Claim: Bill Clinton defeated George H. W. Bush.

William Jefferson Clinton -LRB- born August 19 , 1946 -RRB- is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001 . Prior to the Presidency he was the 40th Governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and the state 's 42nd Governor from 1983 to 1992 . Before that , he served as Arkansas Attorney General from 1977 to 1979 . A member of the Democratic Party , Clinton was ideologically a New Democrat , and many of his policies reflected a centrist `` Third Way '' political philosophy .   Clinton was born and raised in Arkansas and is an alumnus of Georgetown University , where he was a member of Kappa Kappa Psi and the Phi Beta Kappa Society ; he earned a Rhodes Scholarship to attend the University of Oxford . Clinton is married to Hillary Rodham Clinton , who served as United States Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013 and U.S. Senator from New York from 2001 to 2009 , and was the Democratic nominee for President in 2016 . Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham both earned 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 chairman of the National Governors Association .   Clinton was elected President of the United States in 1992 , defeating incumbent Republican opponent George H. W. Bush . At age 46 , he became the third-youngest president -LRB- behind Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy -RRB- and the first from the Baby Boomer generation . Clinton presided over the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in American history and signed into law the North American Free Trade Agreement . After failing to pass national health care reform , the Democratic House was ousted when the Republican Party won control of the Congress in 1994 , for the first time in 40 years . Two years later , in 1996 , Clinton became the first Democrat since Franklin D. Roosevelt to be elected to a second term . Clinton passed welfare reform and the State Children 's Health Insurance Program , as well as financial deregulation measures , including the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 .   In 1998 , Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives for perjury before a grand jury and obstruction of justice during a lawsuit against him , both related to a scandal involving White House -LRB- and later Department of Defense -RRB- employee Monica Lewinsky . Clinton was acquitted by the U.S. Senate in 1999 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 . In foreign policy , Clinton ordered U.S. military intervention in the Bosnian and Kosovo wars , signed the Iraq Liberation Act in opposition to Saddam Hussein , and participated in the 2000 Camp David Summit to advance the Israeli -- Palestinian peace process .   Clinton left office with the highest end-of-office approval rating of any U.S. President since World War II . Since then , Clinton has been involved in public speaking and humanitarian work . He created the William J. Clinton Foundation to address international causes , such as the prevention of AIDS and global warming . In 2004 , Clinton published his autobiography , My Life . He has remained active in politics by campaigning for Democratic candidates , including his wife 's campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008 and 2016 , and Barack Obama 's presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2012 .   In 2009 , Clinton was named the United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti , and after the 2010 Haiti earthquake , Clinton 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 .