Part 1 | Clinton

After the Oklahoma City Bombing, Clinton's ability to reach Americans on a personal level did much to help the nation's grief. "It's kind of a throwaway line now, I feel your pain, but he literally could," says Robert McNeely. "I mean he could take people and just hug them and connect to them in a way and really listen to them."

A biography of a president who rose from a broken childhood in Arkansas to become one of the most successful politicians in modern American history, and one of the most complex and conflicted characters to ever stride across the public stage. "Clinton" rebroadcasts May 8 and 15, 2012.

The vote on the budget bill came down to a Freshman Democrat, Marjorie Margolis Mezvinsky. Senator Tom Daschle described Clinton's resolve to get the budget passed: "There wasn't anything he wasn't willing to do. He would call, he would meet. He would grovel, he would strong-arm. He would use every tactic any leader has at his disposal to try to get this thing done."

In 1988, Bill Clinton bungled the biggest speech of his young career during the Democratic National Convention. Harry Thomason, Arkansas-born television and film producer and longtime friend of the Clintons, remembers the ill-received speech and his wife Linda's idea to have Clinton redeem himself by going on the Johnny Carson show.

A behind the scenes look at American Experience's newest Presidential Biography, "Clinton."

Clinton's "triangulation" strategy was an attempt to take control of the budget from the Republicans in Congress. "Once you accept that we're going to balance the budget, now let's have a fight about what we're going to protect," says Clinton's Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers. "That's a fight we can win."

First Lady Hillary Clinton was blamed for the poor showing during the 1994 midterm elections. "Voters thought that it was a zero sum game, that for Hillary to be strong Bill would have to be weak, and as a result the perception of Hillary's strength became a perception of Bill's weakness," says Political Consultant Dick Morris.

A biography of a president who rose from a broken childhood in Arkansas to become one of the most successful politicians in modern American history.

A president who rose from a broken childhood to become one of the most successful politicians in modern American history and one of the most complex and conflicted characters to ever stride across the public stage.