Comparisons of Presidents Clinton and Obama

On January 20 of 1993 and 2009, an optimistic, well-educated, young president stepped into the Oval Office. Both William Jefferson Clinton and Barack Hussein Obama entered the White House with great expectations. In 16 months, Clinton went from high expectations to an impending defeat. During Obama’s first 16 months in office, he has gone from symbolizing rebirth to steadily growing opposition and public poll numbers falling below 50%. These two Democratic presidents mirror each other in terms of childhood and certain beliefs. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the similarities and dissimilarities of these two talented and challenged young presidents.

Barack Obama had a very similar upbringing to that of President Clinton. Like Clinton, who never knew his biological father who died in a traffic accident (as would Obama’s), young Barrack did not remember his biological father because he was less than a year old when his namesake left. At the age of ten he finally met his father, who had come to Hawaii for a month for medical treatment. Because of this paternal absence, each was raised by his mother, and to a lesser degree in the case of Clinton, by his grandparents. The intergenerational conflict in both families was between the mother and a grandparent. Virginia Cassidy Blythe (Blythe was Clinton’s birth surname) had a loving relationship with her idealized father and an antagonistic one with her at times psychotic mother—although both adored and competed for the affection of little Billy. In contrast, Stanley Ann Dunham had a strained relationship with her father Stanley and a generally good one with her practical mother. Clinton’s ambition and insecurities may be related to his di-

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vided parenting (his grandmother regimented him and his mother had a more relaxed style), while Obama’s mother and grandparents instilled in him a genuine sense of confidence. Obama has stated in regards to his mother, “I think if you ask a lot of children where do you get your confidence from, it’s the love of your mother. She was one of the finest people I’ve ever known. And a lot of what I do reflects the values instilled in me” (Ken Fuchsman, “Transformations of Barack Obama,” Vol. 16, 3, Clio’s Psyche, p. 295). His mother’s intense love and hopes for his future were also driving forces in the life of the boy from Hope, Arkansas who became our 42^nd president.

Obama writes that his confidence may also be related to having to fit into Indonesian culture from ages six through ten. Barack stated, “My upbringing was unconventional. I was tested, I think, in a lot of different environments and over time, I came to be confident about my capacity to connect with other people” (Fuchsman, p. 295). His mother, who mostly raised him, took it upon herself to instill the value of hard work even from an early age. At 4:30 A.M. she would wake Barack up to go over his studies in order to ensure that her son was getting the best education possible. This is but one unique feature of young Barack’s childhood that helped him to realize that his mother expected great things of her son while his loving relationship with her encouraged his success.

Both Protestant boys were once sent to Catholic parochial schools because of their high educational standards. At age ten, Barack was sent back to Hawaii after being admitted to the state’s most prestigious private school. Obama’s mother and grandparents held education in even higher esteem than Clinton’s mother did. Barack Obama Sr., who left his American family to earn a master’s degree at Harvard, was presented to his son as a model student and leader who was indefatigable and brilliant. Both future presidents were

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shaped by the absence of their fathers. Bill Clinton has said on more than one occasion that he had to live with intense ambition for his father, who died at age 28.

These men set goals early in life, attempting to match their imagined fathers. The sons’ education and drive would pay off in the long run. Clinton thrived at Georgetown, Oxford, and Yale Law, while Obama has stated, “The only reason Michelle and I are where we are today is because the country we love gave us a chance at an education” (Barack Obama, The American Promise: Speeches 2007 + 2008, 2008, p. 505). Obama began his collegiate career at Occidental College in Los Angeles but transferred as a junior to Columbia University, where he went through a period of intense introspection and self-education from which he emerged much more like his mother—dedicated to public service. Eventually he went to Harvard University for a legal degree.

Upon graduation, Clinton returned to his home state to become a law professor, while Obama decided to become a community organizer in Chicago. Obama’s ideas about empowering the people and the role of government in assisting the impoverished stem from his work in Chicago, where he subsequently made his home.

Clinton’s work as a professor at the University of Arkansas helped prepare him for politics, as Attorney General and then as the youngest governor in the country who was elected five times despite an early defeat that taught him to triangulate, to compromise, and to hold onto power at all costs. While Obama lacked administrative experience, he is not geared to surrendering his ideals for political expediency. Striking similarities between Clinton and Obama can be seen in their Inaugural Addresses. Clinton outlined his speech as: fixing a weakened economy, providing universal health care, renewing America, investing more in jobs and

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the future, ending the benefits of power and privilege for those in the upper tiers of society, and challenging young Americans to become better educated. Obama highlighted his address as: creating new jobs, fixing retirement for the new generation, raising healthcare’s quality, and pulling troops out of Iraq. Both came to the presidency with very similar goals.

It is possible to examine Obama’s and Clinton’s leadership characteristics and skills in terms of their effectiveness. Obama’s leadership is marked by his strong and exuding confidence gained from his mother, grandfather, and the ego ideal his distant father represented. He has strong ideals that he holds onto even in the face of daunting opposition. In order to see this characteristic in action, one must only take a look at the new health care bill which Obama supported in the face of intense opposition from the Republican Party; the same party that defeated Clinton’s health reform program in 1994.

While Clinton was able to achieve many benefits for America, such as balancing the budget and starting to reduce the national deficit, it became clear early on that Clinton would not sacrifice his seat in the Oval Office to achieve his goals. For reasons of his own personality, Clinton was often drawn to those who opposed him, trying to befriend them and often disappointing his friends in the process. His need to please everyone may stem from his early childhood experiences of the competition for his affection between his mother and his grandmother. He certainly backed down on many issues, such as allowing homosexuals to openly serve in the military, where his “don’t ask, don’t tell” compromise policy frustrated proponents and opponents of gay rights alike.

The ultimate difference between Obama and Clinton can be seen in health care. President Clinton created the national task force on health care in 1993 with First Lady

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Hillary Rodham Clinton as chair. The plan was fought for a year and a half before it died in 1994, while Obama recently achieved health care reform. Clinton’s willingness to compromise left many people doubting whether or not he really held most of the values he proclaimed.

Both Clinton and Obama share similar beliefs and backgrounds that shaped their characteristics, their ideals, and eventually their presidencies. While Clinton was working as a professor and lawyer, Obama was working as a community organizer in a run-down, poverty-stricken neighborhood. This sense of the plight of the ordinary and poor might be the real difference that will help Obama succeed where Clinton failed. In achieving nearly universal health care he has already done something that has eluded presidents since FDR.

After probing the lives and early presidencies of Clinton and Obama, it became clear that Obama is the man with stronger values. Right now in America, we need a president with the fortitude and perseverance of Obama to turn things around. Because of the values he possesses, notable self-confidence, skill in getting his congressional allies to fight for his program, and the impressive governing team he has assembled, I predict he will have a more successful first term than his predecessor from Arkansas did.

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