| Hillary Rodham Clinton series
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Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton (born October 26, 1947) is the junior United States Senator from New York, and a leading candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2008 presidential election. She is married to Bill Clinton—the 42nd President of the United States—and was the First Lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001.
A native of Illinois, Hillary Rodham attracted national attention in 1969 when she delivered an address as the first student to speak at commencement exercises for Wellesley College. She began her career as a lawyer after graduating from Yale Law School in 1973. She moved to Arkansas in 1974 and married Bill Clinton in 1975, following a stint as a Congressional legal counsel. She was later named the first female partner at Rose Law Firm in 1979 and was listed as one of the one hundred most influential lawyers in America in 1988 and 1991. She was the First Lady of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and 1983 to 1992 and was active in a number of organizations concerned with the welfare of children as well as sitting on the board of Wal-Mart and several other corporate boards.
As First Lady of the United States, her major initiative, the Clinton health care plan, failed to gain approval by the U.S. Congress in 1994, but in 1997 she helped establish the State Children\'s Health Insurance Program and the Adoption and Safe Families Act. She became the only First Lady to be subpoenaed, testifying before a federal grand jury as a consequence of the Whitewater controversy in 1996. She was never charged with any wrongdoing in this or several other investigations during her husband\'s administration. The state of her marriage to Bill Clinton was the subject of considerable public discussion following the Lewinsky scandal in 1998.
After moving to New York, Clinton was elected as senator for New York State in 2000; this was the first time an American First Lady ran for public office and she is the first female senator from that state. In the Senate, she initially supported the George W. Bush administration on some foreign policy issues, which included voting for the Iraq War Resolution. She has subsequently opposed the administration on its conduct of the Iraq War and has opposed it on most domestic issues. She was re-elected by a wide margin in 2006. In the 2008 Democratic nomination race, Clinton became the first woman in U.S. history to win a statewide presidential party primary.
Early life and education
Early life
Hillary[In 1995, Hillary Clinton said her mother had named her after Sir Edmund Hillary, co-first-climber of Mount Everest, and that was the reason for the unusual "two L\'s" spelling. However, the Everest climb did not take place until 1953, more than five years after Clinton was born. In October 2006, a Clinton spokeswoman said she was not in fact named after the mountain climber, rather "It was a sweet family story her mother shared to inspire greatness in her daughter, to great results I might add." See Danny Hakim. "Hillary, Not as in the Mount Everest Guy", The New York Times, 2006-10-17. Retrieved on 2007-09-25. and Hillary vs. Hillary. Snopes.com (2006-10-26). Retrieved on 2007-11-23.] Diane Rodham was born at Edgewater Hospital in Chicago, Illinois,[Edgewater Hospital 1929–2001. Edgewater Historical Society (Summer 2003). Retrieved on 2007-06-10.] and was raised in a United Methodist family,[Clinton, Hillary Rodham (2003). Living History. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-2224-5. , p. 7.] first in Chicago, and then, from the age of three, in suburban Park Ridge, Illinois, which is also located in Cook County.[Living History, p. 9.] Her father, Hugh Ellsworth Rodham, was a son of Welsh and English immigrants[Living History, p. 4.] and operated a small but successful business in the textile industry.[Living History, p. 8.] Her mother, Dorothy Emma Howell, of English, Scottish, French Canadian, and Welsh descent,[Living History, p. 2. Clinton also claims a possible Native American heritage for her mother.] was a homemaker.
As a child, Hillary Rodham was involved in many activities at church and at her public school in Park Ridge. She participated in tennis and other sports and earned awards as a Brownie and Girl Scout.[Hillary Clinton\'s Education. Hillary-Rodham-Clinton.org. Retrieved on 2006-08-22.] She attended Maine East High School, where she participated in student council, the debating team and the National Honor Society. For her senior year she was redistricted to Maine South High School,[Dr. Doug Kelly. Hillary Clinton\'s High School Yearbook. Retrieved on 2007-06-01.] where she was a National Merit Finalist and graduated in 1965.[Hillary Rodham Clinton. White House. Retrieved on 2006-08-22.]
Raised in a politically conservative household,[Brock, David (2006). The Seduction of Hillary Rodham (excerpt from the book). Retrieved on 2007-02-05. Her father was an outspoken Republican, while her mother kept quiet but was "basically a Democrat." See Living History, p. 11.] at age thirteen she helped canvass South Side Chicago following the very close 1960 U.S. presidential election, finding evidence of electoral fraud against Republican candidate Richard Nixon,[Gerth, Jeff; Don Van Natta, Jr. (2007). Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton. New York: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 0-316-01742-6. , p. 19.] and volunteered for Republican candidate Barry Goldwater in the U.S. presidential election of 1964.[Middendorf, J. William (2006). Glorious Disaster: Barry Goldwater\'s Presidential Campaign And the Origins of the Conservative Movement. Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-04573-1. p. 266.] Her early political development was shaped most strongly by her energizing high school history teacher, who got her to read Goldwater\'s classic The Conscience of a Conservative[Troy, Gil (2006). Hillary Rodham Clinton: Polarizing First Lady. University Press of Kansas. ISBN 0-7006-1488-5. p. 15.] and who was, like her father, a fervent anti-communist, and by her Methodist youth minister, like her mother concerned with issues of social justice; with the minister she saw and met civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. in Chicago in 1962.[Gerth, Van Natta Jr., Her Way, pp. 18–21. The teacher, Paul Carlson, and the minister, Donald Jones, came into conflict with each in Park Ridge; Clinton would later see that "as an early indication of the cultural, political and religious fault lines that developed across America in the [next] forty years." Living History, p. 23.]
College
In 1965, Rodham enrolled in Wellesley College, where she majored in political science.[Hillary Rodham Clinton (1992-05-29). Hillary Rodham Clinton Remarks to Wellesley College Class of 1992. Wellesley College. Retrieved on 2007-06-01.] She served as president of the Rockefeller Republican-oriented[Milton, Joyce (1999). The First Partner: Hillary Rodham Clinton. William Morris. ISBN 0-688-15501-4. pp. 27–28.] Wellesley Young Republicans organization during her freshman year[Living History, p. 31.][Wellesley College Republicans: History and Purpose (2007-05-16). Retrieved on 2007-06-02. Gives organization\'s prior name.] and with them supported the elections of John Lindsay and Edward Brooke.[Brock, David (1996). The Seduction of Hillary Rodham. New York: The Free Press. ISBN 0-684-83451-0. pp. 12–13.] However, due to her evolving views regarding the American Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War, she stepped down from that position;[Bernstein, A Woman in Charge, p. 50. Bernstein states she believed this combination was possible and that no equation better describes the adult Hillary Clinton.] Active in campus affairs, she sought to work for change within the system, rather than take then-popular radical actions against it.[Charles Kenney. "Hillary: The Wellesley Years: The woman who will live in the White House was a sharp-witted activist in the class of \'69" (fee required), The Boston Globe, 1993-01-12. Retrieved on 2008-02-07. ] In her junior year, Rodham was affected by the death of Martin Luther King, Jr.,[Living History, p. 32.] Rodham organized a two-day student strike and worked with Wellesley\'s black students for moderate changes, such as recruiting more black students and faculty.[Leibovich, Mark. "In Turmoil of ’68, Clinton Found a New Voice", The New York Times, 2007-09-07. Retrieved on 2007-09-06. (English) ] In early 1968 she was elected president of the Wellesley College Government Association and served through early 1969;
Rodham returned to Wellesley, and wrote her senior thesis about the tactics of radical community organizer Saul Alinsky under Professor Schechter (which, years later while she was First Lady, was suppressed at the request of the White House and became the subject of speculation as to its contents).[Dedman, Bill (2007-03-02). Reading Hillary Rodham\'s hidden thesis. MSNBC.com. Retrieved on 2007-03-02.] In 1969, Rodham graduated with departmental honors in political science. Stemming from the demands of some students,[Living History, pp. 38–39.] she became the first student in Wellesley College history to deliver their commencement address.[Rodham, Hillary D. (1969-05-31). Wellesley College 1969 Student Commencement Speech. Wellesley College. Retrieved on 2006-08-22.] Her speech received a standing ovation lasting seven minutes.["Brooke Speech Challenged by Graduate", Fitchburg Sentinel, 1969-06-02. ]["Brooke Speech Draws Reply", Nevada State Journal, 1969-06-02. ] She was featured in an article published in Life magazine, due to the response to a part of her speech that criticized Senator Edward Brooke, who had spoken before her at the commencement;[Bernstein, Carl (2007). A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton. New York: Knopf. ISBN 0-3754-0766-9. , p. 70.] That summer, she worked her way across Alaska, washing dishes in Mount McKinley National Park and sliming salmon in a fish processing cannery in Valdez (which fired her and shut down overnight when she complained about unhealthy conditions).[Living History, pp. 42–43. Clinton would later write, and repeat on the Late Show with David Letterman, that sliming fish was the best preparation she would ever have for living in Washington.][Morris, Roger (1996). Partners in Power: The Clintons and Their America. Henry Holt. ISBN 0-8050-2804-8. , p. 139.]
Law school
Rodham then entered Yale Law School, where she served on the Board of Editors of the Yale Review of Law and Social Action.[Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton (1947–). The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture. Retrieved on 2007-04-08.] During her second year, she worked at the Yale Child Study Center,[Gerth, Van Natta Jr., Her Way, pp. 42–43.] learning about new research on early childhood brain development and working as a research assistant on the seminal work, Beyond the Best Interests of the Child (1973).[Bernstein, A Woman in Charge, p. 75.][The authors of Beyond the Best Interests of the Child were Center director Al Solnit, Yale Law professor Joe Goldstein, and Anna Freud.] She also took on cases of child abuse at Yale-New Haven Hospital,[Morris, Partners in Power, pp. 142–143.][Bernstein, A Woman in Charge, pp. 71–74.] Edelman would become a significant mentor to her.
In the late spring of 1971, she began dating Bill Clinton, who was also a law student at Yale. That summer, she interned on child custody cases[Gerth and Van Natta Jr., Her Way, p. 46.] at the Oakland, California, law firm of Treuhaft, Walker and Burnstein,[Living History, pp. 54–55.][Bernstein, A Woman in Charge, pp. 82–83.] which was well-known for its support of constitutional rights, civil liberties, and radical causes;[Josh Gerstein. "Hillary Clinton\'s Radical Summer", The New York Sun, 2007-11-26. Retrieved on 2007-11-29. ][It is unclear exactly which cases Rodham worked on at the Treuhaft firm; see Josh Gerstein. "Hillary Clinton\'s Radical Summer", The New York Sun, 2007-11-26. Retrieved on 2007-11-29. . Anti-Clinton writers such as Barbara Olson would later charge Hillary Clinton with never repudiating Treuhaft\'s ideology, and for retaining social and political ties with his wife and fellow communist Jessica Mitford. See Barbara Olson (1999). Hell to Pay: The Unfolding Story of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Regnery Publishing. ISBN 0-89526-197-9. pp. 56–57. Research by The New York Sun in 2007 revealed that Mitford and Hillary Clinton were not close, and had a falling out over a 1980 Arkansas prisoner case. See Josh Gerstein. "Hillary Clinton\'s Left Hook", The New York Sun, 2007-11-27. Retrieved on 2007-11-29. ] Clinton canceled his original summer plans in order to live with her in an apartment in Berkeley, California,[Josh Gerstein. "The Clintons\' Berkeley Summer of Love", The New York Sun, 2007-11-26. Retrieved on 2007-12-01. ] later writing, "I told her I\'d have the rest of my life for my work and my ambition, but I loved her and I wanted to see if it could work out for us."[Gerth and Van Natta Jr., Her Way, p. 48–49.][Living History, pp. 58–60.] She received a Juris Doctor degree from Yale in 1973,[Bernstein, A Woman in Charge, p. 89.] Clinton first proposed marriage to her following graduation, but she declined at the time.[Rodham, Hillary (1973). "Children Under the Law". Harvard Educational Review 43: 487–514. ] Discussing the new children\'s rights movement, it stated that "child citizens" were "powerless individuals"[Troy, Polarizing First Lady, p. 21.] and argued that children should not be considered equally incompetent from birth to attaining legal age, but rather courts should presume competence except when there is evidence otherwise, on a case-by-case basis.[Tamar Lewin. "Legal Scholars See Distortion In Attacks on Hillary Clinton", The New York Times, 1992-08-24. Retrieved on 2008-01-27. ] The article became frequently cited in the field.[This Google search result produces several hundred hits. Many are citations of "Children Under the Law" in other scholarly articles or books. There are many general media references and Wikipedia echoes as well.]
Marriage and family, law career and First Lady of Arkansas
Three decisions
During her post-graduate study, Rodham served as staff attorney for Edelman\'s newly founded Children\'s Defense Fund in Cambridge, Massachusetts,[Bernstein, A Woman in Charge, pp. 91–92.] and as a consultant to the Carnegie Council on Children.["Adults Urge Children\'s Rights", The Arizona Sentinel, 1974-10-04. ] During 1974 she was a member of the impeachment inquiry staff in Washington, D.C., advising the House Committee on the Judiciary during the Watergate scandal.[Living History, pp. 65–69.][Bernstein, A Woman in Charge, pp. 94–96, 101–103.] Under the guidance of Chief Counsel John Doar and senior member Bernard Nussbaum,
By then, Rodham was viewed as someone with a bright political future; Democratic political organizer and consultant Betsey Wright had moved from Texas to Washington the previous year to help guide her career;[Bernstein, A Woman in Charge, p. 62.] Wright thought Rodham had the potential to one day become a senator or president.[Maraniss, David (1995). First In His Class: A Biography of Bill Clinton. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-87109-9. p. 277.] Meanwhile, Clinton had repeatedly asked her to marry him, and she had continued to demur.[Bernstein, A Woman in Charge, pp. 90, 120.] However, helped by her having passed the Arkansas bar exam but having failed the District of Columbia bar exam,[Living History, p. 64. According to Carl Bernstein\'s 2007 biography, two-thirds (551 of 817) of the takers of the D.C. exam had passed, and Rodham did not tell even close friends of the failure until revealing it thirty years later in her autobiography. See A Woman in Charge, p. 92.] Rodham came to a key decision. As she later wrote, "I chose to follow my heart instead of my head."[Living History, p. 69. Excerpted at Hillary Rodham Clinton. "Hillary Unbound", Time, 2003-06-08. Retrieved on 2007-12-08. ] She thus followed Bill Clinton to Arkansas, rather than staying in Washington where career prospects were best. Clinton was at the time teaching law and running for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in his home state. In August 1974, she moved to Fayetteville, Arkansas, and became one of two female faculty members in the School of Law at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville,[Living History, p. 70.] where Bill Clinton also taught. She still harbored doubts about marriage, concerned that her separate identity would be lost and her accomplishments would be viewed in the light of someone else\'s accomplishments.[Bernstein, A Woman in Charge, pp. 62, 90, 117.]
Early Arkansas years
The couple bought a house in Fayetteville in the summer of 1975, and she finally agreed to marry him.[Bernstein, A Woman in Charge, p. 120.] Hillary Rodham and Bill Clinton were married on October 11, 1975, in a Methodist ceremony in their living room.[Living History, p. 75.] She kept her name as Hillary Rodham, later writing that she had done so to keep their professional lives separate and avoid seeming conflicts of interest, although it upset both their mothers.[Living History, pp. 91–92.] Bill Clinton had lost the Congressional race in 1974, but in November 1976 was elected Arkansas Attorney General. This required the couple to move to the state capital of Little Rock.[Living History, p. 78.] Rodham joined the venerable Rose Law Firm, a bastion of Arkansan political and economic influence,[Bernstein, A Woman in Charge, p. 128. The firm was actually called Rose, Nash, Williamson, Carroll, Clay & Giroir at the time; it simplified its name to Rose Law Firm in 1980.] in February 1977,[Bernstein, A Woman in Charge, p. 130.] specializing in patent infringement and intellectual property law,[Bernstein, A Woman in Charge, pp. 131–132.]
Rodham maintained her interest in children\'s law and family policy, publishing the scholarly articles "Children\'s Policies: Abandonment and Neglect" in 1977[Rodham, Hillary (June 1977). "Children\'s Policies: Abandonment and Neglect". Yale Law Journal 68 (7): 1522–1531. ] and "Children\'s Rights: A Legal Perspective" in 1979.[Rodham, Hillary (1979). "Children\'s Rights: A Legal Perspective", in Patricia A. Vardin, Ilene N. Brody (eds.): Children\'s Rights: Contemporary Perspectives. New York: Teacher\'s College Press, 21–36. ] The latter continued her argument that legal competence of children depended upon their age and other circumstances, and that in cases of serious medical rights judicial intervention is sometimes warranted.[Garry Wills. "H.R. Clinton\'s Case", The New York Review of Books, 1992-03-05. Retrieved on 2008-01-26. ] while conservatives said her theories would usurp traditional parental authority,[Barbara Olson (1999). Hell to Pay: The Unfolding Story of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Regnery Publishing. ISBN 0-89526-197-9. p. 57.]
Rodham co-founded the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, a state-level alliance with the Children\'s Defense Fund, in 1977.[Bernstein, A Woman in Charge, p. 154.]
In late 1977, President Jimmy Carter (for whom Rodham had done 1976 campaign coordination work in Indiana)[Living History, pp. 77–78.] appointed her to the board of directors of the Legal Services Corporation,[Jimmy Carter: Nominations Submitted to the Senate, Week Ending Friday, December 16th, 1977. American Presidency Project. Retrieved on 2007-09-03.] and she served in that capacity from 1978 until the end of 1981.[Ronald Reagan: Recess Appointment of Three Members of the Board of Directors of the Legal Services Corporation. American Presidency Project (1982-01-22). Retrieved on 2007-09-03.] From mid-1978[Brock, Seduction of Hillary Rodham, p. 96.] to mid-1980[Secondary sources give inconsistent dates as to when her time as chair ended. Primary sources indicate that sometime between about April 1980 and September 1980, Rodham was replaced as chair by F. William McCalpin. See House Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Departments of State, Justice, Commerce, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies Appropriations. U.S. House of Representatives (1980). Rodham is still chair after having given birth "a few weeks ago"; Chelsea Clinton was born on February 27, 1980. And see Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Courts, Civil Liberties, and the Administration of Justice, of the Committee of the Judiciary, House of Representatives. Background release, Legal Services Corporation, September 1980. U.S. House of Representatives (September 21, 27, 1979). pp. 388–403, exact reference p. 398, which shows McCalpin as chair in September 1980.] she served as the chair of that board, the first woman to do so.[Morris, Partners in Power, p. 225.] During her time as chair, funding for the Corporation was expanded from $90 million to $300 million;[Bernstein, A Woman in Charge, p. 133.] subsequently she successfully battled against President Ronald Reagan\'s initial attempts to reduce the funding and change the nature of the organization.
Following the November 1978 election of her husband as Governor of Arkansas, Rodham became First Lady of Arkansas in January 1979, her title for a total of twelve years (1979–1981, 1983–1992). Clinton appointed her chair of the Rural Health Advisory Committee the same year,[Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (NY). Retrieved on 2007-09-25.] where she successfully obtained federal funds to expand medical facilities in Arkansas\' poorest areas without affecting doctors\' fees.[Bernstein, A Woman in Charge, p. 147.]
In 1979,[Hillary Rodham Clinton. Edwardsly.com. Retrieved on 2006-08-22.] From 1978 until they entered the White House, she had a higher salary than her husband.[Gerth, Van Natta Jr., Her Way, pp. 66–67.] her initial $1,000 investment generated nearly $100,000 when she stopped trading after ten months.[Gerth, Van Natta Jr., Her Way, pp. 73–76.] The couple also began their ill-fated investment in the Whitewater Development Corporation real estate venture with Jim and Susan McDougal at this time.
On February 27, 1980, Rodham gave birth to a daughter, Chelsea, her only child. In November 1980, Bill Clinton was defeated in his bid for re-election.
Later Arkansas years
Hillary Rodham Clinton, 1992
Bill Clinton returned to the Governor\'s office two years later by winning the election of 1982. During her husband\'s campaign, Rodham began to use the name Hillary Clinton, or sometimes "Mrs. Bill Clinton", in order to have greater appeal to Arkansas voters;[Bill Clinton\'s advisors thought her use of her maiden name to be one of the reasons behind his 1980 gubernatorial re-election loss. During the following winter, Vernon Jordan suggested to Hillary Rodham that she start using Clinton as her name, and she began to do so publicly with Bill Clinton\'s February 1982 campaign announcement. She later wrote that "I learned the hard way that some voters in Arkansas were seriously offended by the fact that I kept my maiden name." Living History, pp. 91–93; see also Morris, Partners in Power, p. 282.] she also took a leave of absence from Rose Law in order to campaign for him full-time.[Bernstein, A Woman in Charge, p. 166.] As First Lady of Arkansas, Hillary Clinton chaired the Arkansas Educational Standards Committee from 1982 to 1992,[Hillary Chairs Arkansas Educational Standards Committee · 1982 - 1992. Retrieved on 2007-09-25.] where she sought to bring about reform in the state\'s court-sanctioned public education system.[Bernstein, A Woman in Charge, pp. 170–175. Bernstein states that "the political battle for education reform ... would be her greatest accomplishment in public life until she was elected to the U.S. Senate."]["Hillary Clinton Guides Movement to Change Public Education in Arkansas", The Arkansas News, Spring 1993. Retrieved on 2006-08-22. ] In one of the most important initiatives of the entire Clinton governorship,[Kearney, Janis F. (2006). Conversations: William Jefferson Clinton, from Hope to Harlem. Writing Our World Press. ISBN 0976205815. p. 295.] She was named Arkansas Woman of the Year in 1983 and Arkansas Mother of the Year in 1984.[Hillary Rodham Clinton. Scholastic Press. Retrieved on 2006-08-22.]
Clinton continued to practice law with the Rose Law Firm while she was First Lady of Arkansas. She earned less than all the other partners, due to fewer hours being billed,[Gerth, Van Natta Jr., Her Way, p. 63.] but still made more than $200,000 in her final year there.[Stephen Labaton (1994-02-26). Rose Law Firm, Arkansas Power, Slips as It Steps Onto a Bigger Stage. The New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-09-20.] She continued to rarely do trial work,[Gerth, Van Natta Jr., pp. 80–81.] From 1987 to 1991 she chaired the American Bar Association\'s Commission on Women in the Profession,[Gerth, Van Natta Jr., Her Way, pp. 82–84.] which addressed gender bias in the law profession and induced the association to adopt measures to combat it.["Clinton, Hillary Rodham", 300 Women who Changed the World, Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved on 2006-08-22. ] When Bill Clinton thought about not running again for governor in 1990, Hillary Clinton considered running herself, but private polls were unfavorable and in the end he ran and was re-elected for the final time.[Gerth, Van Natta Jr., Her Way, p. 85.][Bernstein, A Woman in Charge, pp. 187–189.]
Clinton served on the boards of the Arkansas Children\'s Hospital Legal Services (1988–1992)[Hon. Hillary Rodham Clinton. FindLaw. Retrieved on 2007-05-31.] and the Children\'s Defense Fund (as chair, 1986–1992).[Board of Directors Emeritus. Children\'s Defense Fund. Retrieved on 2007-05-31.][Hillary Rodham Clinton. The Washington Post. Retrieved on 2007-05-30. Bio entry.] Wal-Mart Stores (1986–1992)[Harkavy, Ward. "Wal-Mart’s First Lady", The Village Voice, 2000-05-24. Retrieved on 2006-08-22. ] and Lafarge (1990–1992).[Picard, Ken. "Vermonters to Hillary: Don\'t Tread on Us", Seven Days, 2005-05-04. Retrieved on 2007-05-30. ] TCBY and Wal-Mart were Arkansas-based companies that were also clients of Rose Law.[Michael Barbaro. "As a Director, Clinton Moved Wal-Mart Board, but Only So Far", The New York Times, 2007-05-20. Retrieved on 2007-09-23. ] once there, she pushed successfully for the chain to adopt more environmentally-friendly practices,[Brian Ross, Maddy Sauer, Rhonda Schwartz. "Clinton Remained Silent As Wal-Mart Fought Unions", ABC News, 2008-01-31. Retrieved on 2008-01-31. ]
First Lady of the United States
A different kind of First Lady
Hillary Rodham Clinton
After her husband became a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination of 1992, Hillary Clinton received popular national attention for the first time. Before the New Hampshire primary, tabloid publications printed claims that Bill Clinton had had an extramarital affair with Gennifer Flowers, an Arkansas lounge singer.[Clintons to Rebut Rumors on "60 Minutes". The New York Times (1992-01-25). Retrieved on 2007-03-25.] In response, the Clintons appeared together on 60 Minutes, during which Bill Clinton denied the affair but acknowledged he had caused "pain" in their marriage.[In 1992, Clinton Conceded Marital \'Wrongdoing\'. The Washington Post (1992-01-26). Retrieved on 2007-03-25.] (Years later, he would admit that the Flowers affair had happened, but to a lesser extent than she had claimed.)["Paula Jones challenges Clinton to debate", CNN, 2004-06-30. Retrieved on 2007-09-25. ] Hillary Clinton made culturally dismissive remarks about Tammy Wynette[During the political damage control over the Gennifer Flowers episode during the 1992 campaign, Hillary Clinton said in a joint 60 Minutes interview, "I\'m not sitting here as some little woman \'standing by my man\' like Tammy Wynette. I\'m sitting here because I love him and I respect him, and I honor what he\'s been through and what we\'ve been through together." The seemingly sneering reference to country music provoked immediate criticism that Clinton was culturally tone-deaf, and Tammy Wynette herself did not like the remark because her classic song "Stand by Your Man" is not written in the first person. See "2000: Hillary Clinton is first First Lady in Senate", BBC, 2000-11-07. Retrieved on 2007-10-01. Wynette further said that Clinton had "offended every true country music fan and every person who has \'made it on their own\' with no one to take them to a White House." See "Tammy Wynette, country music\'s first lady, dies at 55", CNN.com, 1998-04-07. Retrieved on 2007-10-01. A few days later, on Prime Time Live, Clinton apologized to Wynette. Clinton would later write that she had not been careful in her choice of words and that "the fallout from my reference to Tammy Wynette was instant — as it deserved to be — and brutal." See Living History, p. 108. The two women patched things up, with Wynette appearing later at a Clinton fund raiser.] and baking cookies and having teas[Less than two months after the Tammy Wynette remarks, Hillary Clinton was facing questions about whether she could have avoided possible conflicts of interest between her Governor husband and work given to the Rose Law Firm, when she remarked, "I\'ve done the best I can to lead my life ... You know, I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was fulfill my profession, which I entered before my husband was in public life." See Living History, p. 109. The "cookies and teas" part of this prompted even more culture-based criticism, objecting to Clinton\'s apparent distaste for women who had chosen a homemaker role in life. See Hillary Clinton. Miller Center of Public Affairs. University of Virginia. Retrieved on 2007-10-01. Clinton subsequently offered up some cookie recipes as a way of making amends, and would later write of her chagrin: "Besides, I\'ve done quite a lot of cookie baking in my life, and tea-pouring too!" Living History, p. 109.] during the campaign that were ill-considered by her own admission. Bill Clinton said that electing him would get "two for the price of one" or "buy one, get one free", referring to the prominent role his wife would assume.[Brock, Seduction of Hillary Rodham, p. 261.]["ABC Nightline transcript: Making Hillary Clinton An Issue", PBS Frontline, 1992-03-26. Retrieved on 2008-02-14. ] Beginning with Daniel Wattenberg\'s August 1992 The American Spectator article "The Lady Macbeth of Little Rock", Hillary Clinton\'s own past ideological and ethical record came under conservative attack.[Daniel Wattenberg. "The Lady Macbeth of Little Rock", The American Spectator, August 1992. ]
The Clinton family arrives at the White House courtesy of Marine One, 1993.
When Bill Clinton took office as president in January 1993, Hillary Rodham Clinton became the First Lady of the United States, and announced that she would be using that form of her name.[Anthony York. "On her own", Salon magazine, 1999-07-08. Retrieved on 2007-07-14. Her announcement was parodied by the May 1993 film spoof Hot Shots! Part Deux, in which all the female characters were given the middle name "Rodham"; see IMDB entry.] She was the first First Lady to hold a post-graduate degree[First post-graduate degree through regular study and scholarly work. Eleanor Roosevelt had been previously awarded a post-graduate honorary degree. Clinton\'s successor Laura Bush became the second First Lady with a post-graduate degree.] and to have her own professional career up to the time of entering the White House.[ "Hillary Rodham Clinton", Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2006. Retrieved on August 22, 2006.] She was also the first to take up an office in the West Wing of the White House:[Rajghatta, Chidanand (1st quarter 2004). "First Lady President?". Verve magazine 12 (1). Retrieved on 2006-08-22. ]
Some critics called it inappropriate for the First Lady to play a central role in matters of public policy. Supporters pointed out that Clinton\'s role in policy was no different from that of other White House advisors and that voters were well aware that she would play an active role in her husband\'s Presidency.[Peart, Karen N.. "The First Lady: Homemaker or Policy-Maker?", Scholastic Press. Retrieved on 2006-08-22. ] Bill Clinton\'s campaign promise of "two for the price of one" led opponents to refer derisively to the Clintons as "co-presidents",[Greenberg, Paul. "Israel\'s new friend: Hillary, born-again Zionist", Jewish World Review, 1999-07-15. Retrieved on 2006-08-22. ] or sometimes "Billary".[A perilous portmanteau?. Language Log (2005-11-01). Retrieved on 2006-08-22.] The pressures of conflicting ideas about the role of a First Lady were enough to send Clinton into "imaginary discussions" with the also-politically-active Eleanor Roosevelt;[ The Eleanor Roosevelt "discussions" were first reported in 1996 by Washington Post writer Bob Woodward; they had begun from the start of Hillary Clinton\'s time as First Lady. See "Adviser downplays Hillary Clinton\'s conversations with Eleanor Roosevelt", CNN.com, 1996-06-24. Retrieved on 2007-10-02. Following the Democrats\' loss of congressional control in the 1994 elections, Clinton had engaged the services of self help expert Jean Houston, who allegedly sometimes dabbled in psychic experiences, spirits, trances, and hypnosis. Houston encouraged Clinton to pursue the Roosevelt connection, and while none of these psychic techniques were used with Clinton, critics and comics immediately suggested that Clinton was holding séances with Eleanor Roosevelt. The White House stated that this was merely a brainstorming exercise, and a private poll later indicated that most of the public believed these were indeed just imaginary conversations, with the remainder believing that communication with the dead was actually possible. See Francis Wheen. "Never mind the pollsters", The Guardian, 2000-07-26. Retrieved on 2007-10-02. In her 2003 autobiography, Clinton titled an entire chapter "Conversations with Eleanor", and stated that holding "imaginary conversations [is] actually a useful mental exercise to help analyze problems, provided you choose the right person to visualize. Eleanor Roosevelt was ideal [as a trail-blazer and controversial First Lady]." See Living History, pp. 258–259.] from the time she came to Washington, she also found refuge in a prayer group of The Fellowship that featured many wives of conservative Washington figures.[Kathryn Joyce and Jeff Sharlet. "Hillary\'s Prayer: Hillary Clinton\'s Religion and Politics", Mother Jones, September/October 2007. Retrieved on 2007-10-10. ][Bernstein, A Woman in Charge, pp. 313–314.] Triggered in part by the death of her father in April 1993, she publicly sought to find a synthesis of Methodist teachings, liberal religious political philosophy, and Tikkun editor Michael Lerner\'s "politics of meaning" to overcome what she saw as America\'s "sleeping sickness of the soul" and that would lead to a willingness "to remold society by redefining what it means to be a human being in the twentieth century, moving into a new millennium."[Michael Kelly. "St. Hillary", The New York Times Magazine, 1993-05-23. ][Priscilla Painton. "The Politics of What?", Time, 1993-05-31. Retrieved on 2007-10-20. ] Other segments of the public focused on her appearance, which had evolved over time from inattention to fashion during her days in Arkansas,[Living History, pp. 110–111.] to a popular site in the early days of the World Wide Web devoted to showing her many different, and much analyzed, hairstyles as First Lady,[Postrel, Virginia (2004). The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic Value Is Remaking Commerce, Culture, and Consciousness. HarperCollins. ISBN 0060933852. ]
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