In this last section of Bill Clinton's "My Life", Clinton is now President and is hard at work creating new domestic policies and keeping up with America's foreign relations. High on his list of foreign priorities is helping the new president of Russia reestablish his country. Clinton wanted to go to Russia to meet with the president, Yeltslin, but felt that "Moscow shouldn't be my first foreign stop (as president)...but the United States had a big stake in Russia's success and we sure didn't want hard-liners, either Communists or ultranationalists in control there" (504). Clinton knew that the eyes of the world were upon him and if he slipped up, it could lead to terrible consequences like another mad-man running Russia. As a result of good policy and aid for Russia, "a large majority of Russian voters supported Yeltsin, his politics and his desire for a new Duma. After a little more then one hundred days in office, we had made great strides in bolstering Yeltsin and Russian democracy" (508). Through the actions of Clinton and other leaders of major countries, the Soviets were able to prop up a new system of government without great commotion.
When we come to the end of the first one hundred days of a new presidency, the media assesses it to see how the new president has done in terms of keeping thei campaign promises and rising to meet new challenges. On the positive side, Clinton had done lots of work on the economy doing things such as "put together an ambitious economic program to reverse twelve years of trickle-down economics...and to dramatically cut the cost of college loans, saving billions of doallars for both students and taxpayers" (513). One of Clinton's major campaign promises was to work to help the economy, which is something he certainly seemed to be doing. On the negative side, he "maintained the Bush policy of forcibly returning Haitian refugees...and failed to convince Europe in taking a stronger stand against the Bosnians" (514). As far as human rights went, Clinton's administration was having a tough time, particularly with the Bosnian-Serb conflict that eventually left 250,000 dead over two years. For the first one hundred days in office, Clinton had mixed reviews, but what could be seen was that he was doing his best.
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3 comments:
Ooh what a great book to be reading as we get a new president. It seems like reading about the beginning of Clinton's term could give you some perspective about what President Obama is going through right about now. It also seems that reading about the life of a president could give educate you quite a lot, politically. On the other hand, it's probably a biased education, but it's information nonetheless.
I think it is hard to review a president, because everybody is not going to agree with their decisions. Bill Clinton did help with the economics in the '90s but actually it was a prosperous time anyway. The economy is cyclical and it was in an upturn in the '90s and I think that Clinton used that as an advantage.
People have to keep in mind not to judge presidents by the bad things that occur during their terms. Instead, they should be judged on how they handle the issues. Just because the country does well doesn't mean that its thanks to the president, and vise versa. Obama is in a position of handling a failing economy.
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