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Revision as of 04:44, 21 July 2002 by 217.168.172.202 (talk)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)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.
Born in Chicago, Illinois and growing up in Park Ridge, Illiois, 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 prosecution (or investigation ??) team; just as her husband was the first president from the Baby Boom generation, she is its first First Lady.
Like her husband, she has been investigated for numerous alleged scandals; in every case, the investigation exonerated her, finding no evidence of any crime.
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 Republican-dominated Congress, where her traditional Democratic views (well to the left of her husband's) turned her into a figure of revulsion amongst the Republicans.
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, Hillary 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 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, Hillary 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, she comfortably won the traditionally Democratic seat, in part by campaigning extensively in traditionally Republican areas of Upstate New York.
Hillary has one child, Chelsea Clinton, who spent her teenage years in the White House and is now studying for a postgraduate degree at Oxford University.
External links:
Senator Clinton's official site
See also: