Son of the Sixties: The Controversial Image of Bill Clinton.

CLINTON, Bill, 1946-; POPULAR culture; UNITED States politics & government; PRESIDENTS of the United States; UNITED States history; POLITICAL leadership; TWENTIETH century; HISTORY

Abstract: Bill Clinton's willingness to engage with popular culture, such as appearing on MTV, reinforced the claim he made that as a New Democrat he represented something new ideologically. With his 1963 meeting with John Kennedy, his admiration for Martin Luther King, and his association with (and controversial opposition to) the Vietnam War, he became a symbol of the 1960s. He was described as the first black president in terms of what he represented culturally and was strongly identified with the feminist agenda. His regional identification with the South was another ingredient in his image. Overall his image created a sense of Clinton as something new in American politics and this was a crucial ingredient in his political success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]