Clinton Returns to Arkansas on Farewell Tour

Outgoing US President Bill Clinton made his final trip as president to Arkansas on Wednesday on a farewell tour before he leaves the White House.

In an hour-long speech at the House of Arkansas State, Clinton thanked the Arkansans who supported his political career that began in the state in 1974.

"I am honored that the last trip of my presidency is to come home to Arkansas and to the Legislature," Clinton said.

"Everything that I have been able to do as president is in no small measure a result of the life I led and the jobs I held in Arkansas," he said.

"I will leave office at noon on the 20th amazed and grateful that somehow the mystery of this great democracy gave me the chance to go from a little boy ... in Hope, Arkansas, to the White House," he added.

Clinton, born and grown up in Arkansas, became the state attorney general in 1976. He ran for congress in 1974, but did not succeed.

In 1978, at 32, he became the nation's youngest governor, but lasted only one term. He returned to the governor's office in 1982, where he stayed for the next decade while plotting his race for the White House. He twice carried Arkansas as a candidate for the White House.

Clinton also visited New Hampshire and Michigan in recent days on a farewell tour.








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