Bill Clinton Flashcards
What three character issues did Bill Clinton have?
Lust, cowardice, dishonesty, ultimately selfishness.
Name three negative issues Bill Clinton had to deal with during his campaign.
Pot Smoking, Draft Dodging, Womanizing
Who was Paula Jones?
She was a lady that sued Bill Clinton for sexual harassment
Why did Bill Clinton say he ”didn’t inhale”?
So that he would have technically not smoked it.
How did Bill Clinton avoid the Vietnam draft?
By attending Oxford University
What is a Rhodes scholar?
One who has a scholarship to Oxford University.
Define “raucous”.
Rowdy, turbulent, noisy.
Who was Ross Perot?
He was the owner of Electronic Data Systems and ran as a third party candidate during the 1992 race.
What was Ross Perot’s fame built on?
Assailing big government and excessive government spending.
What business did Ross Perot own?
Electronic Data Systems
Why was Ross Perot attractive as a third‑party candidate?
His folksy style and can-do approach.
What was Ross Perot’s platform for his run for the President?
That he was going to overhaul the government.
Why was Ross Perot marginalized as a “wealthy kook?”
He abruptly canceled his campaign.
Why were Americans disenchanted with the two major parties?
The differences between the two parties seemed marginal, and they seemed most concerned with fund raising and retaining control.
What impression did George Bush give during his three-way debate with Bill Clinton and Ross Perot?
He was uninterested.
What tactic did George Bush resort to when advised to “fire up” his campaign?
Name-calling
What hurt George Bush a week before the election?
The Iran-Contra case.
What allowed Bill Clinton to win the election?
The fact that Perot gathered many disaffected voters from Bush and skewed the race.
What made the Pentagon (the military) upset at Bill Clinton?
The overturning of the ban on homosexuals in the military.
What compromise did Bill Clinton make with the military about homosexuals?
Don’t ask, don’t tell.
What was “nanny-gate”?
Several presidential appointees were shot down by the republicans because they had hired illegal aliens as childcare workers.
Why was Lani Guinier withdrawn as a candidate for the Justice Department head of the civil rights division?
She was called Quota Queen by the republicans. Clinton feared the effects of the unpopular choice and backed down.
How had Presidential appointees been dealt with before Bill Clinton, and how were they treated during and after his presidency?
- Before: they were seen as the presidents prerogative
After: they were often rejected by congress and stuff like that.
What made the new appointments so vicious?
The Republicans wanted Revenge.
Name three early successes of the Clinton administration.
A recovering economy, a shrinking deficit, NAFTA.
Why were two potential Attorney General candidates denied by Congress?
Nanny-gate.
Name four successes in the early Clinton years that were overshadowed by Clinton’s problems.
A recovering economy, a shrinking deficit, NAFTA, the Brady Bill.
Name five Clinton gaffe’s that eclipsed Clinton’s successes.
$200 haircut, the Waco Assault, Bimbo Eruptions, Whitewater, the defeat of the Clinton Healthcare Plan.
Where was the Branch Davidian compound (Mount Carmel) that was raided on Feb. 28, 1993?
Mount Carmel, Texas; ten miles from Waco.
Name three characteristics of many cult leaders.
Charismatic, an apocalyptic religious leader who would give rambling discourses on prophecy, and would use his religious leadership as a sexual tool.
Name four characteristics of traditional mind-manipulation techniques.
A spartan environment, surrender of possessions, a slavish loyalty to himself, inhumane discipline.
What got David Koresh in trouble with the BATF?
Illegal firearms.
How many died in the initial assault on Mount Carmel?
Four BATF agents and several Davidians.
Name three techniques used by the FBI to get the Branch Davidians to surrender. (
Searchlights, earsplitting noises, CS gas.
How did the FBI’s strategy backfire?
Fire broke out, casting a bad light on the FBI.
Why did Janet Reno approve the final assault on the Mount Carmel compound?
Negotiations went nowhere and it was believed that the children inside were in danger.
What was wrong with using CS gas?
The effects were so harsh that it had been banned in international warfare.
Why were people afraid of the Branch Davidians committing mass suicide?
There was the memory of the Jim Jones scenario in Guyana.
Why were there no fire trucks present at the Mount Carmel compound at the time of the final assault?
There was a fear of the fire personnel being endangered if a gunfight broke out.
What is the evidence that the fire was spread by the Davidians themselves?
Recordings.
What other cause of the fire is possible other than by the Davidians?
Spontaneous combustion of gas.
What had the majority of people come to the conclusion of concerning the FBI by 1999?
The FBI had murdered innocent people at Waco and Ruby Ridge.
What effect did the policy stumbles, personal embarrassments, and major missteps culminate in?
His healthcare project.
What was perhaps Clinton’s first mistake to overhaul health care?
Choosing his wife to oversee the job.
How did Hilary Clinton step on congressional toes?
By proposing a plan that was too enormous.
Name three reasons why healthcare reform failed?
Hillary Clinton, the plan was too far reaching, the healthcare industry and congress both did not like it.
What was the political earthquake in the 1994 mid-term elections?
The republicans won congress by a landslide.
Who led the Republicans in the House of Representatives?
Newt Gingrich.
What was the “Contract with America”? Name five elements in it.
A conservative bucket list of things that needed to be done. A balanced budget amendment, increased defense spending, term limits for congressional seats, an amendment to end legal abortion, and a reform of the welfare system.
How did Bill Clinton regain momentum after the 1994 mid-term election?
He won the budget battle, he overhauled the welfare system, he relied on Dick Morris; his pollster; to keep in the political center.
Who was Newt Gingrich?
The majority leader of the House of Representatives.
How did Bill Clinton get the upper hand over Newt Gingrich and the Republican congress?
By not backing down on his budget plan.
Who was Dick Morris?
An independent political pollster who Clinton relied on to know what the public wanted.
What was Bill Clinton’s biggest defeat?
The healthcare plan.
Why did Gingrich resign from the House?
The Republicans lost.
Why did Newt Gingrich’s replacement as Speaker of the House, Robert Livingston, resign from the House?
Livingston himself had been involved in some extramarital affairs.
Who did Bill Clinton rather easily defeat in 1996? Why? (
Bob dole.
When was the veneer of gentility erased from American politics?
The 1970’s
Name two instances where the press looked the other way when dealing with a President.
FDR’s wheelchair was never shown in photographs and reporters looked the other way when it came to JFK’s numerous dalliances.
Who was Monica Lewinsky?
A White House staffer who did inappropriate things with the president.
What was the two basis for the impeachment of the President?
Perjury and obstruction of justice.
What effect did Clinton’s impeachment trial have on his decisions to deal with Al‑Qaeda and Osama bin Laden?
It may have been a Wag The Dog situation where the president fabricated a war to raise his waning political standing.
Who was the first American President impeached by Congress?
Andrew Johnson.
At the bottom line, what makes an offence impeachable?
Whatever congress thinks is impeachable at that time.
How many people have been impeached since the founding of the country until Bill Clinton?
7.
Who was Linda Tripp?
A former white house staffer who had been moved to the pentagon, where Lewinsky was also moved, where she heard the conversation.
What evidence did Linda Tripp have and how did she get it?
She taped a conversation in which Lewinsky was discussing her affair with Clinton. She was able to get that evidence because Lewinsky talked about it.
What does it mean to be impeached?
You are formally charged with a crime.
What three issues were the center of Ken Starr’s investigation of the Clintons
Whitewater, perjury, obstruction of justice.
What happened in the 1998 election that was remarkable?
The Democrats gained seats in congress despite the Lewinsky affair.
What was the issue in Kosovo?
“Ethnic cleansing” of Albanian Muslims.
What was the Kosovo NATO operation?
A NATO operation to stop “ethnic cleansing” of Albanian Muslims in Kosovo.
What effect did Clinton’s impeachment trial have on his decisions concerning Kosovo?
He may have decided to act on the situation more to take the public eye off of his impeachment trial than to help the situation in Kosovo.
What was the result of Clinton’s impeachment trial?
He was found not guilty.
What have the Clinton’s been exonerated of?
FBI file misuse, the Clinton law firm case.
Who was the second President in the history of the United States to be impeached by the House of Representatives?
Bill Clinton.
Who was the first President to be impeached by the House?
Andrew Johnson
Who was Kenneth Starr?
He was a lawyer who investigated the Clintons.
What was Whitewater?
A housing complex thing in Little Rock that the Clintons had investments in
What were the three things that Kenneth Starr was initially investigating the Clinton over?
Whitewater, misuse of FBI files, billing files at the Clinton’s law firm.
What did Starr investigate Clinton for in the Monica Lewinsky case?
Perjury, obstruction of justice.
What was Clinton notorious for?
Sex scandals
