Bill Clinton

Former President Bill Clinton will headline a fundraiser this month for John Delaney, the Democratic candidate running for Congress in Maryland's competitive 6th District. For Delaney, the visit couldn't be better timed. Clinton is riding a renewed wave of popularity among Democrats after his performance at his party's convention in Charlotte. The event will take place in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 16, The Sun has learned. Clinton endorsed Delaney in the primary in early March -- one of a series of announcements at that time that helped the Potomac businessman build momentum and ultimately shift from the underdog to the front-runner in the race against state Sen. Rob Garagiola.

Probing questions at presidential news conferences sometimes have a way of getting their principals to reflect on their state of mind -- and at the same time the state their presidency, particularly when things aren't going well. Back in 1995, when Bill Clinton was struggling against the onslaught of then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich and his conservative "Contract With America," a reporter suggested the president had diminished influence. He noted that two major television networks had declined to cover live the news conference and asked: "Do you worry about making sure your voice is being heard in the coming months?"

Democrats are beginning to panic as we speed toward the midterm elections. They have good reason to get nervous as they ponder the spectacle - so unlikely a year or so ago - of being reduced once again to a minority in the House of Representatives. The deservedly repudiated Republicans miraculously stand to benefit from the anger of the dispossessed middle class. These are indeed strange times. Baltimore's own native daughter, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is unhappy that White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs blurted out a widely known truth Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" when he was asked whether House Democrats could lose their substantial majority and replied that that was entirely possible.

Why don't we put Bill Clinton up for sainthood ("Misoverestimated Bush," April 28)? After all, his economic record was to be revered. Too bad he couldn't keep his pants on in the White House. If any public or private education senior staff acted in the same way, there would have been an immediate cry for dismissal and disciplinary action. Once again, the media glorifies the thugs who continue to commit various acts of immaturity and politicians who continue to laud their own plaudits.

When Bill Clinton took the podium to address the country in January 1993, I was moved to tears. Here, then, was my first president. My parents had had all the presidents up to that point. Here was a man of my generation. Married to the working mother of a school-aged child who was his educational and professional equal. To someone like me. Mr. Clinton acknowledged the passing of the "greatest generation" when he thanked outgoing President George H.W. Bush for his 50 years of service to the country.

Bill's coming! Former President Bill Clinton will headline Stevenson University's just-announced speakers series. He'll open the 2012-2013 series on Oct. 16 with a talk about the challenge of globalization. Here's the rest of the university's lineup, announced Wednesday: Oct. 30 - Author Jeanette Walls, best known for her best-selling memoir “The Glass Castle.” Nov. 27 - Lisa Ling, a former correspondent for "The Oprah Winfrey Show.

When it comes to sex, the media apply different standards to Republicans and Democrats. Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton allegedly trolled for women, using state troopers as his procurers. As president, mr. Clinton engaged in oral sex with Monica Lewinsky in the Oval Office. He lied about it under oath and was impeached, though later acquitted by the U.S. Senate. Other sexual accusations tainted Mr. Clinton. That "everybody lies about sex" and "it was just sex" and didn't affect his public responsibilities, were just two of the exculpatory statements from Mr. Clinton's Democratic defenders.

Coffee drinkers in Mount Vernon were graced Tuesday night with the presence of an ex-president: Bill Clinton apparently had to stop by Starbucks while in town for a talk at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. Marcel Jagne-Shaw (@JagneShaw), who lived in Clinton's home state for five years, was studying late when he ran into the man himself. "I was preoccupied & caught off guard, I shoulda hollered out I was from Arkansas too Lol. Really down to earth tho," he tweeted. In case you're curious, Jagne-Shaw said he thought Clinton ordered a grande macchiato.

The Obama re-election team must be in panic mode. The president is stuck in a virtual tie with Mitt Romney in some polls and behind him in others, so in desperation it has reached out to the Big Dog, Bill Clinton, for help. Mr. Clinton will speak next month at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., in a Wednesday night position often reserved for the vice presidential nominee. Presidents Obama and Clinton have not had the most cordial relationship, but when you're drowning, your feelings about the lifeguard matter less than his ability to keep you afloat.

That headline would have been unbelievable six months ago but today many Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate believe Bill Clinton will do so well in their states they will be tugged along. Sen. Charles Robb, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, says, "It's fun to be able to run a race where we don't have to carry the presidential ticket. In almost every race, the ticket is not only welcome but actually requested."Strange but true, in several states Republican Senate candidates are counting on Clinton coattails.

To nobody's surprise, all four living former presidents were on their best behavior last week at the dedication of the library and museum named for the latest of them, George W. Bush, at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. The honoree's father, George H.W., along with Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, dutifully latched on to the positive about the junior Bush's eight years in the Oval Office, eliminated the negative and, as in Johnny Mercer's old song, didn't mess with Mr. In Between.

When Bill Clinton took the podium to address the country in January 1993, I was moved to tears. Here, then, was my first president. My parents had had all the presidents up to that point. Here was a man of my generation. Married to the working mother of a school-aged child who was his educational and professional equal. To someone like me. Mr. Clinton acknowledged the passing of the "greatest generation" when he thanked outgoing President George H.W. Bush for his 50 years of service to the country.

The four-story brownstone near Washington's Lafayette Park is one of the most exclusive hotels in the world. There's a fireplace in the master bathroom, and the thread counts on the sheets is high enough to rival the Four Seasons. And only four people can get reservations to stay there right now - possibly because the coverlet bears the presidential seal, and there are accommodations for the Secret Service in the basement. The townhouse on West Jackson Place is the residence where Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and both George Bushes stay when they are in Washington on official business.

Five years ago, I thought I might have to leave Baltimore. Not because I wanted to but because I thought I needed to. It was 2008. Like many employers, Urbanite magazine, where I worked, was feeling the effects of the Great Recession, so I would soon have only half a job. The cut gave me a chance to rethink a few things. Just a few years earlier, I was at the London School of Economics sharing hallways with one of then-Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi's sons and the crown prince of Norway.

A week after he won re-election, President Barack Obama said he was more than familiar with what the "literature" — the very use of the term cheered academics like me — says about re-elected presidents who over-reach during their second terms. They fail. Mr. Obama's second term began this week, following a first term defined by emergency challenges (largely economic) unlike those faced by almost any incoming American president. Theoretically, his second term ought to be easier.

Why isn't President Obama taking a lead role in resolving the fiscal issues at hand? He keeps harping on taxing the rich - which would solve about 5 percent of the problem - but not proposing any other concrete solutions ("Bucking the pledge," Nov. 28). He keeps saying all the time that he is willing to work with the Congress, but he shows no leadership. He is getting paid to solve problems, not campaign all the time. It is really too bad we don't have a bipartisan team like Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill or Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich around to solve this issue.

Bill Clinton got what he considers an early Christmas present this week. A "Battleground '94" poll, conducted and analyzed by a Democratic and a Republican pollster, showed the president with a 57-36 approval/disapproval rating. That is the highest it has been since January. And a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, also the product of a bi-partisan professional team, found his approval/disapproval rating was 56-33, the highest this poll has registered for the president since March.The American people are responding to the fact the president and the Democratic House and Senate enacted a number of high-visibility bills in the just-concluded congressional session, thus setting the stage for more action next year.

I'm not saying that Jean Marbella deliberately tried to mislead readers in her recent column ("In all these sex scandals, see a double standard," Nov. 18) in which she implied that Bill Clinton had been impeached because he had had a sexual affair with a female intern in The White House. Nor am I saying that she tried to excuse his outrageous behavior by asserting, "...there's no shame in being a stud. " Truth be told, however, President Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives for committing perjury before a grand jury, and for obstructing justice.

Second terms have rarely been kind to American presidents. Our last two-term leader, George W. Bush, ended his tenure with a financial crash so disastrous that his own party has tried to erase him from memory. Mr. Bush's predecessor, Bill Clinton, was more successful, but he still spent much of his second term enmeshed in a sex scandal and battling impeachment. Even our greatest modern presidents had rocky second terms: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan are all revered more for what they accomplished in their first four years than for their later acts.