Though Clinton's popularity suffered during the first two years of his first term, it rebounded, especially after the government shutdowns and budget debates. Once again, Bill Clinton lived up to his nickname of “the comeback kid.”

Approaching the election, the president proved that he could enact more moderate measures, achieving some of the goals he set initially and proving to others that he was the “new Democrat” he claimed to be. Clinton easily won a second term against the Republican senator Bob Dole despite the controversy over lingering investigations. Dole was a World War II hero, with a message that perhaps rang true to older generations — but with the economy moving along, Americans felt prosperous and content. It appeared that Clinton's personal peccadilloes mattered less than his leadership.

Second Administration

Clinton's second term was markedly marred by scandal. In the spring of 1999, the Paula Jones case finally reached an $850,000 settlement, with Ms. Jones's attorneys collecting much of the money. In her lawsuit, Paula Jones claimed that President Clinton, then Governor Clinton, made sexual advances toward her in a Little Rock, Arkansas, hotel room in 1991. Clinton steadfastly denied the accusation. Although the case had been dismissed, it was in the appeals process at the time Clinton and Ms. Jones reached a settlement. Jones's credibility was called into question years later when she posed nude for a magazine, weakening her claim that she despised the media attention she had received.

During a deposition in the Paula Jones case, however, Clinton had testified that he had not had a relationship with a former White House intern named Monica Lewinsky. Ms. Lewinsky had begun work at the White House in June 1995, later becoming a salaried employee in the White House Office of Legislative Affairs. Unfortunately for the president, she spoke rather freely with a friend named Linda Tripp, a government civil servant, who quietly taped their assorted (and sometimes sordid) telephone conversations. Lewinsky told Tripp of her trysts with the president in the Oval Office, sometimes in gossipy, graphic detail.

Problems Escalate

No longer an intern or government employee, Lewinsky became a magnet for the curious media. The Clinton — Lewinsky affair was exposed by Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel hired to investigate a failed real estate development, dubbed the Whitewater matter. But that investigation moved in convoluted directions. Some say that his motives were purely political and that he had clients directly opposed to the Clinton administration. Indeed the White House called his attacks and probes “fishing expeditions.”

When the independent counsel released “The Starr Report,” Americans read excerpts in newspapers and magazines and could go online to devour the steamy details of Oval Office sexual encounters. What made matters worse was that Clinton originally and very publicly denied the charges. He said, pointing a finger at his accusers, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.” But as the scandal unfolded and the president gave sworn testimony in August 1998, he eventually had to admit to having had an “inappropriate relationship” with her. Defending his earlier comments, he split hairs over the definition of “sexual relations” as he understood the term to be defined at his deposition. Overall, Americans soon became disgusted at the drama, which read worse than a trashy novel, but they couldn't let go of the sexual intrigue. The matter almost cost Bill Clinton his presidency.

Because Clinton had given false statements under oath, impeachment proceedings began in the House of Representatives (with a vote that was largely split among party lines), followed by a trial in the Senate in 1999. Clinton became known in the history books as the second president ever to be impeached. He was acquitted in his Senate trial, and so was not removed from office.