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William Jefferson \"Bill\" Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III; August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation. Clinton has been described as a New Democrat. Many of his policies have been attributed to a centrist Third Way philosophy of governance.

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Born and raised in Arkansas, Clinton became both a student leader and a skilled musician. He is an alumnus of Georgetown University where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Kappa Kappa Psi and earned a Rhodes Scholarship to attend the University of Oxford. He is married to Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has served as the United States Secretary of State since 2009 and was a Senator from New York from 2001 to 2009. Both Clintons received law degrees from Yale Law School, where they met and began dating. As Governor of Arkansas, Clinton overhauled the state\'s education system, and served as Chair of the National Governors Association.

Clinton was elected president in 1992, defeating incumbent president George H. W. Bush. As president, Clinton presided over the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in American history. He signed into law the North American Free Trade Agreement. He implemented Don\'t ask, don\'t tell, a controversial intermediate step to full gay military integration. After a failed health care reform attempt, Republicans won control of Congress in 1994, for the first time in forty years. Two years later, the re-elected Clinton became the first member of the Democratic Party since Franklin D. Roosevelt to win a second full term as president. He successfully passed welfare reform and the State Children\'s Health Insurance Program, providing health coverage for millions of children. Later, he was impeached for perjury and obstruction of justice in a scandal involving a White House intern, but was acquitted by the U.S. Senate and served his complete term of office. The Congressional Budget Office reported a budget surplus between the years 1998 and 2000, the last three years of Clinton\'s presidency.

Clinton left office with the highest end-of-office approval rating of any U.S. president since World War II. Since then, he has been involved in public speaking and humanitarian work. Based on his philanthropic worldview, Clinton created the William J. Clinton Foundation to promote and address international causes such as prevention of AIDS and global warming. In 2004, he released his autobiography My Life. He has remained active in politics by campaigning for Democratic candidates, most notably for his wife\'s campaign for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, and then Barack Obama\'s presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2012. In 2009, he was named United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti, and after the 2010 earthquake he teamed with George W. Bush to form the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund. Since leaving office, Clinton has been rated highly in public opinion polls of U.S. presidents.

Early life and career

William Jefferson Blythe III, in 1950 at age four

Bill Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe, III, at Julia Chester Hospital in Hope, Arkansas.[1][2] His father, William Jefferson Blythe, Jr., was a traveling salesman who died in an automobile accident three months before Bill was born.[3] His mother, Virginia Dell Cassidy (1923–1994), traveled to New Orleans to study nursing soon after he was born. She left Bill in Hope with grandparents Eldridge and Edith Cassidy, who owned and ran a small grocery store.[2] At a time when the Southern United States was segregated racially, Bill\'s grandparents sold goods on credit to people of all races.[2] In 1950, Bill\'s mother returned from nursing school and married Roger Clinton, Sr., who owned an automobile dealership in Hot Springs, Arkansas with his brother.[2] The family moved to Hot Springs in 1950.

Bill Clinton boyhood home in Hope, Arkansas

Although he assumed use of his stepfather\'s surname, it was not until Billy (as he was known then) turned fifteen[4] that he formally adopted the surname Clinton as a gesture toward his stepfather.[2] Clinton says he remembers his stepfather as a gambler and an alcoholic who regularly abused his mother and half-brother, Roger Clinton, Jr., to the point where he intervened multiple times with the threat of violence to protect them.[2][5]

In Hot Springs, Bill 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.[2] He was in the chorus and played the tenor saxophone, winning first chair in the state band\'s saxophone section. He briefly considered dedicating his life to music, but as he noted in his autobiography My Life:

\"Sometime in my sixteenth year, I decided I wanted to be in public life as an elected official. I loved music and thought I could be very good, but I knew I would never be John Coltrane or Stan Getz. I was interested in medicine and thought I could be a fine doctor, but I knew I would never be Michael DeBakey. But I knew I could be great in public service.\"[2]

Clinton has named two influential moments in his life that contributed to his decision to become a public figure, both occurring in 1963. One was his visit as a Boys Nation senator to the White House to meet President John F. Kennedy.[2][5] The other was listening to Martin Luther King\'s 1963 I Have a Dream speech, which impressed him enough that he later memorized it.[6]

College and law school years Clinton ran for President of the Student Council while attending the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

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.[2] While in college, he became a brother of Alpha Phi Omega and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Clinton was also a member of the Order of DeMolay, a youth group affiliated with Freemasonry, but he never became a Freemason.[7] He is a member of Kappa Kappa Psi honorary band fraternity.[8]

Upon graduation, he won a Rhodes Scholarship to University College, Oxford where he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics, though because he had switched programs and had left early for Yale University, he did not receive a degree there.[5][9] He developed an interest in rugby union, playing at Oxford[10] and later for the Little Rock Rugby club in Arkansas. While at Oxford he also participated in Vietnam War protests and organized an October 1969 Moratorium event.[2]

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.[11] 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.\"[12][13] Although legal, Clinton\'s actions were criticized by conservatives and some Vietnam veterans during his presidential campaign in 1992.[14][15][16]

After Oxford, Clinton attended Yale Law School and earned a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree in 1973.[5] In a Yale library in 1971 he met fellow law student Hillary Rodham, who was a year ahead of him.[17] They began dating and soon were inseparable. After only about a month, Clinton postponed his plans to be a coordinator for the McGovern campaign for the 1972 United States presidential election in order to move in with her in California.[18] They later married on October 11, 1975, and their only child, Chelsea, was born on February 27, 1980.[17]

Clinton did eventually move to Texas with Rodham to take a job leading McGovern\'s effort there in 1972. He spent considerable time in Dallas, at the campaign\'s local headquarters on Lemmon Avenue, where he had an office. There, Clinton worked with future two-term mayor of Dallas, Ron Kirk, future governor of Texas, Ann Richards, and then unknown television director (and future filmmaker), Steven Spielberg.

Political career 1978–1992 Further information: Electoral history of Bill Clinton Governor of Arkansas Further information: Arkansas gubernatorial election, 1978, Arkansas gubernatorial election, 1980, and Arkansas gubernatorial election, 1982

After graduating from Yale Law School, Clinton returned to Arkansas and became a law professor at the University of Arkansas. A year later, he ran for the House of Representatives in 1974. The incumbent, Republican John Paul Hammerschmidt, defeated Clinton in the general election by a 52% to 48% margin. With only minor opposition in the primary and no opposition at all in the general election,[19] Clinton was elected Arkansas Attorney General in 1976.[5]

Clinton, as the newly elected Governor of Arkansas, meeting with President Jimmy Carter in 1978

Clinton was elected Governor of Arkansas in 1978, having defeated the Republican candidate Lynn Lowe, a farmer from Texarkana. He became the youngest governor in the country at 32. Due to his youthful appearance, Clinton was often called the \"Boy Governor\", a referent that continues to be used to refer to him during his gubernatorial era on occasion.[20][21][22] He worked on educational reform and Arkansas\'s roads, with wife Hillary leading a successful committee on urban health care reform. However, his term included an unpopular motor vehicle tax and citizens\' anger over the escape of Cuban refugees (from the Mariel boatlift) detained in Fort Chaffee in 1980. Monroe Schwarzlose of Kingsland in Cleveland County, polled 31% of the vote against Clinton in the Democratic gubernatorial primary of 1980. Some suggested Schwarzlose\'s unexpected voter turnout foreshadowed Clinton\'s defeat in the general election that year by Republican challenger Frank D. White. As Clinton once joked, he was the youngest ex-governor in the nation\'s history.[5]

Clinton joined friend Bruce Lindsey\'s Little Rock law firm of Wright, Lindsey and Jennings.[23] In 1982, he was again elected governor and kept this job for ten years.[19] He helped Arkansas transform its economy and significantly improve the state\'s educational system. He became a leading figure among the New Democrats.[24][25] The New Democrats, organized as the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), were a branch of the Democratic Party that called for welfare reform and smaller government, a policy supported by both Democrats and Republicans. He gave the Democratic response to President Reagan\'s 1985 State of the Union Address and served as Chair of the National Governors Association from 1986 to 1987, bringing him to an audience beyond Arkansas.[5] Clinton made economic growth, job creation and educational improvement high priorities. For senior citizens, he removed the sales tax from medications and increased the home property-tax exemption.[24]

In the early 1980s, Clinton made reform of the Arkansas education system a top priority. The Arkansas Education Standards Committee, chaired by Clinton\'s wife, attorney and Legal Services Corporation chair Hillary Rodham Clinton, succeeded in reforming the education system, transforming it from the worst in the nation into one of the best. Many have considered this the greatest achievement of the Clinton governorship. Clinton and the committee were responsible for state educational improvement programs, notably more spending for schools, rising opportunities for gifted children, an increase in vocational education, raising of teachers\' salaries, inclusion of a wider variety of courses, and compulsory teacher testing for aspiring educators.[5][24] He defeated 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).[19]

The Clintons\' personal and business affairs during the 1980s included transactions that became the basis of the Whitewater investigation that dogged his later presidential administration.[26] After extensive investigation over several years, no indictments were made against the Clintons related to the years in Arkansas.[5][27]

According to some sources, Clinton was in his early years a death penalty opponent who switched positions.[28][29] During Clinton\'s term, Arkansas performed its first executions since 1964 (the death penalty had been re-enacted on March 23, 1973).[30] As Governor, he oversaw four executions: one by electric chair and three by lethal injection. Later, as president, Clinton was the first President to pardon a death-row inmate since the federal death penalty was reintroduced in 1988.[31]

Democratic presidential primaries of 1988 Governor and Mrs. Clinton attend the Dinner Honoring the Nation\'s Governors in the White House 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).[32] For the nomination, Clinton endorsed Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis. He gave the nationally televised opening night address at the 1988 Democratic National Convention, but his speech, which was 33 minutes long and twice as long as it was expected to be, was criticized for being too long[33] and poorly delivered.[34] 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.[24][35]

1992 presidential campaign Further information: Democratic Party (United States) presidential primaries, 1992, United States presidential election, 1992, and Bill Clinton presidential campaign, 1992

In the first primary contest, the Iowa caucus, Clinton finished a 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,[5] following Super Bowl XXVI, Clinton and his wife Hillary went on 60 Minutes to rebuff the charges. Their television appearance was a calculated risk, but Clinton regained several delegates. He finished second to Tsongas in the New Hampshire primary, but after trailing badly in the polls and coming within single digits of winning, the media viewed it as a victory. News outlets labeled him \"The Comeback Kid\" for earning a firm second-place finish.[36]

Winning the big prizes of Florida and Texas and many of the Southern primaries on Super Tuesday gave Clinton a sizable delegate lead. However, former California Governor Jerry Brown was scoring victories and Clinton had yet to win a significant contest outside his native South.[5][35] With no major Southern state remaining, Clinton targeted New York, which had many delegates. He scored a resounding victory in New York City, shedding his image as a regional candidate.[35] Having been transformed into the consensus candidate, he secured the Democratic Party nomination, finishing with a victory in Jerry Brown\'s home state of California.[5]

Clinton family in White House

During the campaign, questions of conflict of interest regarding state business and the politically powerful Rose Law Firm, at which Hillary Rodham Clinton was a partner, arose. Clinton argued the questions were moot because all transactions with the state had been deducted before determining Hillary\'s firm pay.[2][37] Further concern arose when Bill Clinton announced that, with Hillary, voters would be getting two presidents \"for the price of one\".[38]

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 did not understand the idea 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 The New York Times article as a possible political move to counter \"soft on crime\" accusations.[28][39]

Because Bush\'s approval ratings were in the 80% range during the Gulf War, he was described as unbeatable. However, when Bush compromised with Democrats to try to lower Federal deficits, he reneged on his promise not to raise taxes, hurting his approval rating. Clinton repeatedly condemned Bush for making a promise he failed to keep.[35] By election time, the economy was souring and Bush saw his approval rating plummet to just slightly over 40%.[35][40] 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.[41] 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.[42] Many Democrats who had supported Ronald Reagan and Bush in previous elections switched their support to Clinton.[43] Clinton and his running mate, Al Gore, toured the country during the final weeks of the campaign, shoring up support and pledging a \"new beginning\".[43]

Clinton won the 1992 presidential election (43.0% of the vote) against Republican incumbent George H. W. Bush (37.4% of the vote) and billionaire populist Ross Perot, who ran as an independent (18.9% of the vote) on a platform focusing on domestic issues; a significant part of Clinton\'s success was Bush\'s steep decline in public approval.[43] 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,[3] the first time one party controlled both the executive and legislative branches since Democrats held the 95th United States Congress during the Jimmy Carter presidency in the late 1970s.[44]

Presidency, 1993–2001 Main article: Presidency of Bill Clinton Countries visited by President Clinton during his terms in office

During his presidency, Clinton advocated for a wide variety of legislation and programs, much of which was enacted into law or was implemented by the executive branch. 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.[45][46] Clinton presided over the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in American history.[47][48][49] The Congressional Budget Office reported budget surpluses of $69 billion in 1998, $126 billion in 1999, and $236 billion in 2000,[50] during the last three years of Clinton\'s presidency.[51] At the end of his presidency, Clinton moved to New York and helped his wife win election to the U.S. Senate there.

First term, 1993–1997

Clinton takes the oath of office during his 1993 presidential inauguration on January 20, 1993. First inauguration of Bill Clinton (January 20, 1993) Video of the First inauguration of Bill Clinton. First inauguration of Bill Clinton (January 20, 1993) audio only version Problems listening to these files? See media help.

Clinton was inaugurated as the 42nd President of the United States on January 20, 1993. Shortly after taking office, Clinton signed the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 on February 5, which required large employers to allow employees to take unpaid leave for pregnancy or a serious medical condition. This action had bipartisan support,[52] and proved quite popular with the public.[53]

Budget Deficit in Billions of Dollars (1971-2001). There were budget surpluses from 1998-2001.

On February 15, 1993, Clinton made his first address to the nation, announcing his plan to raise taxes to cap the budget deficit.[54] Two days later, in a nationally televised address to a joint session of Congress, Clinton unveiled his economic plan. The plan focused on reducing the deficit rather than on cutting taxes for the middle class, which had been high on his campaign agenda.[55] Clinton\'s advisers pressured him to raise taxes on the theory that a smaller federal budget deficit would reduce bond interest rates.[56]

On May 19, 1993, Clinton fired seven employees of the White House Travel Office, causing a controversy even though the Travel Office staff served at the pleasure of the President, who could dismiss them without cause. The White House responded to the controversy by claiming the firings were done because of financial improprieties that had been revealed by a brief FBI investigation.[57] 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.[58]

\"Our democracy must be not only the envy of the world but the engine of our own renewal. There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.\"

Inaugural address, January 20, 1993.[59]

Clinton signed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 in August of that year, which passed Congress without a Republican vote. It cut taxes for fifteen million low-income families, made tax cuts available to 90% of small businesses,[60] 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.[61]

Clinton, Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat during the Oslo Accords on 13 September 1993.

Clinton made a major speech to Congress regarding a health care reform plan on September 22, 1993, aimed at achieving universal coverage through a national health care plan. This was one of the most prominent items on Clinton\'s legislative agenda, and resulted from a task force headed by Hillary Clinton. Though at first well received in political circles, it was eventually 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 coordination within the White House.[27] Despite the Democratic majority in Congress, the effort to create a national health care system ultimately died when compromise legislation by George J. Mitchell failed to gain a majority of support in August 1994. It was the first major legislative defeat of Clinton\'s administration.[24][27]

In November 1993, David Hale, the source of criminal allegations against Bill Clinton in the Whitewater affair, alleged that Clinton, while governor of Arkansas, pressured him to provide an illegal $300,000 loan to Susan McDougal, the partner of the Clintons in the Whitewater land deal.[62] 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.

Clinton signed the Brady Bill into law on November 30, 1993, which imposed a five-day waiting period on handgun purchases. He also expanded the Earned Income Tax Credit, a subsidy for low-income workers.[27]

In December of that year, allegations by Arkansas state troopers Larry Patterson and Roger Perry were first reported by David Brock in the American Spectator. Later known as Troopergate, the allegations by these men were that they arranged sexual liaisons for Bill Clinton back when he was governor of Arkansas. 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.\"[63]

Remarks on the Signing of NAFTA (December 8, 1993) Clinton\'s December 8, 1993 remarks on the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement Remarks on the Signing of NAFTA (December 8, 1993) audio only version Problems listening to these files? See media help.

That month, Clinton implemented a Department of Defense directive known as \"Don\'t Ask, Don\'t Tell\", which allowed gay men and women to serve in the armed services provided they kept their sexuality a secret, and forbade the military from inquiring about an individual\'s sexual orientation.[64] This move garnered criticism from the left (for being too tentative in promoting gay rights) and from the right (who opposed any effort to allow gays to serve). Some gay-rights advocates criticized Clinton for not going far enough and accused him of making his campaign promise to get votes and contributions.[65] Their position was that Clinton should have integrated the military by executive order, noting that President Harry Truman used executive order to racially desegregate the armed forces. Clinton\'s defenders argue that an executive order might have prompted the Senate to write the exclusion of gays into law, potentially making it harder to integrate the military in the future.[24] Later in his presidency, in 1999, Clinton criticized the way the policy was implemented, saying he did not think any serious person could say it was not \"out of whack.\"[66] The policy remained controversial, and was finally repealed in 2011, removing open sexual preference as a reason for dismissal from the armed forces.[67]

On January 1, 1994, Clinton signed the North American Free Trade Agreement into law.[68] Throughout his first year in office, Clinton consistently supported ratification of the treaty by the U.S. Senate. Clinton and most of his allies in the Democratic Leadership Committee strongly supported free trade measures; there remained, however, strong disagreement within the party. 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.[68]

Clinton\'s 1994 Omnibus Crime Bill made many changes to U.S. law, including the expansion of the death penalty to include crimes not resulting in death, such as running a large-scale drug enterprise. 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.\"[69]

\"When I took office, only high energy physicists had ever heard of what is called the Worldwide Web.... Now even my cat has its own page.\"

Bill Clinton\'s announcement of Next Generation Internet initiative, 1996.[70]

The Clinton administration also launched the first official White House website, whitehouse.gov, on October 21, 1994.[71][72] It was followed by three more versions, resulting in the final edition launched in 2000.[73][74] 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 utilize information technology fully to make the information of the agency easily accessible to the public.\"[75]

After two years of Democratic Party control, the Democrats lost control of Congress in the mid-term elections in 1994, for the first time in forty years.[76]

Clinton and Boris Yeltsin share a laugh in October 1995.

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.[77] 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\".[78]

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.[79] In March 2000, Independent Counsel Robert Ray determined that there was no credible evidence of any crime. Ray\'s report further stated, \"there was no substantial and credible evidence that any senior White House official was involved\" in seeking the files.[80]

On September 21, 1996, barely three years after the \"Don\'t Ask, Don\'t Tell\" imbroglio, and further straining relations with the LGBT community, Clinton signed into law the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines marriage as the legal union of one man and one woman.[81] Paul Yandura, speaking for the White House gay and lesbian liaison office, said that Clinton\'s signing of DOMA \"was a political decision that they made at the time of a re-election.\" Administration spokesman Richard Socarides said, \"... the alternatives we knew were going to be far worse, and it was time to move on and get the president re-elected.\"[82] Clinton himself stated that DOMA was something \"which the Republicans put on the ballot to try to get the base vote for President Bush up, I think it’s obvious that something had to be done to try to keep the Republican Congress from presenting that.\"[83] Others were more critical. Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) called these claims \"historic revisionism”.[82] In a July 2, 2011 editorial the New York Times opined, \"The Defense of Marriage Act was enacted in 1996 as an election-year wedge issue, signed by President Bill Clinton in one of his worst policy moments.\"[84]

As part of a 1996 initiative to curb illegal immigration, Clinton signed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) on September 30, 1996. Appointed by Clinton,[85] the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform recommended reducing legal immigration from about 800,000 people a year to about 550,000.[86][87]

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, before and during the Clinton administration, and involved the fundraising practices of the administration itself. The Chinese government denied all accusations.[88]

Second term, 1997–2001 President Bill Clinton (center), first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton (right) and their daughter Chelsea Clinton (left) wave to watchers at a parade down Pennsylvania Avenue on Inauguration Day, January 20, 1997.

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.[89] The Republicans lost a few seats in the House and gained a few in the Senate, but retained control of both houses of the 105th United States Congress. Clinton received 379, or over 70% of the Electoral College votes, with Dole receiving 159 electoral votes.

Al Gore and Newt Gingrich applaud as US president Clinton waves during the State of the Union address in 1997.

In the January 1997 State of the Union address, Clinton proposed a new initiative to provide coverage to up to five million children. 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 State Children\'s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), the largest (successful) health care reform in the years of the Clinton Presidency. That year, Hillary Clinton shepherded through Congress the Adoption and Safe Families Act and two years later she succeeded in helping pass the Foster Care Independence Act.

Impeachment

In a lame-duck session of Congress after the 1998 elections, the House voted to impeach Clinton, based on the results of the Lewinsky scandal.[27] This made Clinton only the second U.S. president to be impeached (the first being Andrew Johnson). Impeachment proceedings were based on allegations that Clinton had lied about his relationship with 22-year-old White House intern Monica Lewinsky in a sworn deposition in the Paula Jones lawsuit.[90] After the Starr Report was submitted to the House providing what it termed \"substantial and credible information that President Clinton Committed Acts that May Constitute Grounds for an Impeachment\",[91] the House began impeachment hearings against Clinton before the mid-term elections. To hold impeachment proceedings, the Republican leadership called a lame-duck session in December 1998.

The impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton in 1999, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist 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 with 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 Lewinsky during a sexual harassment lawsuit[92] 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.[93] The Senate refused to meet 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.[94] The Senate finished a twenty-one-day trial on February 12, 1999, with the vote (55 Not Guilty/45 Guilty) on both counts falling short of the Constitutional two-thirds majority requirement to convict and remove an officeholder. The final vote was generally along party lines, with no Democrats voting guilty, and only a handful of Republicans voting not guilty.[93]

Clinton controversially issued 141 pardons and 36 commutations on his last day in office on January 20, 2001.[27][95] 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.[96] Some of Clinton\'s pardons remain a point of controversy.[97]

Military and foreign events Further information: Foreign policy of the Bill Clinton administration President Clinton speaks with Col. Paul Fletcher, USAF, before boarding Air Force One, November 4, 1999.

Many military events occurred during Clinton\'s presidency. The Battle of Mogadishu also occurred in Somalia in 1993. During the operation, two U.S. 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.

General John P. Jumper, U.S. Air Forces in Europe commander, escorts President William Jefferson Clinton upon his arrival to Ramstein Air Base, Germany, May 5, 1999. The president visited several European air bases to thank the troops (not shown) for their support of NATO Operations Allied Force and Shining Hope, 1999.

Capturing Osama bin Laden had been an objective of the United States government from the presidency of Bill Clinton until bin Laden\'s death in 2011.[98] It has been asserted by Mansoor Ijaz 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,[99] 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.[99] However, the 9/11 Commission found that although \"former Sudanese officials claim that Sudan offered to expel Bin Laden to the United States\", \"we have not found any reliable evidence to support the Sudanese claim.\"[100] In 1998, two years after the warning, the Clinton administration ordered several military missions to capture or kill bin Laden that failed.[101]

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. First was a Sudanese Pharmaceutical company suspected of assisting Osama Bin Laden in making chemical weapons. The second was Bin Laden\'s terrorist training camps in Afghanistan.[102] Clinton was subsequently criticized when it turned out that a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan (originally alleged to be a chemical warfare plant) had been destroyed.

President Clinton greets Air Force personnel at Spangdahlem Air Base, May 5, 1999.

To stop the ethnic cleansing and genocide[103][104] of Albanians by nationalist Serbs 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.[105] NATO announced that its forces had suffered zero combat deaths,[106] and two deaths from an Apache helicopter crash.[107] Opinions in the popular press criticized pre-war genocide statements by the Clinton administration as greatly exaggerated.[108][109] A U.N. Court ruled genocide did not take place, but recognized, \"a systematic campaign of terror, including murders, rapes, arsons and severe maltreatments\".[110] 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.[111] 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.\"[112]

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

Together we must also confront the new hazards of chemical and biological weapons, and the outlaw states, terrorists and organized criminals seeking to acquire them. Saddam Hussein has spent the better part of this decade, and much of his nation\'s wealth, not on providing for the Iraqi people, but on developing nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and the missiles to deliver them. The United Nations weapons inspectors have done a truly remarkable job, finding and destroying more of Iraq\'s arsenal than was destroyed during the entire gulf war. Now, Saddam Hussein wants to stop them from completing their mission. I know I speak for everyone in this chamber, Republicans and Democrats, when I say to Saddam Hussein, \"You cannot defy the will of the world\", and when I say to him, \"You have used weapons of mass destruction before; we are determined to deny you the capacity to use them again.[113] Bill Clinton and Jiang Zemin 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 provide for direct intervention on the part of American military forces.[114] 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.[115] 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.[116] Further, the Clinton administration signed over 270 trade liberalization pacts with other countries during its tenure.[117] On October 10, 2000, Clinton signed into law the U.S.–China Relations Act of 2000, which granted permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) trade status to People\'s Republic of China.[118] The president asserted that free trade would gradually open China to democratic reform.[119] 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.[120]

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.[27] Following the peace talk failures, Clinton stated Arafat \"missed the opportunity\" to facilitate a \"just and lasting peace.\" In his autobiography, Clinton blames Arafat for the collapse of the summit.[2][121] The situation broke down completely with the start of the Second Intifada.[27]

Judicial appointments Main articles: Bill Clinton Supreme Court candidates and Bill Clinton judicial appointments

Clinton appointed the following justices to the Supreme Court:

Ruth Bader Ginsburg – 1993[122]
Stephen Breyer – 1994[123]

Along with 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 373 judicial appointments are the second most in American history behind those of Ronald Reagan. Clinton also experienced a number of judicial appointment controversies, as 69 nominees to federal judgeships were not processed by the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee. In all, 84% of his nominees were confirmed.[124]

Public opinion Clinton\'s approval ratings throughout his presidential career

Clinton\'s job approval rating fluctuated in the 40s and 50s throughout his first term. In his second term, his rating consistently ranged from the high-50s to the high-60s.[125] After his impeachment proceedings in 1998 and 1999, Clinton\'s rating reached its highest point.[126] 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.[127]

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?\" Forty-seven percent of the respondents identified themselves as being Clinton supporters. The same percentage 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\".[128]

The Gallup Organization published a poll in February 2007, a correspondents to name the greatest president in U.S. history; Clinton came in fourth place, capturing 13% of the vote. In a 2006 Quinnipiac University Polling Institute poll asking respondents to name the best president since World War II, Clinton ranked number two behind Ronald Reagan. However, in the same poll, when respondents were asked to name the worst president since World War II, Clinton was placed number three behind Richard Nixon and George W. Bush.[129] 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.[130]

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.\"[131] After leaving office, Clinton\'s Gallup Poll rating of 66% was the highest approval rating of any postwar, three points ahead of both Reagan and John F. Kennedy.[132]

Bill Clinton\'s official White House portrait

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 George W. Bush received 15%, George H. W. Bush received 7%, and Jimmy Carter received 5%.[133]

Public image Main article: Public image of Bill Clinton

As the first baby boomer president, Clinton was the first president in a half-century not to have been alive during World War II.[134] Authors Martin Walker and Bob Woodward state Clinton\'s innovative use of sound bite-ready dialogue, personal charisma, and public perception-oriented campaigning was a major factor in his high public approval ratings.[135][136] When Clinton played the saxophone on The Arsenio Hall Show, he was described by some religious conservatives as \"the MTV president.\"[137] Opponents sometimes referred to him as \"Slick Willie\",[138] a nickname first applied while he was governor of Arkansas and lasting throughout his presidency.[139] Standing at a height of 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m), Clinton is tied with five others as the fourth-tallest president in the nation\'s history.[140][141] His folksy manner led him to be nicknamed \"Bubba\", especially in the Southern U.S.[142] Since 2000, he has frequently been referred to as \"The Big Dog\" or \"Big Dog.\"[143][144]

Clinton greets a Hurricane Katrina evacuee, who is in a wheelchair, in the Reliant Center at the Houston Astrodome on September 5, 2005. Standing behind Clinton is then-Senator Barack Obama.

Clinton drew strong support from the African American community and made improving race relations a major theme of his presidency.[145] In 1998, Nobel laureate Toni Morrison 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\".[146] Noting that Clinton\'s sex life was scrutinized more than his career accomplishments, Morrison compared this to the stereotyping and double standards that blacks typically endure.[146]

Allegations of sexual misconduct Main article: Sexual misconduct allegations against Bill Clinton

Clinton has been subject to several allegations of sexual misconduct, though he has only admitted extramarital relationships with Monica Lewinsky and Gennifer Flowers.[147]

In 1994, Paula Jones brought a sexual harassment lawsuit against Clinton, claiming he made unwanted advances in 1991, which he denied. The case was initially dismissed,[148] but Jones appealed.[149] During the deposition for the Jones lawsuit, which was held at the White House,[150] Clinton denied having sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky – a denial that became the basis for the impeachment charge of perjury.[151] He later agreed to an out-of-court settlement and paid $850,000.[152] His attorney Bob Bennett stated that he only made the settlement so he could end the lawsuit for good and move on with his life.[153]

In 1992 nude model and actress Gennifer Flowers stated that she had a relationship with Clinton that began in 1980.[154] Flowers at first denied that she had an affair with Clinton, but later changed her story.[155][156] Clinton admitted that he had a sexual encounter with Flowers.[157]

In 1998, Kathleen Willey alleged Clinton groped her in a hallway in 1993. An independent counsel determined Willey gave \"false information\" to the FBI, inconsistent with sworn testimony related to the Jones allegation.[158] Also in 1998, Juanita Broaddrick alleged Clinton had raped her though she did not remember the exact date, which may have been 1978.[159] In another 1998 event, Elizabeth Ward Gracen recanted a six-year-old denial and stated she had a one night stand with Clinton in 1982.[160] Gracen later apologized to Hillary Clinton.[161] Throughout the year, however, Gracen eluded a subpoena from Kenneth Starr to testify her claim in court.[162]

Post-presidential career Main article: Post-presidency of Bill Clinton William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park, dedicated in 2004

Bill Clinton continues to be active in public life, giving speeches, fundraising, and founding charitable organizations.[163] Altogether, Clinton has spoken at the last six Democratic National Conventions, dating to 1988.

Activities up until 2008 campaign

In 2002, Clinton warned that pre-emptive military action against Iraq would have unwelcome consequences.[164][165] In 2005, Clinton criticized the Bush administration for its handling of emissions control, while speaking at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Montreal.[166]

The William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park in Little Rock, Arkansas was dedicated in 2004.[167] Clinton released a best-selling autobiography, My Life in 2004.[168] In 2007, he released Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World, which also became a The New York Times Best Seller and garnered positive reviews.[169]

Clinton with former President George H. W. Bush in January 2005

In the aftermath of the 2005 Asian tsunami, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed Clinton to head a relief effort.[170] After Hurricane Katrina, Clinton joined with fellow former President George H. W. Bush to establish the Bush-Clinton Tsunami Fund in January 2005, and the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund in October of that year.[171] As part of the tsunami effort, these two ex-presidents appeared in a Super Bowl XXXIX pre-game show,[172] and traveled to the affected areas.[173] They also spoke together at the funeral of Boris Yeltsin in 2007.[174]

Based on his philanthropic worldview,[175] Clinton created the William J. Clinton Foundation to address issues of global importance. This 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.[176] In 2005, Clinton announced through his foundation an agreement with manufacturers to stop selling sugared drinks in schools.[177] 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.[178] The foundation has received donations from a number of governments all over the world, including Asia and the Middle East.[179] In 2008, Foundation director Inder Singh announced that deals to reduce the price of anti-malaria drugs by 30% in developing nations.[180] Clinton also spoke in favor of California Proposition 87 on alternative energy, which was voted down.[181]

2008 presidential election

During the 2008 Democratic presidential primary campaign, Clinton vigorously advocated on behalf of his wife, Hillary Clinton. Through speaking engagements and fundraisers, he was able to raise $10 million toward her campaign.[182] Some worried that as an ex-president, he was too active on the trail, too negative to Clinton rival Barack Obama, and alienating his supporters at home and abroad.[183] 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.[184] Considering Bill\'s remarks, many thought that he could not rally Hillary supporters behind Obama after Obama won the primary.[185] 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\".[186] After Hillary Clinton\'s presidential campaign was over, Bill Clinton continued to raise funds to help pay off her campaign debt.[187][188]

After the 2008 election Clinton with President Barack Obama and Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett in July 2010

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.[189] Jimmy Carter had made a similar visit in 1994.[189] After Clinton met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, Kim issued a pardon.[190][191]

Since then, Clinton has been assigned a number of other diplomatic missions. He was named United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti in 2009.[192] In response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake, U.S. President Barack Obama announced that Clinton and George W. Bush would coordinate efforts to raise funds for Haiti\'s recovery.[193] Clinton continues to visit Haiti to witness the inauguration of refugee villages, and to raise funds for victims of the earthquake.[194] In 2010, Clinton announced support of, and delivered the keynote address for, the inauguration of NTR, Ireland\'s first Environmental foundation.[195][196] In July 2012, Clinton gave the keynote address at the Re|Source Conference, a collaboration between Oxford University, the Stordalen Foundation and the Rothschild Foundation.[197] At the 2012 Democratic National Convention, Clinton gave a widely praised speech nominating Barack Obama.

Post-presidential health concerns

In September 2004, Clinton received a quadruple bypass surgery.[198] In March 2005, he underwent surgery for a partially collapsed lung.[199] 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.[198][200] After this experience, Clinton adopted the plant-based whole foods (vegan) diet recommended by doctors Dean Ornish and Caldwell Esselstyn.[201]

Honors and accolades Secretary of Defense Cohen presents President Clinton the DoD Medal for Distinguished Public Service. Monumental Clinton statue on Bill Clinton Boulevard in the capital of the Republic of Kosovo. Main article: List of honors and awards earned by Bill Clinton

Various colleges and universities have awarded Clinton honorary degrees, including Doctorate of Law degrees[202][203] and Doctor of Humane Letters degrees.[204] Schools have been named for Clinton,[205][206][207] and statues do homage him.[208][209][210] U.S. states where he has been honored include Missouri,[211] Arkansas,[212] Kentucky,[213] and New York.[214] He was presented with the Medal for Distinguished Public Service by Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen in 2001.[215] The Clinton Presidential Center was opened in Little Rock, Arkansas in his honor on December 5, 2001.[216]

He has been honored in various other ways, in countries that include the Czech Republic,[217] Papua New Guinea,[218] Germany,[219] and Kosovo.[208] The Republic of Kosovo, in gratitude for his help during the Kosovo War, renamed a major street in the capital city of Pristina as Bill Clinton Boulevard and added a monumental Clinton statue.[220][221][222]

In 1993, Clinton was selected as Time\'s \"Man of the Year\",[223] and again in 1998, along with Ken Starr.[224] 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.[225] He has been honored with a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children, a J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding,[226] a TED Prize (named for the confluence of technology, entertainment and design),[227] and many other awards and honors.

Authored books

Between Hope and History. New York: Times Books. 1996. ISBN 978-0-8129-2913-3.
My Life (1st ed.). New York: Vintage Books. 2004. ISBN 978-1-4000-3003-3.
Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World (1st ed.). New York: Knopf. 2007. ISBN 0-307-26674-5.
Back to Work: Why We Need Smart Government for a Strong Economy. Knopf. 2011. ISBN 978-0-307-95975-1. [link removed by ].

Albert Arnold \"Al\" Gore, Jr. (born March 31, 1948) served as the 45th Vice President of the United States (1993–2001), under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party\'s nominee for President and lost the 2000 U.S. presidential election despite winning the popular vote.

Gore is currently an author and Environmental activist. He has founded a number of non-profit organizations, including the Alliance for Climate Protection, and has received a Nobel Peace Prize for his work in climate change activism.[4]

Gore was previously an elected official for 24 years, representing Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives (1977–85), and later in the U.S. Senate (1985–93), and finally becoming Vice President in 1993. In the 2000 presidential election, Gore won the popular vote by a margin of more than 500,000 votes. However, he ultimately lost the Electoral College to Republican George W. Bush when the U.S. Supreme Court settled the legal controversy over the Florida vote recount by ruling 5-4 in favor of Bush.[5] It was the only time in history that the Supreme Court has determined the outcome of a presidential election.[6]

Gore is the founder and current chair of the Alliance for Climate Protection, the co-founder and chair of Generation Investment Management, the co-founder and chair of Current TV, a member of the Board of Directors of Apple Inc., and a senior adviser to Google.[7] Gore is also a partner in the venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, heading its climate change solutions group.[8][9] He has served as a visiting professor at Middle Tennessee State University, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Fisk University, and the University of California, Los Angeles.[7][10][11][12] He is also a member of the Board of Directors of World Resources Institute.

Gore has received a number of awards including the Nobel Peace Prize (joint award with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) (2007), a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album (2009) for his book An Inconvenient Truth,[13] a Primetime Emmy Award for Current TV (2007), and a Webby Award (2005). Gore was also the subject of the Academy Award-winning (2007) documentary An Inconvenient Truth in 2006. In 2007 he was named a runner-up for Time\'s 2007 Person of the Year.[

Early life

Albert Gore, Jr. was born in Washington, D.C., the second of two children of Albert Gore, Sr., a U.S. Representative who later served as a U.S. Senator from Tennessee, and Pauline LaFon Gore, one of the first women to graduate from Vanderbilt University Law School.[15] Gore is partly descended from Scots-Irish immigrants who first settled in Virginia in the mid-17th-century, and moved to Tennessee after the Revolutionary War.[16] His older sister Nancy LaFon Gore, who was born in 1938, died of lung cancer in 1984.[17]

During the school year he lived with his family in The Fairfax Hotel in the Embassy Row section in Washington D.C.[18] During the summer months, he worked on the family farm in Carthage, Tennessee, where the Gores grew Tobacco and hay[19][20] and raised cattle.[21]

Gore attended the all-boys St. Albans School in Washington, D.C. from 1956 to 1965, a prestigious feeder school for the Ivy League.[22][23] He was the captain of the football team, threw discus for the track and field team, and participated in basketball, art, and government.[15][18][24][25] He graduated 25th in his class of 51, applied to only one college, Harvard, and was accepted.[22][23]

Marriage and family

He met Mary Elizabeth \"Tipper\" Aitcheson from the nearby St. Agnes School at his St. Albans senior prom in 1965.[18] Tipper followed Gore to Boston to attend college,[17] and on May 19, 1970, shortly after Tipper graduated from Boston University, they married at the Washington National Cathedral.[17][26][27][28]

They have four children, Karenna (b. 1973), Kristin Carlson Gore (b. 1977), Sarah LaFon Gore (b. 1979), and Albert Gore III (b. 1982).[2]

In early June 2010, shortly after purchasing a new home,[29] the Gores announced in an e-mail to friends that after \"long and careful consideration,\" they had made a mutual decision to separate.[30]

Harvard, Vietnam, journalism, and Vanderbilt (1965–1976) Harvard

Gore enrolled in Harvard College in 1965, initially planning to major in English and write novels, but later deciding to major in government.[22][23] On his second day on campus, he began campaigning for the freshman student government council, and was elected its president.[23]

Although he was an avid reader who fell in love with scientific and mathematical theories,[23] he did not do well in science classes in college, and avoided taking math.[22] His grades during his first two years put him in the lower one-fifth of the class. During his sophomore year, he reportedly spent much of his time watching television, shooting pool, and occasionally smoking marijuana.[22][23] In his junior and senior years, he became more involved with his studies, earning As and Bs.[22] In his senior year, he took a class with oceanographer and global warming theorist Roger Revelle, who sparked Gore\'s interest in global warming and other Environmental issues.[23][31] Gore earned an A on his thesis, \"The Impact of Television on the Conduct of the Presidency, 1947-1969\", and graduated with an A.B. cum laude in June 1969.[22][32]

Gore attended college during the era of anti Vietnam War protests. Though he was against that war, he disagreed with the tactics of the student protest movement, thinking it silly and juvenile to take anger at the war out on a private university.[23] He and his friends did not participate in Harvard demonstrations. John Tyson, a former roommate, recalled that \"We distrusted these movements a lot .... We were a pretty traditional bunch of guys, positive for civil rights and women\'s rights but formal, transformed by the social revolution to some extent but not buying into something we considered detrimental to our country.\"[23][33] Gore helped his father write an anti-war address to the Democratic National Convention of 1968, but stayed with his parents in their hotel room during the violent protests.[23]

Military service Al and Tipper Gore\'s wedding day, May 19, 1970 at the Washington National Cathedral Gore with the 20th Engineer Brigade in Bien Hoa as a journalist with the paper, The Castle Courier.

When Gore graduated in 1969, his student deferment ended and he immediately became eligible for the military draft. His father, a vocal anti-Vietnam War critic, was facing a reelection in 1970. Gore eventually decided that the best way he could contribute to the anti-war effort was to enlist in the Army, which would improve his father\'s reelection prospects.[34] Although nearly all of his Harvard classmates avoided the draft and service in Vietnam,[35] Gore believed if he found a way around military service, he would be handing an issue to his father\'s Republican opponent.[36] According to Gore\'s Senate biography, \"He appeared in uniform in his father\'s campaign commercials, one of which ended with his father advising: \'Son, always love your country.\'[34] Despite this, Al senior lost the election.

Gore has said that his other reason for enlisting was that he did not want someone with fewer options than he to go in his place.[37] Actor Tommy Lee Jones, a former college housemate, recalled Gore saying that \"if he found a fancy way of not going, someone else would have to go in his place.\"[23][38] His Harvard advisor, Richard Neustadt, also stated that Gore decided, \"that he would have to go as an enlisted man because, he said, \'In Tennessee, that\'s what most people have to do.\'\" In addition, Michael Roche, Gore\'s editor for The Castle Courier, stated that \"anybody who knew Al Gore in Vietnam knows he could have sat on his butt and he didn\'t.\"[36]

After enlisting in August 1969, Gore returned to the anti-war Harvard campus in his military uniform to say goodbye to his adviser and was \"jeered\" at by students.[17][23] He later said he was astonished by the \"emotional field of negativity and disapproval and piercing glances that ... certainly felt like real hatred\".[23]

Gore had basic training at Fort Dix from August to October, and then was assigned to be a journalist at Fort Rucker, Alabama. In April 1970, he was \"Soldier of the Month\".[17][36]

His orders to be sent to Vietnam were \"held up\" for some time and he suspected that this was due to a fear by the Nixon administration that if something happened to him, his father would gain sympathy votes.[citation needed] He was finally shipped to Vietnam on January 2, 1971, after his father had lost his seat in the Senate during the 1970 Senate election, becoming one \"of only about a dozen of the 1,115 Harvard graduates in the Class of \'69 who went to Vietnam.\"[36][39][40] Gore was stationed with the 20th Engineer Brigade in Bien Hoa and was a journalist with The Castle Courier.[41] He received an honorable discharge from the Army in May 1971.[17]

Of his time in the Army, Gore later stated, \"I didn\'t do the most, or run the gravest danger. But I was proud to wear my country\'s uniform.\"[38] He also later stated that his experience in Vietnam \"didn\'t change my conclusions about the war being a terrible mistake, but it struck me that opponents to the war, including myself, really did not take into account the fact that there were an awful lot of South Vietnamese who desperately wanted to hang on to what they called freedom. Coming face to face with those sentiments expressed by people who did the laundry and ran the restaurants and worked in the fields was something I was naively unprepared for.\"[42]

Vanderbilt and journalism

Gore was \"dispirited\" after his return from Vietnam.[34] The Nashville Post noted that, \"his father\'s defeat made service in a conflict he deeply opposed even more abhorrent to Gore. His experiences in the war zone don\'t seem to have been deeply traumatic in themselves; although the engineers were sometimes fired upon, Gore has said he didn\'t see full-scale combat. Still, he felt that his participation in the war was wrong.\"[39]

Although his parents wanted him to go to law school, Gore first attended Vanderbilt University Divinity School from 1971 to 1972 on Rockefeller Foundation scholarship for people planning secular careers. He later said he went there in order to explore \"spiritual issues\",[2] and that \"he had hoped to make sense of the social injustices that seemed to challenge his religious beliefs.\"[43]

Gore also began to work the night shift for The Tennessean as an investigative reporter in 1971.[44] His investigations of corruption among members of Nashville\'s Metro Council resulted in the arrest and prosecution of two councilmen for separate offenses.[39]

He took a leave of absence from The Tennessean to attend Vanderbilt University Law School in 1974. His decision to become an attorney was a partial result of his time as a journalist, as he realized that while he could expose corruption, he could not change it.[2] Gore did not complete law school, deciding abruptly in 1976 to run for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives when he found out that his father\'s former seat in the House was about to be vacated.[2][45]

Congress and first presidential run (1976–1993) See also: Al Gore and information technology and Al Gore and the Environment

Gore began serving in the U.S. Congress at the age of 28 and stayed there for the next 16 years, serving in both the House (1977–1985) and the Senate (1985–1993).[44] Gore spent many weekends in Tennessee, working with his constituents.[15][34]

House and Senate

At the end of February 1976, U.S. Representative Joe L. Evins unexpectedly announced his retirement from Congress, making the Tennessee\'s 4th congressional district seat to which he had succeeded Albert Gore, Sr. in 1953 open. Within hours after Tennessean publisher John Seigenthaler, Sr., called him to tell him the announcement was forthcoming,[45] Gore decided to quit law school and run for the House of Representatives:

Gore\'s abrupt decision to run for the open seat surprised even himself; he later said that \'I didn\'t realize myself I had been pulled back so much to it.\' The news came as a \'bombshell\' to his wife. Tipper Gore held a job in the Tennessean\'s photo lab and was working on a master\'s degree in psychology, but she joined in her husband\'s campaign (with assurance that she could get her job at the Tennessean back if he lost). By contrast, Gore asked his father to stay out of his campaign: \'I must become my own man,\' he explained. \'I must not be your candidate.\'[34]

Gore won a seat in Congress in 1976 \"with 32 percent of the vote, three percentage points more than his nearest rival.\"[46] He won the next three elections in 1978, 1980, and 1982 where \"he was unopposed twice and won 79 percent of the vote the other time.\"[46] In 1984, Gore successfully ran for a seat in the U.S. Senate, which had been vacated by Republican Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker. He was \"unopposed in the Democratic Senatorial primary and won the general election going away,\" despite the fact that Republican President Ronald Reagan swept Tennessee in his reelection campaign the same year.[46]

Gore during his congressional years

During his time in Congress, Gore was considered a \"moderate\" (he referred to himself as a \"raging moderate\")[47] opposing federal funding of abortion, voting in favor of a bill which supported a moment in silence in schools, and voting against a ban on interstate sales of guns.[48] His position as a moderate (and on policies related to that label) shifted later in life after he became Vice President and ran for president in 2000.[49]

During his time in the House, Gore sat on the Energy and Commerce and the Science and Technology committees, chairing the latter for four years.[46] He also sat on the House Intelligence Committee and in 1982 introduced the Gore Plan for arms control, to \"reduce chances of a nuclear first strike by cutting multiple warheads and deploying single-warhead mobile launchers.\"[34] While in the Senate, he sat on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, the Rules and Administration, and the Armed Services Committees.[34] In 1991, Gore was one of ten democrats who supported the Gulf War.[34]

Gore was one of the Atari Democrats who were given this name due to their \"passion for technological issues, from biomedical research and genetic engineering to the Environmental impact of the \"greenhouse effect.\"[34] On March 19, 1979 he became the first member of Congress to appear on C-SPAN.[50] During this time, Gore co-chaired the Congressional Clearinghouse on the Future with Newt Gingrich.[51] In addition, he has been described as having been a \"genuine nerd, with a geek reputation running back to his days as a futurist Atari Democrat in the House. Before computers were comprehensible, let alone sexy, the poker-faced Gore struggled to explain artificial intelligence and fiber-optic networks to sleepy colleagues.\"[34][52] Internet pioneers Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn noted that, \"as far back as the 1970s, Congressman Gore promoted the idea of high speed telecommunications as an engine for both economic growth and the improvement of our educational system. He was the first elected official to grasp the potential of computer communications to have a broader impact than just improving the conduct of science and scholarship [...] the Internet, as we know it today, was not deployed until 1983. When the Internet was still in the early stages of its deployment, Congressman Gore provided intellectual leadership by helping create the vision of the potential benefits of high speed computing and communication.\"[53]

Gore introduced the Supercomputer Network Study Act of 1986.[54] He also sponsored hearings on how advanced technologies might be put to use in areas like coordinating the response of government agencies to natural disasters and other crises.\"[55]

As a Senator, Gore began to craft the High Performance Computing Act of 1991 (commonly referred to as \"The Gore Bill\") after hearing the 1988 report Toward a National Research Network submitted to Congress by a group chaired by UCLA professor of computer science, Leonard Kleinrock, one of the central creators of the ARPANET (the ARPANET, first deployed by Kleinrock and others in 1969, is the predecessor of the Internet).[56][57][58] The bill was passed on December 9, 1991 and led to the National Information Infrastructure (NII) which Gore referred to as the \"information superhighway.\"[59]

After joining the U.S. House of Representatives, Gore held the \"first congressional hearings on the climate change, and co-sponsor[ed] hearings on toxic waste and global warming.\"[60][61] He continued to speak on the topic throughout the 1980s.[34][62][63] In 1990, Senator Gore presided over a three-day conference with legislators from over 42 countries which sought to create a Global Marshall Plan, \"under which industrial nations would help less developed countries grow economically while still protecting the Environment.\"[64]

First presidential run (1988) Main article: Al Gore presidential campaign, 1988

Gore campaigned for the Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States against Joe offeren, Gary Hart, Dick Gephardt, Paul Simon, Jesse Jackson, and Michael Dukakis (who eventually won the Democratic nomination). Gore carried seven states in the primaries, finishing third overall.

Although Gore initially denied that he intended to run, his candidacy was the subject of speculation: \"National analysts make Sen. Gore a long-shot for the Presidential nomination, but many believe he could provide a natural complement for any of the other candidates: a young, attractive, moderate Vice Presidential nominee from the South. He currently denies any interest, but he carefully does not reject the idea out of hand.\"[18] At the time, he was 39 years old, making him the \"youngest serious Presidential candidate since John F. Kennedy.\"[18]

After announcing that he would run, Gore ran his campaign as \"a Southern centrist, [who] opposed federal funding for abortion. He favored a moment of silence for prayer in the schools and voted against banning the interstate sale of handguns.\"[65]

CNN noted that, \"in 1988, for the first time, 12 Southern states would hold their primaries on the same day, dubbed \"Super Tuesday\". Gore thought he would be the only serious Southern contender; he had not counted on Jesse Jackson.\"[65] Jackson defeated Gore in the South Carolina Primary, winning, \"more than half the total vote, three times that of his closest rival here, Senator Albert Gore Jr. of Tennessee.\"[66] Gore next placed great hope on Super Tuesday where they split the Southern vote: Jackson winning Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Virginia; Gore winning Arkansas, North Carolina, Kentucky, Nevada, Tennessee, and Oklahoma.[34][65][67] Gore was later endorsed by New York City Mayor, Ed Koch who made statements in favor of Israel and against Jackson. These statements cast Gore in a negative light,[65] leading voters away from Gore who only received 10% of the vote in the New York Primary. Gore then dropped out of the race.[34] The New York Times said that Gore also lost support due to his attacks against Jackson, Dukakis, and others.[68]

Gore was eventually able to mend fences with Jackson who supported the Clinton-Gore ticket in 1992 and 1996, and campaigned for the Gore-Lieberman ticket during the 2000 presidential election.[69][70] Gore\'s policies changed substantially in 2000, reflecting his eight years as Vice President.[71]

Son\'s 1989 accident, 1992 election, and first book

On April 3, 1989 as the Gores and their six-year-old son Albert were leaving a baseball game, Albert ran across the street to see his friend and was hit by a car. He was thrown 30 feet (9 m), and then traveled along the pavement for another 20 feet (6 m).[15] Gore later recalled: \"I ran to his side and held him and called his name, but he was motionless, limp and still, without breath or pulse [...] His eyes were open with the nothingness stare of death, and we prayed, the two of us, there in the gutter, with only my voice.\"[15] Albert was tended to by two nurses who happened to be present during the accident. The Gores spent the next month in the hospital with Albert. Gore also commented: \"Our lives were consumed with the struggle to restore his body and spirit.\"[15] This event was \"a trauma so shattering that [Gore] views it as a moment of personal rebirth\", a \"key moment in his life\" which \"changed everything.\"[15]

In August 1991, Gore announced that his son\'s accident was a factor in his decision not to run for president during the 1992 presidential election.[72] Gore stated: \"I would like to be President [...] But I am also a father, and I feel deeply about my responsibility to my children [...] I didn\'t feel right about tearing myself away from my family to the extent that is necessary in a Presidential campaign.\"[72] During this time, Gore wrote Earth in the Balance, a text which became the first book written by a sitting U.S. Senator to make the New York Times bestseller list since John F. Kennedy\'s Profiles in Courage.[34]

Vice Presidency and second presidential run (1993–2001) Vice Presidency Main article: Vice Presidency of Al Gore See also: Al Gore and information technology and Al Gore and the Environment Official Vice Presidential portrait

Al Gore served as Vice President during the Clinton Administration. Gore was initially hesitant to accept a position as Bill Clinton\'s running mate for the 1992 United States presidential election, but after clashing with the George H. W. Bush administration over global warming issues, he decided to accept the offer.[34] Clinton stated that he chose Gore due to his foreign policy experience, work with the Environment, and commitment to his family.[73][74]

Clinton\'s choice was criticized as unconventional because rather than picking a running mate who would diversify the ticket, Clinton chose a fellow Southerner who shared his political ideologies and who was nearly the same age as Clinton.[34][73][75] The Washington Bureau Chief for The Baltimore Sun, Paul West, later suggested that, \"Al Gore revolutionized the way Vice Presidents are made. When he joined Bill Clinton\'s ticket, it violated the old rules. Regional diversity? Not with two Southerners from neighboring states. Ideological balance? A couple of left-of-center moderates. [...] And yet, Gore has come to be regarded by strategists in both parties as the best vice presidential pick in at least 20 years.\"[76]

Clinton and Gore accepted the nomination at the Democratic National Convention on July 17, 1992.[77][78] Known as the Baby Boomer Ticket and the Fortysomething Team, The New York Times noted that if elected, Clinton and Gore, at ages 45 and 44 respectively, would be the \"youngest team to make it to the White House in the country\'s history.\"[73][79][79] Theirs was the first ticket since 1972 to try to capture the youth vote. Gore called the ticket \"a new generation of leadership\".[73][80]

The Clintons and the Gores, 1993 Vice President Gore and Tipper Gore, 1997

The ticket increased in popularity after the candidates traveled with their wives, Hillary and Tipper, on a \"six-day, 1,000-mile bus ride, from New York to St. Louis.\"[81] Gore also successfully debated the other vice presidential candidates, Dan Quayle, and James Stockdale. The Clinton-Gore ticket beat the Bush-Quayle ticket, 43%-38%.[34] Clinton and Gore were inaugurated on January 20, 1993 and were re-elected to a second term in the 1996 election.

At the beginning of the first term, Clinton and Gore developed a \"two-page agreement outlining their relationship.\" Clinton committed himself to regular lunch meetings, recognized Gore as a principal adviser on nominations, and appointed some of Gore\'s chief advisers to key White House staff positions [...] Clinton involved Gore in decision-making to an unprecedented degree for a Vice President. Through their weekly lunches and daily conversations, Gore became the president\'s \"indisputable chief adviser.\"[34]

Gore had a particular interest in reducing \"waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government and advocated trimming the size of the bureaucracy and the number of regulations.\"[34] During the Clinton Administration, the U.S. economy expanded, according to David Greenberg (professor of history and media studies at Rutgers University) who said that \"by the end of the Clinton presidency, the numbers were uniformly impressive. Besides the record-high surpluses and the record-low poverty rates, the economy could boast the longest economic expansion in history; the lowest unemployment since the early 1970s; and the lowest poverty rates for single mothers, black Americans, and the aged.\"[82]

According to Leslie Budd, author of E-economy: Rhetoric or Business Reality, this economic success was due, in part, to Gore\'s continued role as an Atari Democrat, promoting the development of information technology, which led to the dot-com boom (c. 1995-2001).[83] Clinton and Gore entered office planning to finance research that would \"flood the economy with innovative goods and services, lifting the general level of prosperity and strengthening American industry.\"[84] Their overall aim was to fund the development of, \"robotics, smart roads, biotechnology, machine tools, magnetic-levitation trains, fiber-optic communications and national computer networks. Also earmarked [were] a raft of basic technologies like digital imaging and data storage.\"[84] Critics claimed that the initiatives would \"backfire, bloating Congressional pork and creating whole new categories of Federal waste.\"[84]

During the election and his term as Vice President, Gore popularized the term Information Superhighway, which became synonymous with the Internet, and he was involved in the creation of the National Information Infrastructure.[84] Gore first discussed his plans to emphasize information technology at UCLA on January 11, 1994 in a speech at The Superhighway Summit. He was involved in a number of projects including NetDay\'96 and 24 Hours in Cyberspace. The Clinton–Gore administration also launched the first official White House website in 1994 and subsequent versions through 2000.[85] The Clipper Chip, which \"Clinton inherited from a multi-year National Security Agency effort,\" was a method of hardware encryption with a government backdoor.[86] It met with strong opposition from civil liberty groups and was abandoned by 1996.[87][88]

President Bill Clinton installing computer cables with Vice President Al Gore on NetDay at Ygnacio Valley High School in Concord, CA. March 9, 1996. Glenn T. Seaborg with Gore in the White House during a visit of the 1993 Science Talent Search (STS) finalists on March 4, 1993.

Gore was also involved in a number of initiatives related to the Environment. He launched the GLOBE program on Earth Day \'94, an education and science activity that, according to Forbes magazine, \"made extensive use of the Internet to increase student awareness of their Environment\".[89] During the late 1990s, Gore strongly pushed for the passage of the Kyoto Protocol, which called for reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.[90][91] Gore was opposed by the Senate, which passed unanimously (95–0) the Byrd–Hagel Resolution (S. Res. 98).[92][93] In 1998, Gore began promoting a NASA satellite (Deep Space Climate Observatory) that would provide a constant view of the Earth, marking the first time such an image would have been made since The Blue Marble photo from the 1972 Apollo 17 mission.[94] During this time, he also became associated with Digital Earth.[95]

In 1996 Gore became involved in a finance controversy over his attendance at an event at the Buddhist Hsi Lai Temple in Hacienda Heights, California.[34] In an interview on NBC\'s Today the following year, Gore said, \"I did not know that it was a fund-raiser. I knew it was a political event, and I knew there were finance people that were going to be present, and so that alone should have told me, \'This is inappropriate and this is a mistake; don\'t do this.\' And I take responsibility for that. It was a mistake.\"[96] In March 1997, Gore had to explain phone calls which he made to solicit funds for the Democratic Party for the 1996 election.[97] In a news conference, Gore stated that, \"all calls that I made were charged to the Democratic National Committee. I was advised there was nothing wrong with that. My counsel tells me there is no controlling legal authority that says that is any violation of any law.\"[98] The phrase \"no controlling legal authority\" was criticized by columnist Charles Krauthammer, who stated: \"Whatever other legacies Al Gore leaves behind between now and retirement, he forever bequeaths this newest weasel word to the lexicon of American political corruption.\"[99] Robert Conrad, Jr. was the head of a Justice Department task force appointed by Attorney General Janet Reno to investigate Gore\'s fund-raising controversies. In Spring 2000, Conrad asked Reno to appoint an independent counsel to continue the investigation. After looking into the matter, Reno judged that the appointment of an independent counsel was unwarranted.[100]

During the 1990s, Gore spoke out on a number of issues. In a 1992 speech on the Gulf War, Gore stated that he twice attempted to get the U.S. government to pull the plug on support to Saddam Hussein, citing Hussein\'s use of poison gas, support of terrorism, and his burgeoning nuclear program, but was opposed both times by the Reagan and Bush administrations.[101] In the wake of the Al-Anfal Campaign, during which Hussein staged deadly mustard and nerve gas attacks on Kurdish Iraqis, Gore cosponsored the Prevention of Genocide Act of 1988, which would have cut all assistance to Iraq.[101] The bill was defeated in part due to intense lobbying of Congress by the Reagan-Bush White House and a veto threat from President Reagan.[101] In 1998, at a conference of APEC hosted by Malaysia, Gore objected to the indictment, arrest and jailing of President Mahathir Mohammad’s longtime second-in-command Anwar Ibrahim, a move which received a negative response from leaders there.[102] Ten years later, Gore again protested when Ibrahim was arrested a second time,[103] a decision condemned by Malaysian foreign minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim.[103]

Soon afterwards, Gore also had to contend with the Lewinsky scandal, involving an affair between President Clinton and an intern, Monica Lewinsky. Gore initially defended Clinton, whom he believed to be innocent, stating, \"He is the president of the country! He is my friend [...] I want to ask you now, every single one of you, to join me in supporting him.\"[34] After Clinton was impeached Gore continued to defend him stating, \"I\'ve defined my job in exactly the same way for six years now [...] to do everything I can to help him be the best president possible.\"[34]

Second presidential run (2000) Main article: Al Gore presidential campaign, 2000 See also: Bush v. Gore, Florida election recount, and Al Gore and information technology

There was talk of a potential run in the 2000 presidential race by Gore as early as January 1998.[104] Gore discussed the possibility of running during a March 9, 1999 interview with CNN\'s Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer. In response to Wolf Blitzer\'s question: \"Why should Democrats, looking at the Democratic nomination process, support you instead of Bill Bradley,\" Gore responded:

I\'ll be offering my vision when my campaign begins. And it will be comprehensive and sweeping. And I hope that it will be compelling enough to draw people toward it. I feel that it will be. But it will emerge from my dialogue with the American people. I\'ve traveled to every part of this country during the last six years. During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country\'s economic growth and Environmental protection, improvements in our educational system.[105]

In Manchester, New Hampshire campaigning for President of the United States in 1999

Former UCLA professor of information studies Philip E. Agre and journalist Eric Boehlert argued that three articles in Wired News led to the creation of the widely spread urban legend that Gore claimed to have \"invented the Internet,\" which followed this interview.[106][107][108] In addition, computer professionals and congressional colleagues argued in his defense. Internet pioneers Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn stated that \"we don\'t think, as some people have argued, that Gore intended to claim he \'invented\' the Internet. Moreover, there is no question in our minds that while serving as Senator, Gore\'s initiatives had a significant and beneficial effect on the still-evolving Internet.\"[109][107] Cerf would later state: \"Al Gore had seen what happened with the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act of 1956, which his father introduced as a military bill. It was very powerful. Housing went up, suburban boom happened, everybody became mobile. Al was attuned to the power of networking much more than any of his elective colleagues. His initiatives led directly to the commercialization of the Internet. So he really does deserve credit.\"[110] Former Republican Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Newt Gingrich also stated: \"In all fairness, it\'s something Gore had worked on a long time. Gore is not the Father of the Internet, but in all fairness, Gore is the person who, in the Congress, most systematically worked to make sure that we got to an Internet, and the truth is – and I worked with him starting in 1978 when I got [to Congress], we were both part of a \"futures group\" – the fact is, in the Clinton administration, the world we had talked about in the \'80s began to actually happen.\"[111] Finally, Wolf Blitzer (who conducted the original 1999 interview) stated in 2008 that: \"I didn\'t ask him about the Internet. I asked him about the differences he had with Bill Bradley [...] Honestly, at the time, when he said it, it didn\'t dawn on me that this was going to have the impact that it wound up having, because it was distorted to a certain degree and people said they took what he said, which was a carefully phrased comment about taking the initiative and creating the Internet to—I invented the Internet. And that was the sort of shorthand, the way his enemies projected it and it wound up being a devastating setback to him and it hurt him, as I\'m sure he acknowledges to this very day.\"[112]

Gore himself would later poke fun at the controversy. In 2000, while on the Late Show with David Letterman he read Letterman\'s Top 10 List (which for this show was called, \"Top Ten Rejected Gore – Lieberman Campaign Slogans\") to the audience. Number nine on the list was: \"Remember, America, I gave you the Internet, and I can take it away!\"[113] In 2005 when Gore was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award \"for three decades of contributions to the Internet\" at the Webby Awards[114][115] he joked in his acceptance speech (limited to five words according to Webby Awards rules): \"Please don\'t recount this vote.\" He was introduced by Vint Cerf who used the same format to joke: \"We all invented the Internet.\" Gore, who was then asked to add a few more words to his speech, stated: \"It is time to reinvent the Internet for all of us to make it more robust and much more accessible and use it to reinvigorate our democracy.\"[115]

Gore formally announced his candidacy for president in a speech on June 16, 1999, in Carthage, Tennessee, with his major theme being the need to strengthen the American family.[116] He was introduced by his eldest daughter, Karenna Gore Schiff.[116] In making the speech, Gore also distanced himself from Bill Clinton, whom he stated had lied to him.[116] Gore was \"briefly interrupted\" by AIDS protesters claiming Gore was working with the pharmaceutical industry to prevent access to generic medicines for poor nations and chanting \"Gore\'s greed kills.\"[116] Additional speeches were also interrupted by the protesters. Gore responded, \"I love this country. I love the First Amendment [...] Let me say in response to those who may have chosen an inappropriate way to make their point, that actually the crisis of AIDS in Africa is one that should command the attention of people in the United States and around the world.\" Gore also issued a statement saying that he supported efforts to lower the cost of the AIDS drugs, provided that they \"are done in a way consistent with international agreements.\"[117][118]

Gore faced an early challenge by former New Jersey senator Bill Bradley.[116] Bradley was the only candidate to oppose Gore and was considered a \"fresh face\" for the White House.[119][120] Gore challenged Bradley to a series of debates which took the form of \"town hall\" meetings.[121] Gore went on the offensive during these debates leading to a drop in the polls for Bradley.[122][123] Gore eventually went on to win every primary and caucus and, in March 2000 even won the first primary election ever held over the Internet, the Arizona Presidential Primary.[124] By then, he secured the Democratic nomination.[125]

On August 13, 2000, Gore announced that he had selected Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut as his vice presidential running mate. Lieberman became \"the first person of the Jewish faith to run for the nation\'s second-highest office\" (Barry Goldwater, who ran for president in 1964, was of \"Jewish origin\").[126] Lieberman, who was a more conservative Democrat than Gore, had publicly blasted President Clinton for the Monica Lewinsky affair. Many pundits saw Gore\'s choice of Lieberman as further distancing him from the scandals of the Clinton White House.[127] Gore\'s daughter, Karenna, together with her father\'s former Harvard roommate Tommy Lee Jones,[128] officially nominated Gore as the Democratic presidential candidate during the 2000 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, California.[129] Gore accepted his party\'s nomination and spoke about the major themes of his campaign, stating in particular his plan to extend Medicare to pay for prescription drugs, to work for a sensible universal health-care system.[129] Soon after the convention, Gore hit the campaign trail with running mate Joe Lieberman. Gore and Bush were deadlocked in the polls.[130] Gore and Bush participated in three televised debates. While both sides claimed victory after each, Gore was critiqued as either too stiff, too reticent, or too aggressive in contrast to Bush.[131][132]

Recount

On election night, news networks first called Florida for Gore, later retracted the projection, and then called Florida for Bush, before finally retracting that projection as well.[133] Florida\'s Republican Secretary of State, Katherine Harris, eventually certified Florida\'s vote count.[134] This led to the Florida election recount, a move to further examine the Florida results.[135]

The Florida recount was stopped a few weeks later by the U.S. Supreme Court. In the ruling, Bush v. Gore, the Justices held that the Florida recount was unconstitutional and that no constitutionally valid recount could be completed by the December 12 deadline, effectively ending the recounts. This 7–2 vote ruled that the standards the Florida Supreme Court provided for a recount were unconstitutional due to violations of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and further ruled 5–4 that no constitutionally valid recount could be completed by the December 12 deadline. This case ordered an end to recounting underway in selected Florida counties, effectively giving George W. Bush a 537[136] vote victory in Florida and consequently Florida\'s 25 electoral votes and the presidency.[5] The results of the decision led to Gore winning the popular vote by approximately 500,000 votes nationwide, but receiving 266 electoral votes to Bush\'s 271 (one District of Columbia elector abstained).[137] On December 13, 2000, Gore conceded the election.[138] Gore strongly disagreed with the Court\'s decision, but in his concession speech stated that, \"for the sake of our unity as a people and the strength of our democracy, I offer my concession.\"[139]

The 2000 election is the subject of a 2008 made-for-TV movie directed by Jay Roach, produced by, and starring Kevin Spacey called Recount. It premiered on the HBO cable network on May 25, 2008.[140]

Post Vice Presidency

After maintaining an informal public distance for eight years, Bill Clinton and Gore reunited for the media in August 2009 after Clinton arranged for the release of two journalists who were being held hostage in North Korea. The two women were employees of Gore\'s Current TV.[141]

Criticism of Bush

Beginning in late 2002, Gore began to publicly criticize the Bush administration. In a September 23, 2002 speech given before the Commonwealth Club of California, Gore criticized President George W. Bush and Congress for the rush to war prior to the outbreak of hostilities in Iraq. He compared this decision to the Gulf War (which Gore had voted for) stating, \"Back in 1991, I was one of a handful of Democrats in the United States Senate to vote in favor of the resolution endorsing the Persian Gulf War [...] But look at the differences between the resolution that was voted on in 1991 and the one this administration is proposing that the Congress vote on in 2002. The circumstances are really completely different. To review a few of them briefly: in 1991, Iraq had crossed an international border, invaded a neighboring sovereign nation and annexed its territory. Now by contrast in 2002, there has been no such invasion.\"[142][143] In a speech given in 2004, during the presidential election, Gore accused George W. Bush of betraying the country by using the 9/11 attacks as a justification for the invasion of Iraq.[144] The next year, Gore gave a speech which covered many topics, including what he called \"religious zealots\" who claim special knowledge of God\'s will in American politics. Gore stated: \"They even claim that those of us who disagree with their point of view are waging war against people of faith.\"[145] After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Gore chartered two planes to evacuate 270 people from New Orleans and criticized the Bush administration\'s response to the hurricane.[146][147] In 2006, Gore criticized Bush\'s use of domestic wiretaps without a warrant.[148] One month later, in a speech given at the Jeddah Economic Forum, Gore criticized the treatment of Arabs in the U.S. after 9/11 stating, \"Unfortunately there have been terrible abuses and it\'s wrong [...] I do want you to know that it does not represent the desires or wishes or feelings of the majority of the citizens of my country.\"[149] Gore\'s 2007 book, The Assault on Reason, is an analysis of what Gore refers to as the \"emptying out of the marketplace of ideas\" in civic discourse during the Bush administration. He attributes this phenomenon to the influence of television and argues that it endangers American democracy. By contrast, Gore argues, the Internet can revitalize and ultimately \"redeem the integrity of representative democracy.\"[150] In 2008, Gore argued against the ban of same-sex marriage on his Current TV website, stating, \"I think that gay men and women ought to have the same rights as heterosexual men and women to make contracts, have hospital visiting rights, and join together in marriage.\"[151] In a 2009 interview with CNN, Gore commented on former Vice President Dick Cheney\'s criticism of the Obama administration. Referring to his own previous criticism of the Bush administration, Gore stated: \"I waited two years after I left office to make statements that were critical, and then of the policy [...] You know, you talk about somebody that shouldn\'t be talking about making the country less safe, invading a country that did not attack us and posed no serious threat to us at all.\"[152]

While Gore has criticized Bush for his Katrina response he has not spoken publicly about his part in the evacuation of 270 patients on September 3 & 4, 2005 from Charity Hospital in New Orleans to Tennessee. On September 1 Gore was contacted Charity Hospital\'s Neurosurgeon Dr. David Kline who had operated on his son Albert through Greg Simon of FasterCures. Kline informed Gore and Simon of the desperate conditions at the hospital and asked Gore and Simon to arrange relief. On Gore\'s personal financial commitment two airlines each provided a plane with one flight latter underwritten by Larry Flax. The flights were flown by volunteer airline crews and medically staffed by Gore\'s cousin, retired Col. Dar LaFon, and family physician Dr. Anderson Spickard and were accompanied by Gore and Albert III. Gore used his political influence to expedite landing rights in New Orleans.[153][154][155][156]

Presidential run speculation Chris Anderson asks: \"Will you run again?\" Gore replies, \"Ohh, you aren\'t going to get me on this one!\"

Gore was a speculated candidate for the 2004 Presidential Election (a bumper sticker, \"Re-elect Gore in 2004!\" was popular).[157] On December 16, 2002, however, Gore announced that he would not run in 2004.[158] Despite Gore taking himself out of the race, a handful of his supporters formed a national campaign to draft him into running. One observer concluded it was “Al Gore who has the best chance to defeat the incumbent president,” noting that “of the 43 Presidents, only three have been direct descendents of former Presidents:” John Quincy Adams, Benjamin Harrison, and George W. Bush, that “all three won the office only after... anomalies in the Electoral College,” that the first two were defeated for re-election in a populist backlash, and finally that “the men who first lost to the presidential progeny and then beat them” (i.e. Andrew Jackson and Grover Cleveland) “each won a sort of immortality--having his image placed on a unit of US currency,” and that Gore should answer this call of history.[159] The draft movement, however, failed to convince Gore to run.[160]

The prospect of a Gore candidacy arose again between 2006 to early 2008 in light of the upcoming 2008 presidential election. Although Gore frequently stated that he had \"no plans to run,\" he did not reject the possibility of future involvement in politics which led to speculation that he might run.[161][162][163] This was due in part to his increased popularity after the release of the 2006 documentary, An Inconvenient Truth.[164] The director of the film, Davis Guggenheim, stated that after the release of the film, \"Everywhere I go with him, they treat him like a rock star.\"[165] After An Inconvenient Truth was nominated for an Academy Award, Donna Brazile (Gore\'s campaign chairwoman from his 2000 campaign) speculated that Gore might announce a possible presidential candidacy during the Oscars.[166] During the 79th Academy Awards ceremony, Gore and actor Leonardo DiCaprio shared the stage to speak about the \"greening\" of the ceremony itself. Gore began to give a speech that appeared to be leading up to an announcement that he would run for president. However, background music drowned him out and he was escorted offstage, implying that it was a rehearsed gag, which he later acknowledged.[167][168] After An Inconvenient Truth won the Academy Award for Best Documentary, speculation increased about a possible presidential run.[169] Gore\'s popularity was indicated in polls which showed that even without running, he was coming in second or third among possible Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards.[170] Grassroots draft campaigns also developed with the hope that they could encourage Gore to run.[171][172][173] Gore, however, remained firm in his decision and declined to run for the presidency.[174]

Involvement in presidential campaigns Gore speaks during the final day of the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado.

After announcing he would not run in the 2004 U.S. presidential election, Gore endorsed Vermont governor Howard Dean in December, 2003, weeks before the first primary of the election cycle.[175] He was criticized for this endorsement by eight Democratic contenders particularly since he did not endorse his former running mate Joe Lieberman (Gore preferred Dean over Lieberman because Lieberman supported the Iraq War and Gore did not).[49][176][177] Dean\'s campaign soon became a target of attacks and eventually failed, with Gore\'s early endorsement being credited as a factor. In The New York Times, Dean stated: \"I actually do think the endorsement of Al Gore began the decline.\" The Times further noted that \"Dean instantly amplified his statement to indicate that the endorsement from Mr. Gore, a powerhouse of the establishment, so threatened the other Democratic candidates that they began the attacks on his candidacy that helped derail it.\"[178] Dean\'s former campaign manager, Joe Trippi, also stated that after Gore\'s endorsement of Dean, \"alarm bells went off in every newsroom in the country, in every other campaign in the country,\" indicating that if something did not change, Dean would be the nominee.[179] Later, in March 2004, Gore endorsed John Kerry and gave Kerry $6 million in funds left over from his own unsuccessful 2000 offer.[180] Gore also opened the 2004 Democratic National Convention.[181]

During the 2008 primaries, Gore remained neutral toward all of the candidates[182] which led to speculation that he would come out of a brokered 2008 Democratic National Convention as a \"compromise candidate\" if the party decided it could not nominate one.[183][184] Gore responded by stating that these events would not take place because a candidate would be nominated through the primary process.[185][186] When Senator Barack Obama became the presumptive Democratic nominee for president on June 3, 2008, speculation began that Gore might be tapped for the vice presidency.[187][188] On June 16, 2008 (a week after Hillary Clinton had suspended her campaign), Gore endorsed Obama in a speech given in Detroit, Michigan[189][190][191] which renewed speculation of an Obama-Gore ticket.[192] Gore stated, however, that he was not interested in being Vice President again.[193][194][195][196] On the timing and nature of Gore\'s endorsement, some argued that Gore waited because he did not want to repeat his calamitous early endorsement of Howard Dean during the 2004 Presidential Election.[197][198] On the final night of the 2008 Democratic National Convention, shortly before Obama delivered his acceptance address, Gore gave a speech offering his full support.[199][200] Such support led to new speculation after Obama was elected President during the 2008 Presidential election that Gore would be named a member of the Obama administration. This speculation was enhanced by a meeting held between Obama, Gore, and Joe offeren in Chicago on December 9, 2008. However, Democratic officials and Gore\'s spokeswoman stated that during the meeting the only subject under discussion was the climate crisis, and Gore would not be joining the Obama administration.[201][202] On December 19, 2008, Gore described Obama\'s Environmental administrative choices of Carol Browner, Steven Chu, and Lisa Jackson as \"an exceptional team to lead the fight against the climate crisis.\"[203]

Environmentalism Main article: Environmental activism of Al Gore Overview Gore receives the Nobel Peace Prize in the city hall of Oslo, 2007. Then President George W. Bush meets with Al Gore and the other 2007 Nobel Award recipients, November 26, 2007.

Gore has been involved with Environmental issues since 1976, when as a freshman congressman, he held the \"first congressional hearings on the climate change, and co-sponsor[ed] hearings on toxic waste and global warming.\"[60][61] He continued to speak on the topic throughout the 1980s[204] and was known as one of the Atari Democrats, later called the \"Democrats\' Greens, politicians who see issues like clean air, clean water and global warming as the key to future victories for their party.\"[205][63]

In 1990, Senator Gore presided over a three-day conference with legislators from over 42 countries which sought to create a Global Marshall Plan, \"under which industrial nations would help less developed countries grow economically while still protecting the Environment.\" [206] In the late 1990s, Gore strongly pushed for the passage of the Kyoto Protocol, which called for reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.[207][208] He was opposed by the Senate, which passed unanimously (95–0) the Byrd–Hagel Resolution (S. Res. 98),[92] which stated the sense of the Senate was that the United States should not be a signatory to any protocol that did not include binding targets and timetables for developing as well as industrialized nations or \"would result in serious harm to the economy of the United States\".[209]

In 2004 he co-launched Generation Investment Management, a company for which he serves as Chair. A few years later, Gore also founded The Alliance for Climate Protection, an organization which eventually founded the We Campaign. Gore also became a partner in the venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, heading that firm\'s climate change solutions group.[210][211] He also helped to organize the Live Earth benefit concerts.[212]

Gore\'s speech on Global Warming at the University of Miami BankUnited Center, February 28, 2007. Criticism

Gore\'s involvement in Environmental issues has been criticized. For example, he has been labeled a \"carbon billionaire\" and accused of profiting from his advocacy;[213] a charge which he has denied,[214] by saying, among other things, that he has not been \"working on this issue for 30 years... because of greed\".[213] A conservative Washington D.C. think tank, and a Republican member of Congress, among others, have claimed that Gore has a conflict-of-interest for advocating for taxpayer subsidies of green-energy technologies in which he has a personal investment.[214][215] Additionally, he has been criticized for his above-average energy consumption in using private jets, and in owning multiple, very large homes,[216] one of which was reported in 2007 as using high amounts of electricity.[217][218] Gore\'s spokesperson responded by stating that the Gores use renewable energy which is more expensive than regular energy and that the Tennessee house in question has been retrofitted to make it more energy-efficient.[219][220] Philosopher A. C. Grayling argued that Gore\'s personal lifestyle does nothing to impugn his messages and it would be an ad hominem fallacy to turn against Gore\'s views because of his lifestyle.[221]

Data in An Inconvenient Truth have been questioned. In a 2007 court case, a British judge said that while he had \"no doubt ...the film was broadly accurate\" and its \"four main scientific hypotheses ...are supported by a vast quantity of research,\"[222] he upheld nine of a \"long schedule\" of alleged errors presented to the court. He ruled that the film could be shown to schoolchildren in the UK if guidance notes given to teachers were amended to balance out the film\'s one-sided political views. Gore\'s spokeswoman responded in 2007 that the court had upheld the film\'s fundamental thesis and its use as an educational tool.[223] In 2009, an interviewer asked Gore about the British court challenge and the nine \"errors\", and Gore responded, \"the ruling was in my favour.\"[224]

Organizations including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) criticized Gore for not advocating vegetarianism as a way for individuals to reduce their carbon footprint.[225] Gore agreed that meat production contributes to increased carbon emissions, but did not want to \"go quite as far as ... saying everybody should become a vegetarian\".[226] He said that although he is not a vegetarian, he has \"cut back sharply\" on his consumption of meat.[226]

When asked by Bjørn Lomborg to debate whether spending on health and education should take priority over limiting carbon emissions, Gore responded that he would not debate because the “scientific community has gone through this chapter and verse. We have long since passed the time when we should pretend this is a ‘on the one hand, on the other hand’ issue . . . . It’s not a matter of theory or conjecture.\"[227]

Awards and honors Main article: List of awards received by Al Gore

Gore is the recipient of a number of awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize (together with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) in 2007,[228][229][230] a Primetime Emmy Award for Current TV in 2007, a Webby Award in 2005 and the Prince of Asturias Award in 2007 for International Cooperation. He also starred in the 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth, which won an Academy Award for Best Documentary in 2007 and wrote the book An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It, which won a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album in 2009.[13][231]

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Book: Apple Inc.

Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.

Gore Effect

Selected publications Books

Our Choice. Rodale Books. 2009. p. 416. ISBN 978-1-59486-734-7.
Know Climate Change and 101 Q and A on Climate Change from \'Save Planet Earth Series\', 2008 (children\'s books)
Our Purpose: The Nobel Peace Prize Lecture 2007. Rodale Books. 2008. p. 64. ISBN 1-60529-990-1.
The Assault on Reason. New York: Penguin. 2007. p. 308. ISBN 1-59420-122-6.
An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It. New York: Rodale Books. 2006. p. 192. ISBN 1-59486-567-1.
Joined at the Heart: The Transformation of the American Family- (with Tipper Gore). New York: Owl Henry Holt. 2002. ISBN 0-8050-7450-3.
The Spirit of Family (with Tipper Gore). New York: H. Holt. 2002. ISBN 0-8050-6894-5.
From Red Tape to Results: Creating a Government That Works Better and Costs Less. Amsterdam: Fredonia Books. 2001. ISBN 1-58963-571-X.
Common Sense Government: Works Better & Costs Less: National Performance Review (3rd Report). 1998. ISBN 0-7881-3908-8.
Businesslike Government: lessons learned from America\'s best companies (with Scott Adams). 1997. ISBN 0-7881-7053-8.
Earth in the Balance: Forging a New Common Purpose. Earthscan. 1992. ISBN 0-618-05664-5.
Putting People First: How We Can All Change America. (with William J. Clinton). New York: Times Books, 1992 .