DVD. It had sold over 3 million copies. Due to the show's popularity, Comedy Central's parent company Viacom reportedly offered Chappelle a $55 million contract (giving Chappelle a share of DVD sales) to continue production of Chappelle's Show for two more years while allowing him to do side projects. Chappelle had stated that sketches are not his favorite form of comedy, and that the characteristics of the show's format were somewhat like short films.

In June 2004, based on the popularity of the "Rick James" sketch, it was announced that Chappelle was in talks to portray Rick James in a biopic from Paramount Pictures (also owned by Viacom). James's estate disagreed with the proposed comical tone of the film and put a halt to the talks.

In 2004, Chappelle recorded his second comedy special, this time airing on Showtime - Dave Chappelle: For What It's Worth, at San Francisco's Fillmore Auditorium.

Season three turbulence

In a June 2004 stand-up performance in Sacramento, California, Chappelle walked off the stage after berating his audience for constantly shouting "I'm Rick James, bitch!," which became a catchphrase from the popular "Rick James" sketch. After a few minutes, Chappelle returned and continued by saying "The show is ruining my life." He stated that he disliked working "20 hours a day" and that the popularity of the show was making it difficult for him to continue his stand-up career, which was "the most important thing" to him. He also told the audience:

}}

Season 3 was scheduled to air on May 31, 2005, but in that month, Chappelle stunned fans and the entertainment industry when he abruptly left during production of the third season of Chappelle's Show. Chappelle has since stated that he was unhappy with the direction the show had taken, claiming pressure from network executives regarding the show's content. Chappelle left the United States to visit South Africa. His decision to visit South Africa while leaving the public in the dark regarding the details about his absence triggered reports of drug problems. Chappelle gave an interview to Time Magazine's South African bureau chief. Chappelle denied any drug or mental problems but stated that his reasons for visiting South Africa were to reflect on his life and career.

After a short stint with Gaylord Palms Hotel and Convention Center in Orlando, Florida, Chappelle returned to comedy.

}}

Return

In June 2005, Chappelle performed impromptu stand-up shows in Los Angeles. He then went on a tour which began in Newport, Kentucky which is not far from his Ohio home. He also made a surprise appearance on HBO's Def Poetry where he performed two poems, titled Fuck Ashton Kutcher and How I Got the Lead on "Jeopardy!." He was interviewed for Inside the Actors Studio on December 18, 2005 at Pace University's Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts. The show premiered on February 12, 2006. Chappelle stated that the death of his father in 1998 had an impact on his decision to go to South Africa. By throwing himself into his work, he had not taken a chance to mourn his father's death. He also said the rumors that he was in drug or psychiatric treatment only persuaded him to stay in South Africa. He singled out the "pixie sketch" in which pixies appear to people and encourage them to reinforce stereotypes of their races. In the sketch, Chappelle is wearing blackface and is dressed as a character in a minstrel show. According to Chappelle, during the filming of the sketch, a crew member was laughing in a way that made him feel uncomfortable and made him rethink the show. Chappelle expressed disdain at the possibility of his material from the unfinished third season being aired, saying that to do so would be "a bully move," and that he would not return to the show if Comedy Central were to air the unfinished material. On November 19, 2009 Chappelle performed at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles, where it was speculated that he would aim to take back the record. However, he was disqualified according to the club owner, after he left the stage, five hours into his routine.

in Brooklyn.]] Chappelle was the star and producer of the Michel Gondry-directed documentary Dave Chappelle's Block Party, which chronicles a Chappelle-hosted "rap concert" in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn on September 18, 2004. Several musical artists, among them Kanye West, The Roots, Erykah Badu, Mos Def, and Jill Scott are featured in the movie both performing in the concert and in conversation off-stage. The most surprising highlight of the event was the "last minute" reunion of popular '90s hip hop group The Fugees. Chappelle toured several cities in February and March 2006 to promote the film under the moniker "Block Party All-Stars featuring Dave Chappelle". Universal Pictures' genre division Rogue Pictures released the film in the United States on March 3, 2006.

Chappelle again appeared on Inside the Actors Studio and in celebration of the show's 200th episode, he humorously interviewed the show's usual host, James Lipton. The episode aired on November 11, 2008.

Personal life

Chappelle lives with his wife Elaine, two sons, and Ibrahim, and daughter Sonal, on a farm,

Chappelle is a Muslim; he converted to Islam in 1998. He told Time Magazine in a May 2005 interview, "I don’t normally talk about my religion publicly because I don’t want people to associate me and my flaws with this beautiful thing. And I believe it is beautiful if you learn it the right way."

Television work

1992: Def Comedy Jam with Martin Lawrence as the host

1995: Home Improvement as Dave (one episode)

2003-2006: Chappelle's Show as himself and others

2005 and 2008: Inside the Actor's Studio as himself

Filmography

{|class="wikitable" |- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" ! Year !! Film !! Role !! Notes |- |rowspan="2"|1993 ||Undercover Blues ||Ozzie || |- | ||Achoo||first major role |- |1994 ||Getting In ||Ron || |- |rowspan="2"|1996 ||Joe's Apartment ||Cockroach ||voice only |- |The Nutty Professor ||Reggie Warrington || |- |rowspan="4"|1997 ||Damn Whitey ||Dave ||minor role |- |Bowl of Pork ||Black Forrest Gump ||minor role |- |Con Air ||Joe 'Pinball' Parker || |- |The Real Blonde ||Zee|| |- |rowspan="3"|1998 ||Woo ||Lenny || |- |You've Got Mail ||Kevin Jackson || |- |Half Baked ||Thurgood Jenkins/Mr. Nice Guy/Sir Smoke-a-Lot ||also co-writer |- |rowspan="2"|1999 ||Blue Streak ||Tulley || |- ||200 Cigarettes ||Taxi driver || |- |rowspan="1"|2000 ||Screwed ||Rusty P. Hayes || |- |rowspan="1"|2002 ||Undercover Brother ||Conspiracy Brother Jones|| |- |- |rowspan="1"|2006 ||Dave Chappelle's Block Party ||Himself ||also producer |- |rowspan="1"|2011 ||Tower Heist ||T. King || |}

References

External links

Video of Anderson Cooper 360 Interview

Fresh Air Interview in 2004

Category:1973 births Category:American Muslims Category:African American actors Category:African American comedians Category:African American television actors Category:American buskers Category:American film actors Category:American stand-up comedians Category:American television actors Category:American people of Ivorian descent Category:Living people Category:People from Silver Spring, Maryland Category:People from Washington, D.C. Category:People from Yellow Springs, Ohio Category:Converts to Islam from Christianity Category:African American converts to Islam Category:African American Muslims

Name	Bill Clinton
Order	42nd
Office	President of the United States
Term start	January 20, 1993
Term end	January 20, 2001
Vicepresident	Al Gore
Predecessor	George H. W. Bush
Successor	George W. Bush
Order2	40th and 42nd
Office2	Governor of Arkansas
Term start2	January 9, 1979
Term end2	January 19, 1981
Lieutenant2	Joe Purcell
Predecessor2	Joe Purcell (Acting)
Successor2	Frank D. White
Term start3	January 11, 1983
Term end3	December 12, 1992
Lieutenant3	Winston Bryant (1983-1991)Jim Guy Tucker (1991-1992)
Predecessor3	Frank D. White
Successor3	Jim Guy Tucker
Order4	50th
Office4	Arkansas Attorney General
Term start4	January 3, 1977
Term end4	January 9, 1979
Predecessor4	Jim Guy Tucker
Successor4	Steve Clark
Birth date	August 19, 1946
Birth place	Hope, Arkansas
Birthname	William Jefferson Blythe III
Party	Democratic
Spouse	Hillary Rodham Clinton
Children	Chelsea Clinton (b. 1980)
Profession	Lawyer
Alma mater	Georgetown University (B.S.) University College, OxfordYale Law School (J.D.)
Religion	Baptist
Signature	Signature of Bill Clinton.svg
Signature alt	Cursive signature in ink
Website	William J. Clinton Presidential Library

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III, August 19, 1946) served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. At 46 he was the third-youngest president. He became president at the end of the Cold War, and was the first baby boomer president. His wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, is currently the United States Secretary of State. Each received a Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Yale Law School.

Clinton has been described as a New Democrat. Some of his policies, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and welfare reform, have been attributed to a centrist Third Way philosophy of governance, while on other issues his stance was left of center. Clinton presided over the continuation of an economic expansion that would later become the longest period of peace-time economic expansion in American history. The Congressional Budget Office reported a budget surplus in 2000, the last full year of Clinton's presidency. After a failed attempt at health care reform, Republicans won control of the House of Representatives in 1994, for the first time in forty years. Two years later, in 1996, Clinton was re-elected and became the first member of the Democratic Party since Franklin D. Roosevelt to win a second full term as president. Later he was impeached for perjury and obstruction of justice in connection with a scandal involving a White House intern, but was subsequently acquitted by the U.S. Senate.

Clinton left office with the highest end-of-office approval rating of any U.S. president since World War II. Clinton created the William J. Clinton Foundation to promote and address international causes such as treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS and global warming.

In 2004, he released his autobiography My Life, and was involved in his wife Hillary's 2008 presidential campaign and subsequently in that of President Barack Obama. In 2009, he was named United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti. In the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Clinton teamed with George W. Bush to form the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund.

Early life and career

.]] in Washington, D.C., receiving a degree in 1968, during which he ran for President of the Student Council.]]

Bill Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe, III, in Hope, Arkansas. His father, William Jefferson Blythe, Jr., was a traveling salesman who died in an automobile accident three months before Bill was born. The family moved to Hot Springs in 1950.

Although he assumed use of his stepfather's surname, it was not until Billy (as he was known then) turned fourteen that he formally adopted the surname Clinton as a gesture toward his stepfather.

In Hot Springs, Clinton attended St. John's Catholic Elementary School, Ramble Elementary School, and Hot Springs High School - where he was an active student leader, avid reader, and musician.

With the aid of scholarships, Clinton attended the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., receiving a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service (B.S.) degree in 1968. He spent the summer of 1967, the summer before his senior year, interning for Arkansas Senator J. William Fulbright. He is a member of Kappa Kappa Psi's National Honorary Band Fraternity, Inc.

Upon graduation, he won a Rhodes Scholarship to University College, Oxford where he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics, though as a result of switching programs and leaving early for Yale, he did not obtain a degree there. He developed an interest in rugby union, playing at Oxford and later for the Little Rock Rugby club in Arkansas. While at Oxford he also participated in Vietnam War protests, including organizing an October 1969 Moratorium event.

Clinton's political opponents charge that to avoid being drafted into the Vietnam War during his college years, he used the political influence of a U.S. Senator, who employed him as an aide. Col. Eugene Holmes, an Army officer who was involved in Clinton's case, issued a notarized statement during the 1992 presidential campaign: "...I was informed by the draft board that it was of interest to Senator Fullbright's office that Bill Clinton, a Rhodes Scholar, should be admitted to the ROTC program... I believe that he purposely deceived me, using the possibility of joining the ROTC as a ploy to work with the draft board to delay his induction and get a new draft classification."

Clinton did not join the ROTC program, but the temporary ROTC status prevented him from being drafted. This was not illegal, but it became a source of criticism from conservatives and some Vietnam veterans.

After Oxford, Clinton attended Yale Law School and obtained a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree in 1973.

The Clintons' personal and business affairs during the 1980s included transactions which became the basis of the Whitewater investigation which dogged his later presidential administration. After extensive investigation over several years, no indictments were made against the Clintons related to the years in Arkansas.

He defeated a total of four Republican candidates for governor: Lowe (1978), White (1982 and 1986), and businessmen Woody Freeman of Jonesboro, (1984) and Sheffield Nelson of Little Rock (1990).

Democratic presidential primaries of 1988

with President Ronald Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan, 1987.]] In 1987 there was media speculation Clinton would enter the race after then-New York Governor Mario Cuomo declined to run and Democratic front-runner Gary Hart withdrew owing to revelations of marital infidelity. Clinton decided to remain as Arkansas governor (following consideration for the potential candidacy of Hillary Rodham Clinton for governor, initially favored – but ultimately vetoed – by the First Lady). For the nomination, Clinton endorsed Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis. However, he did give the opening night address at the 1988 Democratic National Convention, which was nationally televised, but it was criticized for length. Presenting himself as a moderate and a member of the New Democrat wing of the Democratic Party, he headed the moderate Democratic Leadership Council in 1990 and 1991.

1992 presidential campaign

Due to his youthful appearance, he was often called the "Boy Governor". In the first contest, the Iowa caucus, he finished a very distant third to Iowa Senator Tom Harkin. During the campaign for the New Hampshire Primary reports of an extramarital affair with Gennifer Flowers surfaced. As Clinton fell far behind former Massachusetts Senator Paul Tsongas in the New Hampshire polls, Finally, conservatives were previously united by anti-communism, but with the end of the Cold War, the party lacked a uniting issue. When Pat Buchanan and Pat Robertson addressed Christian themes at the Republican National Convention – with Bush criticizing Democrats for omitting God from their platform – many moderates were alienated. Clinton then pointed to his moderate, "New Democrat" record as governor of Arkansas, though some on the more liberal side of the party remained suspicious. Many Democrats who had supported Ronald Reagan and Bush in previous elections switched their allegiance to Clinton.

Clinton's election ended twelve years of Republican rule of the White House and twenty of the previous twenty-four years. The election gave Democrats full control of the United States Congress. Further concern arose when Bill Clinton announced that, with Hillary, voters would be getting two presidents "for the price of one".

Presidency, 1993–2001

During his presidency, Clinton advocated for a wide variety of legislation and programs, much of which was enacted into law and/or was implemented by the executive branch. At the very end of his presidency, Clinton moved to New York and helped his wife get elected to the U.S. Senate there.

First term, 1993–1997

during his 1993 presidential inauguration.]]

Clinton was inaugurated as the 42nd President of the United States on January 20, 1993. In his inaugural address he declared:

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Clinton in his first address to the nation on February 15, 1993, announced his intention to raise taxes to cap the budget deficit.

On February 17, 1993, in a nationally televised address to a joint session of Congress, Clinton unveiled his economic plan. The plan focused on deficit reduction rather than a middle-class tax cut, which had been high on his campaign agenda. (Clinton was pressured by his advisers, including Robert Rubin formerly of Goldman Sachs, to raise taxes on the theory that a smaller federal budget deficit would reduce bond interest rates.) (In December 2010, Clinton defended President Barack Obama’s compromise with the Republican congressional leadership, extending the George W. Bush’s era tax cuts, which many Democrats felt unfairly favored the wealthy.)

Shortly after taking office, Clinton signed the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, which required large employers to allow employees to take unpaid leave for pregnancy or a serious medical condition. While this action was popular, Clinton's attempt to fulfill another campaign promise of allowing openly homosexual men and women to serve in the armed forces garnered criticism from the left (for being too tentative in promoting gay rights) and from the right (who opposed any effort to allow homosexuals to serve). After much debate, Congress implemented the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy, stating as long as homosexuals keep their sexuality secret, they may serve in the military. Some gay rights advocates criticized Clinton for not going far enough and accused him of making his campaign promise to get votes and contributions. These advocates feel Clinton should have integrated the military by executive order, noting President Harry Truman used executive order to racially desegregate the armed forces. Clinton's defenders argue an executive order might have prompted the Democratic Senate to write the exclusion of homosexuals into law, potentially making it harder to integrate the military in the future.

The Clinton administration launched the first official White House website on October 21, 1994. It was followed by three more versions, resulting in the final edition launched in 2000. The White House website was part of a wider movement of the Clinton administration toward web-based communication. According to Robert Longley, "Clinton and Gore were responsible for pressing almost all federal agencies, the U.S. court system and the U.S. military onto the Internet, thus opening up America's government to more of America's citizens than ever before. On July 17, 1996, Clinton issued Executive Order 13011 - Federal Information Technology, ordering the heads of all federal agencies to fully utilize information technology to make the information of the agency easily accessible to the public."

who negotiated lifting the remaining sanctions on South Africa.]] Also in 1993, Clinton controversially supported ratification of the North American Free Trade Agreement by the U.S. Senate. Clinton, along with most of his Democratic Leadership Committee allies, strongly supported free trade measures; there remained, however, strong intra-party disagreement. Opposition came chiefly from anti-trade Republicans, protectionist Democrats and supporters of Ross Perot. The bill passed the house with 234 votes against 200 opposed (132 Republicans and 102 Democrats voting in favor; 156 Democrats, 43 Republicans, and 1 independent against). The treaty was then ratified by the Senate and signed into law by the President on January 1, 1994.

On November 30, 1993, Clinton signed into law the Brady Bill, which imposed a five-day waiting period on handgun purchases. He also expanded the Earned Income Tax Credit, a subsidy for low-income workers. In 1999, Clinton signed the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act, a bank deregulation bill that repealed a Depression-era law known as Glass-Steagall.

One of the most prominent items on Clinton's legislative agenda was the result of a taskforce headed by Hillary Clinton, which was a health care reform plan aimed at achieving universal coverage via a national health care plan. Though initially well-received in political circles, it was ultimately doomed by well-organized opposition from conservatives, the American Medical Association, and the health insurance industry. However, John F. Harris, a biographer of Clinton's, states the program failed because of a lack of co-ordination within the White House. and raised taxes on the wealthiest 1.2% of taxpayers. Additionally, through the implementation of spending restraints, it mandated the budget be balanced over a number of years.

As part of a 1996 initiative to curb illegal immigration, Clinton signed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA). Appointed by Clinton, the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform called for reducing legal immigration to about 550,000 a year. The proposals drew criticism from a wide range of business, ethnic and religious groups.

Senators Ted Kennedy – a Democrat – and Orrin Hatch, a Republican, teamed up with Hillary Rodham Clinton and her staff in 1997 and succeeded in passing legislation forming the Children's Health Insurance Program, the largest (successful) health care reform in the years of the Clinton Presidency. That same year Hillary Clinton shepherded through Congress the Adoption and Safe Families Act and two years later Rodham Clinton succeeded in helping pass the Foster Care Independence Act. President Bill Clinton supported both bills as well, and signed both of them into law.

Travelgate controversy

Clinton fired seven employees of the White House Travel Office in May 1993, giving rise to a controversy, though the Travel Office staff served at the pleasure of the President, and could be dismissed without cause. The White House responded to the controversy by claiming that the firings were done because of financial improprieties that had been revealed by a brief FBI investigation. Critics contended the firings had been done to allow friends of the Clintons to take over the travel business and that the involvement of the FBI was unwarranted.

White House FBI files controversy

The White House FBI-files controversy of June 1996 arose concerning improper access by the White House to FBI security-clearance documents. Craig Livingstone, head of the White House Office of Personnel Security, improperly requested, and received from the FBI, background report files without asking permission of the subject individuals; many of these were employees of former Republican administrations. In March 2000, Independent Counsel Robert Ray determined that there was no credible evidence of any criminal activity. Ray's report further stated "there was no substantial and credible evidence that any senior White House official was involved" in seeking the files.

Death penalty

The application of the federal death penalty was expanded to include crimes not resulting in death – such as running a large-scale drug enterprise – by Clinton's 1994 Omnibus Crime Bill. During Clinton's re-election campaign he said, "My 1994 crime bill expanded the death penalty for drug kingpins, murderers of federal law enforcement officers, and nearly 60 additional categories of violent felons."

While campaigning for U.S. President, the then Governor Clinton returned to Arkansas to see that Ricky Ray Rector would be executed. After killing a police officer and a civilian, Rector shot himself in the head, leading to what his lawyers said was a state where he could still talk but didn't understand the concept of death. According to Arkansas state and Federal law, a seriously mentally impaired inmate cannot be executed. The courts disagreed with the allegation of grave mental impairment and allowed the execution. Clinton's return to Arkansas for the execution was framed in a New York Times article as a possible political move to counter "soft on crime" accusations.

According to some sources, Clinton was in his early years a death penalty opponent who switched positions. During Clinton's term, Arkansas performed its first executions since 1964 (the death penalty was re-enacted on March 23, 1973). As Governor, he oversaw four executions: one by electric chair and three by lethal injection. However, Clinton was the first President to pardon a death-row inmate since the federal death penalty was reintroduced in 1988. Federal executions were resumed under his successor George W. Bush.

Assassination attempt

Law professor Ken Gromley's book The Death of American Virtue reveals that Clinton escaped a 1996 assassination attempt in the Philippines by terrorists working for Osama bin Laden. During his visit to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Manila in 1996, he was saved shortly before his car was due to drive over a bridge where a bomb had been planted. Gromley said he was told the details of the bomb plot by Louis Merletti, a former director of the Secret Service. Clinton was scheduled to visit a local politician in central Manila, when secret service officers intercepted a message suggesting that an attack was imminent. A transmission used the words "bridge" and "wedding", supposedly a terrorist's code words for assassination. The motorcade was re-routed and the US agents later discovered a bomb planted under the bridge. The report said the subsequent US investigation into the plot "revealed that it was masterminded by a Saudi terrorist living in Afghanistan named Osama bin Laden". Gromley said "It remained top secret except to select members of the US intelligence community. At the time, there were media reports about the discovery of two bombs, one at Manila airport and another at the venue for the leaders' meeting".

Second term, 1997–2001

for his work toward European integration.]] Cohen presents President Clinton the DoD Medal for Distinguished Public Service.]]

In the 1996 presidential election, Clinton was re-elected, receiving 49.2% of the popular vote over Republican Bob Dole (40.7% of the popular vote) and Reform candidate Ross Perot (8.4% of the popular vote), becoming the first Democratic incumbent since Lyndon Johnson to be elected to a second term and the first Democrat since Franklin Roosevelt to be elected President more than once. The Republicans lost a few seats in the House and gained a few in the Senate, but retained control of both. Clinton received 379, or over 70% of the Electoral College votes, with Dole receiving 159 electoral votes.

Lewinsky scandal

Clinton's sexual relationship with a 22-year-old White House intern named Monica Lewinsky led to the Lewinsky scandal. the House began impeachment hearings before the mid-term elections. Although the mid-term elections held in November 1998 were at the 6-year point in an 8-year presidency (a time in the electoral cycle where the party holding the White House usually loses Congressional seats), the Democratic Party gained several seats. To hold impeachment proceedings, the Republican leadership called a lame duck session in December 1998.

presiding.]]

While the House Judiciary Committee hearings ended in a straight-party-line vote, there was lively debate on the House floor. The two charges passed in the House (largely on the basis of Republican support, but with a handful of Democratic votes as well) were for perjury and obstruction of justice. The perjury charge arose from Clinton's testimony about his relationship to Monica Lewinsky during a sexual harassment lawsuit (later dismissed, appealed and settled for $850,000) brought by former Arkansas state employee Paula Jones. The obstruction charge was based on his actions during the subsequent investigation of that testimony. The Senate later voted to acquit Clinton on both charges. The Senate refused to convene to hold an impeachment trial before the end of the old term, so the trial was held over until the next Congress. Clinton was represented by Washington law firm Williams & Connolly.

The Senate concluded a twenty-one day trial on February 12, 1999, with the vote on both counts falling short of the Constitutional two-thirds majority requirement to convict and remove an office holder. The final vote was generally along party lines, with no Democrats voting guilty. Some Republicans voted not guilty for both charges. On the perjury charge, fifty-five senators voted to acquit, including ten Republicans, and forty-five voted to convict; on the obstruction charge the Senate voted 50-50.

Law license suspension

In 2000 the Arkansas Supreme Court's Committee on Professional Conduct called for Clinton's disbarment, saying he lied about his affair with Monica Lewinsky.

In January 2001 Clinton reached an agreement under which he was ordered to pay $25,000 in fines to Arkansas state's bar officials and his Arkansas law license was suspended for five years. The agreement came on the condition that Whitewater prosecutors would not pursue federal perjury charges against him. Clinton was suspended by the Supreme Court in October 2001, and, facing disbarment from that court, Clinton resigned from the Supreme Court bar in November.

Military and foreign events

Paul Fletcher, USAF, before boarding Air Force One, November 4, 1999.]] Numerous military events occurred during Clinton's presidency. The Battle of Mogadishu also occurred in Somalia in 1993. During the operation, two U.S. MH-60 Black Hawk helicopters were shot down by rocket-propelled grenade attacks to their tail rotors, trapping soldiers behind enemy lines. This resulted in an urban battle that killed 18 American soldiers, wounded 73 others, and one was taken prisoner. There were many more Somali casualties. Some of the American bodies were dragged through the streets – a spectacle broadcast on television news programs. In response, U.S. forces were withdrawn from Somalia and later conflicts were approached with fewer soldiers on the ground.

In 1995 U.S. and NATO aircraft attacked Bosnian Serb targets to halt attacks on U.N. safe zones and to pressure them into a peace accord. Clinton deployed U.S. peacekeepers to Bosnia in late 1995 to uphold the subsequent Dayton Agreement.

In response to the 1998 al-Qaeda bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa that killed a dozen Americans and hundreds of Africans, Clinton ordered cruise missile strikes on terrorist targets in Afghanistan and Sudan. He was subsequently criticized when it turned out that a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan (originally alleged to be a chemical warfare plant) had been destroyed. , May 5, 1999.]] To stop the ethnic cleansing and genocide of Albanians by nationalist Serbians in the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's province of Kosovo, Clinton authorized the use of American troops in a NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia in 1999, named Operation Allied Force. General Wesley Clark was Supreme Allied Commander of NATO and oversaw the mission. With United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244, the bombing campaign ended on June 10, 1999. The resolution placed Kosovo under UN administration and authorized a peacekeeping force. NATO announced that its forces had suffered zero combat deaths, and two deaths from an Apache helicopter crash. Opinions in the popular press criticized pre-war genocide statements by the Clinton administration as greatly exaggerated. A U.N. Court ruled genocide did not take place, but recognized, "a systematic campaign of terror, including murders, rapes, arsons and severe maltreatments". The term "ethnic cleansing" was used as an alternative to "genocide" to denote not just ethnically motivated murder but also displacement, though critics charge there is no difference. Slobodan Milošević, the President of Yugoslavia at the time, was eventually charged with the "murders of about 600 individually identified ethnic Albanians" and "crimes against humanity."

In Clinton's 1998 State of the Union Address, he warned Congress of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's possible pursuit of nuclear weapons: }}

holding a joint press conference at the White House, October 29, 1997.]]

To weaken Saddam Hussein's grip of power, Clinton signed H.R. 4655 into law on October 31, 1998, which instituted a policy of "regime change" against Iraq, though it explicitly stated it did not speak to the use of American military forces. The administration then launched a four-day bombing campaign named Operation Desert Fox, lasting from December 16 to December 19, 1998. For the last two years of Clinton's presidency U.S. aircraft routinely attacked hostile Iraqi anti-air installations inside the Iraqi no-fly zones.

Clinton's November 2000 visit to Vietnam was the first by a U.S. President since the end of the Vietnam War. Clinton remained popular with the public throughout his two terms as President, ending his presidential career with a 65% approval rating, the highest end-of-term approval rating of any President since Dwight D. Eisenhower. Further, the Clinton administration signed over 270 trade liberalization pacts with other countries during its tenure. On October 10, 2000, Clinton signed into law the U.S.–China Relations Act of 2000, which granted PNTR trade status to People's Republic of China. The president asserted that free trade would gradually open China to democratic reform. Clinton also oversaw a boom of the U.S. economy. Under Clinton, the United States had a projected federal budget surplus for the first time since 1969.

After initial successes such as the Oslo accords of the early 1990s, Clinton attempted to address the Arab-Israeli conflict. Clinton brought Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat together at Camp David. The situation broke down completely with the start of the Second Intifada.

A U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation did result in convictions against the McDougals for their role in the Whitewater project, but the Clintons themselves were never charged, and Clinton maintains innocence in the affair.

Attempted capture of Osama bin Laden

Capturing Osama bin Laden has been an objective of the United States government since the presidency of Bill Clinton. It has been asserted that in 1996 while the Clinton Administration had begun pursuit of the policy, the Sudanese government allegedly offered to arrest and extradite Bin Laden as well as to provide the United States detailed intelligence information about growing militant organizations in the region, including Hezbollah and Hamas, and that U.S. authorities allegedly rejected each offer, despite knowing of bin Laden's involvement in bombings on American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

In 1998, two years after the warning, the Clinton administration ordered several military missions to capture or kill bin Laden that failed.

Troopergate

Troopergate is the popular name of a scandal involving allegations by two Arkansas state troopers that they arranged sexual liaisons for then-Governor Bill Clinton. The allegations by state troopers Larry Patterson and Roger Perry were first reported by David Brock in the American Spectator in 1993, then confirmed the next day in The Los Angeles Times. The story mentioned a woman named Paula, a reference to Paula Jones. Brock later apologized to Clinton, saying the article was politically motivated "bad journalism" and that "the troopers were greedy and had slimy motives."

Pardons and campaign finance

Clinton issued 141 pardons and 36 commutations on his last day in office on January 20, 2001. Most of the controversy surrounded Marc Rich and allegations that Hillary Clinton's brother, Hugh Rodham, accepted payments in return for influencing the president's decision-making regarding the pardons. Some of Clinton's pardons remain a point of controversy.

The 1996 United States campaign-finance controversy was an alleged effort by the People's Republic of China (PRC) to influence the domestic policies of the United States, prior to and during the Clinton administration, and also involved the fundraising practices of the administration itself.

Judicial appointments

Clinton appointed the following justices to the Supreme Court: Ruth Bader Ginsburg - 1993 Stephen Breyer - 1994

In addition to his two Supreme Court appointments, Clinton appointed 66 judges to the United States Courts of Appeals, and 305 judges to the United States district courts. His total of 373 judicial appointments is second in American history, behind Ronald Reagan's. Clinton also experienced a number of judicial appointment controversies, as 24 nominees to 20 different federal appellate judgeships were not processed by the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee.

Public opinion

throughout his presidential career.]]

Clinton's job approval rating ranged from 36% in mid-1993 to 64% in late 1993 and early 1994. In his second term, his rating consistently ranged from the high-50s to the high-60s. After his impeachment proceedings in 1998 and 1999, Clinton's rating reached its highest point at 73% approval. He finished with an approval rating of 68%, which matched those of Ronald Reagan and Franklin D. Roosevelt as the highest ratings for departing presidents in the modern era.

As he was leaving office, a CNN/USA TODAY/Gallup poll revealed 45% said they would miss him. While 55% thought he "would have something worthwhile to contribute and should remain active in public life", 68% thought he would be remembered for his "involvement in personal scandal", and 58% answered "No" to the question "Do you generally think Bill Clinton is honest and trustworthy?". 47% of the respondents identified themselves as being Clinton supporters. 47% said he would be remembered as either "outstanding" or "above average" as a president while 22% said he would be remembered as "below average" or "poor".

The Gallup Organization published a poll in February 2007 asking respondents to name the greatest president in U.S. history; Clinton came in fourth place, capturing 13% of the vote. In a 2006 Quinnipiac University poll asking respondents to name the best president since World War II, Clinton ranked 3% behind Ronald Reagan to place second with 25% of the vote. However, in the same poll, when respondents were asked to name the worst president since World War II, Clinton placed 1% behind Richard Nixon and 18% behind George W. Bush to come in third with 16% of the vote.

In May 2006, a CNN poll comparing Clinton's job performance with that of his successor, George W. Bush, found that a strong majority of respondents said Clinton outperformed Bush in six different areas questioned. ABC News characterized public consensus on Clinton as, "You can't trust him, he's got weak morals and ethics and he's done a heck of a good job." Clinton's 66% Gallup Poll approval rating was also the highest Gallup approval rating of any postwar President leaving office, three points ahead of Reagan.

In March 2010, a Newsmax/Zogby poll asking Americans which of the current living former presidents they think is best equipped to deal with the problems the country faces today, found that a wide margin of respondents would pick Bill Clinton. Clinton received 41% of the vote, while former President George W. Bush received 15%, former President George H. W. Bush received 7%, and former President Jimmy Carter received 5%. Although 26% chose "none", and 5% were not sure, Clinton maintained the highest percentage.

Public image

As the first baby boomer president, Clinton was the first president in a half-century not to have been shaped by World War II. Authors Martin Walker and Bob Woodward state Clinton's innovative use of soundbite-ready dialogue, personal charisma, and public perception-oriented campaigning was a major factor in his high public approval ratings. When Clinton played the saxophone on The Arsenio Hall Show, he was described by some religious conservatives as "the MTV president." Standing at a height of 6'2" (1.88 m), Clinton is tied with five others as the fourth-tallest president in the nation's history.

Clinton drew strong support from the African American community and made improving race relations a major theme of his presidency. In 1998, Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison in The New Yorker called Clinton "the first Black president", saying, "Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald's-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas", and comparing Clinton's sex life, scrutinized despite his career accomplishments, to the stereotyping and double standards that blacks typically endure.

In 2008, Morrison's sentiments were raised anew as Barack Obama, who would later become the country's first African-American President, ran for the presidency. After endorsing Obama, Morrison distanced herself from her 1998 remark about Clinton, saying that it was misunderstood. She noted that she has "no idea what his real instincts are, in terms of race" and said she was only describing the way he was being treated during the impeachment trial as an equivalent to a poor black person living in the ghetto. Obama himself, when asked in a Democratic debate about Morrison's declaration of Clinton as "black", replied that Clinton had an enormous "affinity" with the black community, but joked he would need to see Clinton's dancing ability before judging "accurately [...] whether he was, in fact, a brother".

Sexual misconduct allegations

Throughout his career, Clinton has been subject to various allegations of sexual misconduct, though only his extramarital relationships with Monica Lewinsky and Gennifer Flowers have been admitted by him.

For alleged misconduct during his governorship Paula Jones brought a sexual harassment lawsuit against Clinton while he was president. Clinton argued that as a sitting president, he should not be vulnerable to a civil suit of this nature. The case landed in the U.S. Supreme Court. The Supreme Court held that "Deferral of this litigation until petitioner's Presidency ends is not constitutionally required."

However, a U.S. judge in Arkansas, Susan Webber Wright, ruled that since Jones had not suffered any damages, the case should be dismissed. On April 2, 1998, Judge Susan Webber Wright dismissed Jones' lawsuit. On July 31, 1998, Jones appealed the dismissal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

During the deposition for the Jones lawsuit which was held at the White House, Clinton denied having sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky a denial that became the basis for the impeachment charge of perjury.

On November 18, 1998, Clinton agreed to an out-of-court settlement, and agreed to pay Jones and her attorneys a sum of $850,000.00. Clinton, however, still offered no apology to Jones and still denied ever engaging in a sexual affair with her. Gennifer Flowers, Elizabeth Ward Gracen, Sally Perdue, and Dolly Kyle Browning each have reported having adulterous sexual relations with Clinton during or before his service as governor. Gracen later apologized to Hillary Clinton.

Dolly Kyle Browning alleged that she and Clinton engaged in a long sexual affair. Browning began writing a "semi-autobiographical novel" about the affair. In the publication process, Browning asserted that Clinton did everything in his power to prohibit and undermine publication. Browning sued Clinton for damages, but the US Court of Appeals denied her appeal.

Post-presidential career

, dedicated in 2004.]] in January 2005.]] , Laura Bush, George H. W. Bush, Condoleezza Rice, and Andrew Card pay their respects to Pope John Paul II before the pope's funeral in April 2005.]]

Just as Clinton was leaving elective office, his wife was entering it, as a U.S. Senator from New York. Bill Clinton proceeded to give speeches around the world, often for over $100,000 a speech. Altogether, Clinton has spoken at the last six Democratic National Conventions, dating back to 1988.

Activities up until 2008 campaign

In 2002 Clinton warned that pre-emptive military action against Iraq may have unwelcome consequences. In 2005, Clinton criticized the Bush administration for its handling of emissions control, while speaking at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Montreal.

The William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park in Little Rock, Arkansas was dedicated in 2004. Clinton released an autobiography, My Life in 2004. In 2007, he released, which became a bestseller and garnered positive reviews.

In the aftermath of the 2005 Asian tsunami, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed Clinton to head a relief effort. After Hurricane Katrina, Clinton established, with fellow former President George H. W. Bush, the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund and Bush-Clinton Tsunami Fund. As part of the tsunami effort, these two ex-presidents appeared in a Super Bowl XXXIX pre-game show, and traveled to the affected areas. They also spoke together at the funeral of Boris Yeltsin.

The William J. Clinton Foundation includes the Clinton Foundation HIV and AIDS Initiative (CHAI), which strives to combat that disease, and has worked with the Australian government toward that end. The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), begun by the Clinton Foundation in 2005, attempts to address world problems such as global public health, poverty alleviation and religious and ethnic conflict. In 2005, Clinton announced through his foundation an agreement with manufacturers to stop selling sugared beverages in schools. Clinton's foundation joined with the Large Cities Climate Leadership Group in 2006 to improve cooperation among those cities, and he met with foreign leaders to promote this initiative. He also spoke in favor of California Proposition 87 on alternative energy, which was voted down.

The foundation has received donations from a number of governments in the Middle East. In 2008, Mr. Clinton travelled to Kazakhstan with Canadian mining magnate Frank Giustra who then won three lucrative uranium mining contracts from the Kazakh government, and Giustra donated $US31 million to Mr. Clinton's charity. Many were especially critical of him following his remarks in the South Carolina primary, which Obama won. Later in the 2008 primaries, there was some infighting between Bill and Hillary's staffs, especially in Pennsylvania. Based on Bill's remarks, many thought that he couldn't rally Hillary supporters behind Obama after Obama won the primary. Such remarks lead to apprehension that the party would be split to the detriment of Obama's election. Fears were allayed August 27, 2008 when Clinton enthusiastically endorsed Obama at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, saying that all his experience as president assures him that Obama is "ready to lead".

After 2008 election

In 2009, Clinton travelled to North Korea on behalf of two American journalists imprisoned in North Korea. Euna Lee and Laura Ling had been imprisoned for illegally entering the country from China. Jimmy Carter had made a similar visit in 1994.

Also in 2009, Clinton was named United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti.

In 2010, Clinton announced support and delivered the keynote address for the inauguration of NTR, Ireland's first ever environmental foundation.

Post-presidential health concerns

In September 2004, Clinton received a quadruple bypass surgery. In March 2005 he underwent surgery for a partially collapsed lung. On February 11, 2010, he was rushed to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City after complaining of chest pains, and had two coronary stents implanted in his heart. As a guest on the final show of Larry King Live, King awkwardly stated that they were both members of the "zipper club". King later explained that he was referring to the zipper chest scar from open heart surgery, to which Clinton responded, "I'm glad you clarified that, Larry". It has been widely reported that Clinton has become a vegan for health reasons, but he still occasionally eats fish.

Honors and accolades

Clinton has received many honorary degrees. Schools have been named for him, and statues do homage him. He has been honored in various other ways, in countries that include the Czech Republic, New Guinea, Germany, and Kosovo. U.S. states where he has been honored include Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, and New York.

In 1993 Clinton was selected as Time Magazine's "Man of the Year", and again in 1998, along with Ken Starr.

From a poll conducted of the American people in December 1999, Clinton was among eighteen included in Gallup's List of Widely Admired People of the 20th century.

In 2004, he received a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children for narrating the Russian National Orchestra's album Wolf Tracks and Peter and the Wolf (along with Mikhail Gorbachev and Sophia Loren) and 2005 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for My Life. In 2005, he received the J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding, and 2007 TED Prize (named for the confluence of technology, entertainment and design).

On June 2, 2007, Clinton, along with former president George H.W. Bush, received the International Freedom Conductor Award, for their help with the fund raising following the tsunami that devastated South Asia in 2004. On June 13, 2007, Clinton was honored by the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria alongside eight multinational-companies for his work to defeat HIV/AIDS.

On September 9, 2008, Bill Clinton was named as the next chairman of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His term began January 1, 2009 and he succeeded Fmr. President George H. W. Bush.

In December 2010 Bill Clinton was named PETA's 2010 person of the year for using his influence "to promote the benefits of following a vegan diet."

References

Further reading

Primary sources

Clinton, Bill. My Life. (2004). ISBN 0-375-41457-6.

--- (with Al Gore). Science in the National Interest. Washington, D.C.: The White House, August 1994.

--- (with Al Gore). The Climate Change Action Plan. Washington, D.C.: The White House, October 1993.

--- (with Al Gore). Technology for America's economic growth, a new direction to build economic strength. Washington, D.C.: The White House, February 22, 1993.

Sidney Blumenthal The Clinton Wars. (2003). ISBN 0-374-12502-3

Taylor Branch The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President. (2009) Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781416543336

Kenneth Starr The Starr Report: The Findings of Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr on President Clinton and the Lewinsky Affair (1998) ISBN 1-891620-24-X

George Stephanopoulos All Too Human: A Political Education (1998) ISBN 0-316-92919-0

S. Daniel Abraham Peace is Possible, foreword by Bill Clinton

Popular books

Peter Baker The Breach: Inside the Impeachment and Trial of William Jefferson Clinton (2000) ISBN 0-684-86813-X

James Bovard Feeling Your Pain: The Explosion and Abuse of Government Power in the Clinton-Gore Years (2000) ISBN 0-312-23082-6

Joe Conason and Gene Lyons The Hunting of the President: The Ten-Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton (2003) ISBN 0-312-27319-3

Elizabeth Drew On the Edge: The Clinton Presidency (1994) ISBN 0-671-87147-1

David Gergen Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership. (2000) ISBN 0-684-82663-1

Nigel Hamilton Bill Clinton: An American Journey (2003) ISBN 0-375-50610-1

John F. Harris The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House (2005) ISBN 0-375-50847-3

Christopher Hitchens No One Left to Lie to: The Triangulations of William Jefferson Clinton (1999) ISBN 1-85984-736-6

Michael Isikoff Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter's Story (1999) ISBN 0-609-60393-0

Mark Katz Clinton and Me: A Real-Life Political Comedy (2004) ISBN 978-0-7868-6949-7

Joe Klein The Natural: The Misunderstood Presidency of Bill Clinton (2003) ISBN 0-7679-1412-0

David Maraniss First in His Class: A Biography of Bill Clinton (1996) ISBN 0-684-81890-6

David Maraniss The Clinton Enigma: A Four and a Half Minute Speech Reveals This President's Entire Life (1998) ISBN 0-684-86296-4

Dick Morris with Eileen McGann Because He Could (2004) ISBN 0-06-078415-6

Roger Morris (American writer) Partners in Power: The Clintons and Their America (1996) ISBN 0-89526-302-5

Richard A. Posner An Affair of State: The Investigation, Impeachment, and Trial of President Clinton (1999) ISBN 0-674-00080-3

Mark J. Rozell The Clinton Scandal and the Future of American Government (2000) ISBN 0-87840-777-4

Michael Waldman POTUS Speaks: Finding the Words That Defined the Clinton Presidency (2000) ISBN 0-7432-0020-9

Ivory Tower Publishing Company (1995) ISBN 0-88032-748-0

Academic studies

Cohen; Jeffrey E. "The Polls: Change and Stability in Public Assessments of Personal Traits, Bill Clinton, 1993-99" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 31, 2001

Cronin, Thomas E. and Michael A. Genovese; "President Clinton and Character Questions" Presidential Studies Quarterly Vol. 28, 1998

Davis; John. "The Evolution of American Grand Strategy and the War on Terrorism: Clinton and Bush Perspectives" White House Studies, Vol. 3, 2003

Edwards; George C. "Bill Clinton and His Crisis of Governance" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 28, 1998

Fisher; Patrick. "Clinton's Greatest Legislative Achievement? the Success of the 1993 Budget Reconciliation Bill" White House Studies, Vol. 1, 2001

Glad; Betty. "Evaluating Presidential Character" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 28, 1998

Gormley, Kenneth, The Death of American Virtue: Clinton vs Starr. Crown. (2010) ISBN 9780307409447

Harris, John F. The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House. (2005) ISBN 0-375-50847-3, biography

William G. Hyland. Clinton's World: Remaking American Foreign Policy (1999) ISBN 0-275-96396-9

Jewett, Aubrey W. and Marc D. Turetzky; " Stability and Change in President Clinton's Foreign Policy Beliefs, 1993-96" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 28, 1998

Johnson, Fard. "Politics, Propaganda and Public Opinion: The Influence of Race and Class on the 1993 - 1994 Health Care Reform Debate." (2004). ISBN 1-4116-6345-4

Laham, Nicholas, A Lost Cause: Bill Clinton's Campaign for National Health Insurance (1996)

Lanoue, David J. and Craig F. Emmert; "Voting in the Glare of the Spotlight: Representatives' Votes on the Impeachment of President Clinton" Polity, Vol. 32, 1999

Livingston, C. Don, Kenneth A. Wink; "The Passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement in the U.S. House of Representatives: Presidential Leadership or Presidential Luck?" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 27, 1997

Maurer; Paul J. "Media Feeding Frenzies: Press Behavior during Two Clinton Scandals" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 29, 1999

Nie; Martin A. "'It's the Environment, Stupid!': Clinton and the Environment" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 27, 1997

O'Connor; Brendon. "Policies, Principles, and Polls: Bill Clinton's Third Way Welfare Politics 1992-1996" The Australian Journal of Politics and History, Vol. 48, 2002

Poveda; Tony G. "Clinton, Crime, and the Justice Department" Social Justice, Vol. 21, 1994

Renshon; Stanley A. The Clinton Presidency: Campaigning, Governing, and the Psychology of Leadership Westview Press, 1995

Renshon; Stanley A. "The Polls: The Public's Response to the Clinton Scandals, Part 1: Inconsistent Theories, Contradictory Evidence" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 32, 2002

Rushefsky, Mark E. and Kant Patel. Politics, Power & Policy Making: The Case of Health Care Reform in the 1990s (1998) ISBN 1-56324-956-1

Schantz, Harvey L. Politics in an Era of Divided Government: Elections and Governance in the Second Clinton Administration (2001) ISBN 0-8153-3583-0

Wattenberg; Martin P. "The Democrats' Decline in the House during the Clinton Presidency: An Analysis of Partisan Swings" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 29, 1999

Wattier; Mark J. "The Clinton Factor: The Effects of Clinton's Personal Image in 2000 Presidential Primaries and in the General Election" White House Studies, Vol. 4, 2004

Smithers, Luken J. "The Miracle Whip"

External links

;Official

White House biography

Clinton Presidential Materials Project Archive of press releases and speech transcripts from the administration.

Clinton Presidential Library official website

Clinton School of Public Service

;Organizations

William J. Clinton Foundation official website

Clinton Global Initiative official website

;Talks and interviews

Oral History Interview with Bill Clinton from Oral Histories of the American South

TED Prize Wish: Bill Clinton on rebuilding Rwanda at TED in 2007

President Clinton: The Youtube Interview

The Wanderer- A profile of Clinton in The New Yorker, September 18, 2006, the most extensive interview in his post-presidency

;Articles

Full audio of a number of Clinton speeches via the Miller Center of Public Affairs (UVa)

Extensive essays on Bill Clinton and shorter essays on each member of his cabinet and First Lady from the Miller Center of Public Affairs

Armigerous American Presidents Series article from the American Heraldry Society.

Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture entry: Bill Clinton

;Books and movies

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