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Hillary Rodham Clinton (born October 26, 1947), as the wife of President Bill Clinton, was First Lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001. She currently serves as the junior United States Senator from New York.
Childhood and early career
She was born in in Chicago, Illinois as Hillary Diane Rodham, the first child of Dorothy and Hugh Rodham. Two brothers, Hugh and Tony, were born later. Growing up up in Park Ridge, Illinois, she loved sports and her church, and was a member of the National Honor Society, and a student leader. Her parents encouraged her to study hard and to pursue any career that interested her.
As an undergraduate at Wellesley College, Hillary participated in school government. In 1969, Hillary entered Yale Law School, where she served on the Board of Editors of Yale Law Review and Social Action and interned with children's advocate Marian Wright Edelman. It was at Yale where she met her future husband - Bill Clinton often recalls how they met in the library when she strode up to him and said, "If you're going to keep staring at me, I might as well introduce myself."
After graduation, she became a successful lawyer, and advised the Children's Defense Fund in Cambridge and joined the impeachment inquiry staff advising the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives. After completing those responsibilities, she "followed her heart to Arkansas," where Bill had begun his political career. and amongst other charity work chaired the Children's Defense Fund. She was a junior legal member of the Watergate investigation team and was a lawyer for Wal-Mart.
They married in 1975. She joined the faculty of the University of Arkansas Law School in 1975 and the Rose Law Firm in 1976. In 1978, President Jimmy Carter appointed her to the board of the Legal Services Corporation, and Bill Clinton became Governor of Arkansas. Their daughter, Chelsea Clinton, was born in 1980.
Hillary wrote a weekly newspaper column entitled "Talking It Over," which focused on her experiences as First Lady and her observations of women, children, and families she has met around the world.
Like her husband, she was investigated for numerous alleged scandals; in every case, the investigations led to no criminal charges. She was widely criticized for interfering with the initial investigation of the death of Vince Foster. On January 26, 1996, she testified before a grand jury concerning the Whitewater scandal. She has also been labelled by her critics with a variety of nicknames.
During the Lewinsky scandal, Mrs. Clinton publicly stuck by the President, initially claiming that the allegations of Bill's infidelities were the result of a "vast right-wing conspiracy", and even when the affair was confirmed, remaining by his side. The state and nature of their marriage has been the subject of much speculation, with some claiming it was a purely political arrangement and widespread stories about their regular arguments. On the other hand, some people say there is a deep respect for each other's political abilities and intelligence--one that transcends their tiffs. Regardless, they remained together long after the political necessity for the marriage to stay together passed.
Undeterred by critics, Hillary won many admirers for her staunch support for women around the world and her commitment to children's issues. Hillary Clinton persevered through the health care debacle and the numerous scandals. She continued to be a leading advocate for expanding health insurance coverage, ensuring children are properly immunized, and raising public awareness of health issues. She worked on lesser but noteworthy projects like shaping the CHIP, children's health insurance program, as well as breast cancer funding.
There are many rumors that Senator Clinton may one day run for President. She is considered by many political analysts to be one of the most successful women politicians in American history, and has very high levels of name and image recognition, as well as previous White House experience. Sen. Clinton has denied she intends to run, and declined to run for the Democratic Party nomination in the U.S. presidential election, 2004, though she was urged to by many. Her critics allege this was due to the popularity of incumbent George W. Bush. However, Clinton has given clues that she would run in the 2008 election assuming Bush would win re-election.
First Lady of Arkansas
Hillary served as Arkansas's First Lady for 12 years. She chaired the Arkansas Educational Standards Committee, co-founded the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, and served on the boards of the Arkansas Children's Hospital, Legal Services, and the Children's Defense Fund.First Lady of the United States
When her husband was elected to the presidency in 1992, she was undoubtedly the most overtly political First Lady ever. She was the first First Lady to hold the Master of Science degree (the second being Laura Bush). Just as her husband was the first President from the Baby Boom generation, she was its first First Lady. President Clinton appointed her to a task force to devise reforms to America's health system. The controversial commission produced a complicated plan which never came to the floor of either house. It was abandoned in September, 1994. U.S. Senator
After a long "phoney war" and in a blaze of international media publicity, Mrs. Clinton ran for the New York senate seat in 2000. Initially expected to face Rudy Giuliani, his cancer scare prevented one of the most eagerly anticipated political contests of the election cycle and instead she faced an inexperienced Republican opponent, Representative Rick Lazio. Despite considerable efforts by the Republican party to defeat her, and allegations of anti-Semitism, she comfortably won the traditionally Democratic seat on November 7, in part by campaigning extensively in traditionally Republican areas of Upstate New York. In winning her seat, she became the first-ever first lady to win elected office in the United States and the first woman elected statewide in New York.Future presidential bid?
Writings
In 2001, Clinton received a record $8 million advance with Simon & Schuster for a book of her memoirs. The book was released in June 2003 and titled Living History (ISBN 0743222245). Living History was an immediate best seller, selling more than one million copies in the first month following publication. As First Lady, she wrote a weekly newspaper column entitled "Talking It Over," which focused on her experiences as First Lady and her observations of women, children, and families she has met around the world. Her 1996 book It Takes a Village and Other Lessons Children Teach Us was a best seller, and she received a Grammy Award for her recording of it. Other titles written by Hillary include: "An Invitation to the White House, and Dear Socks, Dear Buddy: Kids Letters to the First Pets''.Quotes
Further reading
External link