# Because I'm feeling snarky, Bill Clinton's WH bio for your perusal. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 16, 2003, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978 "2003-09-16T18:58:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2003, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978/1 "2003-09-16T18:58:51Z")
[Bill Clinton’s official online biography](http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/bc42.html), courtesy of the White House website. Out of 10 paragraphs, only one is dedicated to only the second impeachment process ever of a President. One of the most important political happenings of the 20th Century, and it gets one matter-of-fact sentence. The rest is all the lovey-dovey stuff that people like to credit him with, like the economy, which of course he single-handedly made vibrant and booming, as if the [dot.com](http://dot.com) boom had nothing really to do with it, which of course never would have happened had Gore not invented the Internet. :rolleyes: Man, what a blowjob. Compare that to [Nixon](http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/rn37.html): > [@](#): > > Within a few months, his administration was embattled over the so-called “Watergate” scandal, stemming from a break-in at the offices of the Democratic National Committee during the 1972 campaign. The break-in was traced to officials of the Committee to Re-elect the President. A number of administration officials resigned; some were later convicted of offenses connected with efforts to cover up the affair. Nixon denied any personal involvement, but the courts forced him to yield tape recordings which indicated that he had, in fact, tried to divert the investigation. > > As a result of unrelated scandals in Maryland, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew resigned in 1973. Nixon nominated, and Congress approved, House Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford as Vice President. > > Faced with what seemed almost certain impeachment, Nixon announced on August 8, 1974, that he would resign the next day to begin “that process of healing which is so desperately needed in America.” Quick and dirty, yes, but they didn’t hold anything back. They didn’t ignore, say, any sexual harassment lawsuits or anything like that. Man, Clinton must have done good things to…oops, I meant “for”…his interns to get a bio that charitable. Oh, and for the record, it was about perjury, not a blowjob. That is all. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2003, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978/2 "2003-09-16T19:04:54Z")
Phht. Get with the times. It’s clear that Woodrow Wilson is currently the greatest threat to this country. The bastard. ---
**Author:** ![minty\_green](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@minty\_green](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minty_green)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2003, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978/3 "2003-09-16T19:09:08Z")
Poopypants. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2003, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978/4 "2003-09-16T19:10:27Z")
What did it say in Reagan’s bio about Iran Contra? Hmm, there isn’t even a single sentrence about the worst abuse of Executive Power in the later half og the twentieth Century. People actually got convicted for what happened there. I wasn’t aware there were any convictions or resignations stemming from “Monicagate” I mean, as long as we are being snarky… ---
**Author:** ![Bruce\_Daddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Bruce\_Daddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bruce_Daddy)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2003, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978/5 "2003-09-16T19:14:30Z")
**Airman Doors, USAF** , I think we’re probably on the “same side” but what in the world prompted this? 1/2 the people think he was an incredible jackass, the other 1/2 don’t. Or is this an attack on [whitehouse.gov](http://whitehouse.gov)? I’m confused. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2003, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978/6 "2003-09-16T19:17:09Z")
It’s not too early to think about what Dubya’s bio is going to look like. It ain’t gonna be pretty, is it? ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2003, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978/7 "2003-09-16T19:21:10Z")
Didn’t Andrew Johnson get impeached? …Which would throw off your count. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2003, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978/8 "2003-09-16T19:30:35Z")
Pretty weak rant, **Airman** > [@](#): > > One of the most important political happenings of the 20th Century, and it gets one matter-of-fact sentence. Uh, three, actually. > [@](#): > > In 1998, as a result of issues surrounding personal indiscretions with a young woman White House intern, Clinton was the second U.S. president to be impeached by the House of Representatives. He was tried in the Senate and found not guilty of the charges brought against him. He apologized to the nation for his actions and continued to have unprecedented popular approval ratings for his job as president. A few questions, if anyone cares to tackle them: 1) who actually wrote the Clinton blurb? 2) Would the copy not have to be approved by someone or other in the, uh, _Republican-controlled_ White House? 3) which is more significant event: a failed, White-House-controlled attempt to throw a presidential election (re: Watergate) or a failed, politically-motivated impeachment proceeding? ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2003, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978/9 "2003-09-16T19:44:30Z")
Really, **Rocketeer**? Allow me to quote myself: > [@](#): > > Out of 10 paragraphs, only one is dedicated to only the second impeachment process ever of a President. Clinton. Johnson. One. Two. I think you lost count somewhere between one and two. **El\_Kabong** , I would agree with you that Watergate was a big deal, even though it was just as politically motivated as Clinton’s impeachment. Doubt me? Nixon won in 1972 with 60.8% of the vote (or so, I’m going from memory). He didn’t even have to try to throw the election, he won it big. As a result, it was really just a minor, insignificant breaking-and-entering. The real big deal was the coverup, and if the Democrats hadn’t smelled blood and started circling the White House, it wouldn’t have gone as far as it did. Same circumstances (those being politically motivated attacks on the President), yet Nixon’s expose was far more lurid, compared to Clinton’s. ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2003, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978/10 "2003-09-16T19:45:49Z")
Furthermore, Nixon’s bio, viewed in full, comes off as pretty “fair and balanced” (d’oh!!!): > [@](#): > > His accomplishments while in office included revenue sharing, the end of the draft, new anticrime laws, and a broad environmental program…Some of his most acclaimed achievements came in his quest for world stability. During visits in 1972 to Beijing and Moscow, he reduced tensions with China and the U.S.S.R. His summit meetings with Russian leader Leonid I. Brezhnev produced a treaty to limit strategic nuclear weapons…In his 1972 bid for office, Nixon defeated Democratic candidate George McGovern by one of the widest margins on record. Doesn’t sound like a hatchet job to me. Tell me, **Airman** , do you think that _any_ historical overview of Nixon’s presidency that didn’t mention Watergate as a defining event would be accurate? ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2003, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978/11 "2003-09-16T19:53:43Z")
No, I don’t. Watergate was without a doubt the defining event of Nixon’s Presidency. For better or worse. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2003, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978/12 "2003-09-16T20:00:34Z")
Airman, you really need to brush up on the full extent of “Watergate” before you embarrass yourself any further. There are many good books on the subject. Watergate also included the official White House enemies list, and ordering the FBI and IRS to harass its members, along with a range other lesser abuses of power that were _not_ known to the public until after the 1972 election. You might also note the rock-bottom approval ratings Nixon had by the time he recognized that he had lost “the consent of the governed”. Certainly his failure to end US involvement in Vietnam, as promised back in 1968, played a factor in that. It was the only time the process has been used against a President for the reason it exists - to protect the nation from an official whose continued presence in office presents a danger to the state that is so great that the next election cannot be waited for. The cross-party unity on that point in the Nixon hearings was remarkable. It is not a special criminal court for defendants who happen to be federal officials, although that brand of spin is necessary to keep the Clinton impeachment from being laughed at. You might also acknowledge, when you get over your snarkiness, that the Clinton impeachment wasn’t really about a manufactured perjury charge _or_ a blowjob, but about simple political vengeance, just like the voted-down Andrew Jackson impeachment effort, which you might also have listed. The Clinton bio you listed did not note, for instance, that the House vote was strictly partisan, in a lame-duck session, without a functioning Speaker, including by members who had already been voted out by an electorate who was specifically telling them not to do it, and hurried to get it done before they had to leave. Any chance that future historians will see any of that as legitimate? None. Get a grip. ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2003, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978/13 "2003-09-16T20:02:08Z")
Frankly, I’m upset that it didn’t mention Clinton’s numerous appearances on the Conan O’Brien show. Clearly, there’s an anti-Conan bias within the LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIBeral media. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2003, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978/14 "2003-09-16T20:08:09Z")
> [@](#): > > One of the most important political happenings of the 20th Century :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2003, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978/15 "2003-09-16T20:13:16Z")
Good, god, what next-Bill Clinton hangs the toilet paper up the wrong way? Bill Clinton doesn’t wash his hands when he goes to the bathroom? Bill Clinton tears off those “do not remove” tags from his pillows? ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2003, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978/16 "2003-09-16T20:15:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Munch \* > \*\*:rolleyes: \*\* Aw, I dunno, **Munch** —I’d say a crazed Republican cabal hijacking the entire country and impeaching a President over absolutely nothing was pretty damned important. ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2003, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978/17 "2003-09-16T20:20:04Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Airman Doors, USAF_ > No, I don’t. Watergate was without a doubt the defining event of Nixon’s Presidency. For better or worse. Then frankly I can’t see your beef with the Clinton bio, fellow Steelers fan. Surely Clinton’s impeachment was not as important as Nixon’s _resignation_. There were three sentences in the Clinton bio about the impeachment, six sentences in the Nixon bio about the resignation. That doesn’t seem an unreasonable ratio to me. Sure, the Clinton bio (necessarily) left out some information, but so too (necessarily) did the Nixon bio. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2003, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978/18 "2003-09-16T20:22:39Z")
True, Eve. Airman, not that the impeachment wasn’t important or unique in any way, but naming this as one of the most important political events of the century is absurd. And when are we going to get over the “Gore claimed to invent the internet” urban legend? ---
**Author:** ![GaWd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f08c70/32.png) [@GaWd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaWd)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2003, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978/19 "2003-09-16T20:31:01Z")
Airman, that’s so fucking 1999. :rolleyes: Sam ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2003, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978/20 "2003-09-16T21:09:30Z")
> [@](#): > > Bill Clinton tears off those “do not remove” tags from his pillows? He DOES?!? Impeach the sonofabitch!!! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978.md?page=2)