Hillary Rodham Clinton (born October 26, 1947) is a former First Lady (wife of former President Bill Clinton), currently serving New York in the United States Senate. Ms. Clinton and her husband have one child, Chelsea Clinton.
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Born Hillary Diane Rodham in Chicago, Illinois and growing up in Park Ridge, Illinois, she attended Wellesley College and later Yale law school. She became a successful lawyer, and amongst other charity work chaired the Children's Defense Fund. She was a junior legal member of the Watergate investigation team and is a former lawyer for Wal-Mart. Just as her husband was the first President from the Baby Boom generation, she was its first First Lady. She is the first First Lady to hold the Master of Science degree (the second being Laura Bush).
Her early years in office are most associated with her saying that "It takes a village to raise a child". Her views have been frequently accused of being socialistic by Republicans who oppose Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Like her husband, she has been investigated for numerous alleged scandals; in every case, the investigations subsequently 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.
When her husband was elected to the presidency in 1992, she was undoubtedly the most overtly political First Lady ever. President Clinton appointed her to a task force to devise reforms to America's health system which ultimately failed to pass through the Congress, even though both Houses were dominated by President's own party, the Democrats. Some would argue that strong public opposition to the proposed health care plan helped Republicans gain control of both Houses of Congress in the 1994 election.
After this failure and the succession of scandals surrounding the property dealings of the Clintons, she took a less prominent role.
During the Monica Lewinsky scandal in the last years of Clinton's presidency, Ms. 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 they were confirmed, remaining by his side. The state and nature of their marriage has been the subject of much speculation, with some claiming it is a purely political arrangement and widespread stories about their regular arguments. They have however remained together (and whilst spending extended periods apart still vacation together, apparently) long after the political necessity for the marriage to stay together passed.
After a long "phoney war" and in a blaze of international media publicity, Ms. 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.
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).
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 did not express any interest in running 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, who was too popular. It is thus believed that she may chose to run in the U.S. presidential election, 2008 assuming Bush would win re-election.
Biography and Career
Quotes
Further reading
See also: List of United States Senators