Bill Clinton

The 42nd president of the United States, Bill Clinton was the first baby boomer to inhabit the White House, rising from humble beginnings in Arkansas to become a political superstar. A youthful prodigy, Clinton became governor of Arkansas in 1978 when he was 32 and proved to have leadership qualities well beyond his years. He pulled off a Cinderella story by beating incumbent President George H.W. Bush to win the White House in 1992 by projecting an appealing charisma with left-leaning, sensitive yet sensible politics. Although his wife Hillary Rodham Clinton earned detractors and suffered a major defeat when her attempts at health care reform failed, Clinton himself earned the biggest public opinion black eye when he was impeached for obstructing justice in the case of his extramarital affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Nevertheless, Clinton proved a gifted president whose tenure was one of the most prosperous and peaceful of all time, with such historical accomplishments as passing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," NAFTA, gun control, and reforms to criminal law and welfare. After leaving office, Clinton built an impressive second act as a philanthropist and charming secret weapon of the Democratic Party, supporting both his wife in her 2008 presidential bid as well as the eventual winner of that election, Barack Obama. Although many found him polarizing while in office, Bill Clinton and his legacy were largely vindicated by history and his enormous political and oratorical gifts assured him an important role in America's past, present and future. He re-entered American politics in a highly visible fashion when Hillary Clinton became the first woman to accept the nomination of a major American political party in July 2016.