Hillary Rodham Clinton

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See also Hillary Rodham Clinton: Critical views

Hillary Rodham Clinton (born October 26, 1947) is a former First Lady (wife of former President Bill Clinton), presently serving New York in the United States Senate. She and her husband have one child, Chelsea Clinton. She is currently as a candidate for President of the United States, seeking the Democratic Party's nomination.

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.

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.

When her husband was elected to the presidency in 1992, she was undoubtedly the most overtly political First Lady ever, sometimes engaging in State matters over which she had no jurisdiction. 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, but the fact remains that they have remained together (and whilst spending extended periods apart still holiday 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, 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).

Clinton had been mentioned as a potential candidate for United States President since at least October 2002.[1] She has been ranked among the world's most powerful people by Forbes magazine[2] and Time magazine's Time 100.[3] On January 20 2007, Clinton announced on her Web site the formation of a presidential exploratory committee, with the intention to become a candidate for president in the United States presidential election of 2008. In her announcement, she stated, "I'm in. And I'm in to win."[4] No woman has ever been nominated by a major party for President of the United States,[5] and Clinton is the first woman seen to have a good chance of winning a nomination.[5][6]

Clinton led the field of candidates competing for the Democratic nomination in opinion polls for the election throughout the first half of 2007.

Most polls placed Senator Barack Obama of Illinois and former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina as Clinton's closest competitors in the early caucus and primary election states.[7][8] Clinton set records for early fundraising,[9] which Obama then topped in the following months[10] before Clinton later regained the money lead;[11][dead link] but Clinton generally maintained her lead in the polls.[12][13]

In April 2007, the Clintons liquidated a blind trust that had been established when he became president in 1993, in order to avoid the possibility of ethical conflicts or political embarrassments in the trust as Hillary Clinton undertook her presidential race

By September 2007, opinion polling in the first six states holding Democratic primaries or caucuses showed that Clinton was leading in all of them, with the races being closest in Iowa and South Carolina. By October 2007, national polls had Clinton far ahead of any Democratic competitor.[14] Later, the race tightened considerably, especially in the early caucus and primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, with Clinton losing her lead in some polls by December.[15]

In the first vote of 2008, she placed third with 29 percent of the state delegate selections in the January 3, 2008 Iowa Democratic caucus to Obama's 38 percent and Edwards' 30 percent.[16] Obama led polls in New Hampshire and gained ground in national polling in the next few days, with a double digit victory predicted by several highly publicized polls for the New Hampshire primary[17] and all major polls predicting an Obama victory, with an average of 8 point margin.[18] However, Clinton gained a surprise win[19] in the New Hampshire primary on January 8,[20] defeating Obama by 39 percent to 37 percent,[21] and in the process becoming the first woman to win a presidential party primary in United States history.[17]

After Clinton won the county delegates vote 51–45 percent in the January 19 Nevada caucuses, she lost by a huge 55–27 percent margin to Obama in the January 26 South Carolina primary, setting up, with Edwards soon dropping out, an intense two-person contest for the twenty-two February 5 Super Tuesday states. On Super Tuesday, Clinton won the largest states, such as California and New York, while Obama won more states; the two gained a nearly equal number of estimated delegates and a nearly equal share of the total popular vote.

See also


External Link

References

  1. ^ Dowd, Maureen. "Can Hillary Upgrade?", The New York Times, 2002-10-02, p. A27. Retrieved on 2006-08-22.  (preview only)
  2. ^ "The 100 Most Powerful Women". Forbes magazine (2006-08-31). Retrieved on 2007-09-27.
  3. ^ Karen Tumulty (2007). "The TIME 100: Hillary Clinton". Time. Retrieved on 2007-10-04.
  4. ^ Roberts, John. "Hillary Clinton launches White House bid: 'I'm in'", CNN, 2007-01-22. Retrieved on 2007-02-05. 
  5. ^ a b Susan Page. "Call her Madame President", USA Today, 2005-10-10. Retrieved on 2008-01-10. 
  6. ^ Alexis Simendinger. "The XX Factor", National Journal, 2007-10-01. Retrieved on 2007-10-17. 
  7. ^ Graham, Jed. "McCain, Giuliani Fare Well Vs. Top Dems, While Edwards Might Be Toughest Rival", Investors.com, 2007-01-05. Retrieved on 2007-02-05. 
  8. ^ Langer, Gary, Craighill, Peyton M.. "Clinton Leads '08 Dems; No Bounce for Obama", ABC News, 2007-01-21. Retrieved on 2007-02-05. 
  9. ^
  10. ^ Jeff Zeleny. "Obama Raised $32.5 Million in Second Quarter", The New York Times, 2007-07-01. Retrieved on 2007-07-01. 
  11. ^ Dan Morain. "Clinton leads the field in campaign fundraising", The Los Angeles Times, 2007-10-02. Retrieved on 2007-10-04. 
  12. ^ Schneider, Bill. ""Poll: Liberals moving toward Clinton; GOP race tightens"", CNN, 2007-05-07. Retrieved on 2007-05-08. 
  13. ^ "Rasmussen Reports" (2007-05-07). Retrieved on 2007-05-08.
  14. ^ "Hillary Clinton Leaps Ahead In Latest Democratic Poll", Fox News, 2007-10-03. Retrieved on 2007-10-04. 
  15. ^ "Clinton shouldn't worry just about IA", MSNBC, 2007-12-09. Retrieved on 2007-12-10. 
  16. ^ "Iowa Democratic Party Caucus Results". Retrieved on 2008-01-23.
  17. ^ a b Dick Meyer. "Analysis: Mrs. Comeback Kid & Obama's Wave", CBS News, 2008-01-08. Retrieved on 2008-01-08. 
  18. ^ "New Hampshire Democratic Primary". RealClearPolitics (2008-01-08). Retrieved on 2008-01-09.
  19. ^ John Whitesides. "Clinton scores surprise win in New Hampshire", Reuters, 2008-01-09. Retrieved on 2008-01-09. 
  20. ^ "Clinton's stunning victory", Chicago Tribune, 2008-01-08. Retrieved on 2008-01-08. 
  21. ^ "Official Results", Associated Press, 2008-01-10. Retrieved on 2008-01-13. 


Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Hillary Rodham Clinton" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillary_Rodham_Clinton, used under the GNU Free Documentation License.
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