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| 8572497516 | Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) | Nonprofit organization of centrist Democrats (having moderate political views; new democrats) founded in the mid-1980s. The group attempted to push the Democratic party toward pro-growth, strong defense, and anti-crime policies. Among its most influential early members was Bill Clinton, whom it held up as an example of "third way" politics (tries to reconcile right-wing and left-wing politics by advocating a varying synthesis of right-wing economic and left-wing social policies) | 0 | |
| 8572497517 | "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" | (1993-2010) the policy affecting homosexuals in the military. Compromise bw the standing prohibition against homosexuals in the armed forces & President Clinton's push to allow all citizens to serve regardless of sexual orientation. Military authorities forbidden to ask about a service member's orientation, and gay service personnel could be discharged if they publicly revealed their homosexuality. (At Pres Obama's urging, Congress repealed this in 2010, permitting gays to serve openly in uniform.) | 1 | |
| 8572497518 | Oklahoma City bombing (1995) | Truck-bomb explosion that killed 168 ppl in a federal office building on April 19, 1995. The attack was perpetrated by right-wing and antigovt militant Timothy McVeigh, who was later executed by the US govt for the crime. Vengeance for a standoff in Texas bw federal agents and a fundamentalist sect known as the Branch Davidians. | 2 | |
| 8572497519 | Contract with America (1994) | led by Newt Gingrich to attack Clinton's liberal failures; promised all-out assault on budget deficits/radical reductions in welfare programs; Multipoint program offered by conservative Republican candidates and sitting politicians in the 1994 midterm election. The platform proposed smaller govt, congressional ethics reform, term limits, greater emphasis on personal responsibility, & a general rejection of the Democratic party. This was a blow to the Clinton administration and led to the Republican party's takeover of both houses of Congress for the first time in half a century. | 3 | |
| 8572497520 | Welfare Reform Bill (1996) | Legislation passed by a conservative Congress that made deep cuts in welfare grants and required able-bodied welfare recipients to find employment. Part of Clinton's campaign platform in 1992, the reforms were widely seen by liberals as an abandonment of key New Deal / Great Society provisions to care for the impoverished. | 4 | |
| 8572497521 | North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) | Created a free-trade zone bw Mexico, Canada, & US (eliminated tariffs bw the countries). A symbol of the increased reality of a globalized marketplace, the treaty passed despite opposition from protectionists and labor leaders. | 5 | |
| 8572497522 | World Trade Organization (WTO) (1995) | An international body to promote and supervise liberal trade among nations. Successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, it marked a key world trade policy achievement of the Clinton administration | 6 | |
| 8572497523 | Whitewater | Series of sandals during the Clinton administration that stemmed from a failed real estate investment the Clintons were alleged to have illegally profited. The accusations prompted the appointment of a special federal prosecutor, though no charges. | 7 | |
| 8572497524 | Lewinsky affair (1998-1999) | Political sex scandal that resulted in Clinton's impeachment and trial by Congress. In 1998, Clinton gave sworn testimony in a sexual harassment case that he'd never engaged in sexual activity w/ White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Prosecutors discovered evidence Clinton had lied under oath about the affair, to which he admitted, Repubs in Congress began impeachment proceedings. Although Clinton wasn't ultimately convicted by the Senate, the scandal put a lasting blemish on his presidential legacy. | 8 | |
| 8572505702 | William Jefferson ("Bill") Clinton | Forty-second president of the United States. A former Arkansas governor and founding member of the Democratic Leadership Council, he promoted "third way" politics and distanced his policies from traditional Democratic programs. He signed the Welfare Reform Act in 1996 to fulfill a campaign promise to "end welfare as we know it." He was the first Democrat to be reelected since Franklin Roosevelt and first president to be impeached since Andrew Johnson. | 9 | |
| 8572505703 | H. Ross Perot | Texas billionaire businessman who ran populist campaigns for the presidency in 1992 and 1996. In 1992, he garnered 19 percent of the popular vote, probably throwing the election to Bill Clinton. His campaigns represented anti- establishment sentiment and desires for "common sense" governance. | 10 | |
| 8572509374 | Hillary Rodham Clinton | Democratic senator from New York who, in 2008, became the first highly competitive female candidate for president. A lawyer and political activist, she was First Lady from 1993 to 2001, and then became the first former First Lady to serve in elected office when she was elected to the Senate. She tried unsuccessfully to win the Democratic nomination for president in 2008. | 11 | |
| 8572509375 | Newt Gingrich | Republican congressman from Georgia who served as speaker of the house from 1995 to 1999. As the author of the "Contract with America, he led the Republican "revolution" of 1994." | 12 | |
| 8572509376 | Robert Dole | Republican senator from Kansas who ran unsuccessfully against Bill Clinton in 1996. He had previously been the Republican vice-presidential nominee in 1976 and served as senate minority leader during the 1980s and 1990s. | 13 | |
| 8572514829 | Monica Lewinsky | White House intern with whom President Bill Clinton had an extra-marital affair in the late 1990s. She was the center of a protracted scandal during the second Clinton term. | 14 |
