Hillary Clinton’s Rise to Politics and Power

Hillary Clinton has been at the center of the Democratic Party’s search for a can’t-miss nominee since her election as Senator in 2000. Clinton, the most active First Lady since Eleanor Roosevelt, left her indelible mark on the role of first wife and began a significant push for office at the national level. Hillary Rodham was born on October 26, 1947 in Chicago, Illinois, to homemaker Dorothy Rodham and small businessman Hugh Rodham. Clinton attended Wellesley College as an undergraduate and graduated from Yale Law School, where she met her future husband William Clinton. The Clintons’ only child, Chelsea, was born in 1980 and has been a target of media barbs since they moved into the White House in 1993. Clinton’s rise to power in Arkansas in the late 1970s led to a decades worth of power in Little Rock and a dark horse victory in the 1992 presidential election.

Her husband’s rise to power allowed Hillary to flex her political muscles and develop an ideology that has made her a formidable political figure. Hillary Clinton’s political ideas were tempered while a student at Yale when she worked on the liberal Democratic campaign of George McGovern in 1972. As first lady of Arkansas, Mrs. Clinton made her main aim to improve testing standards in Arkansas public schools. She also remained active as a practicing attorney while juggling the ceremonial duties as First Lady. When the Clintons moved into the White House, her presidential husband gave Hillary the responsibility for heading a task force on national health care which led to a major political loss for the new president. Many opponents latched onto Hillary as a domineering and overeager politico who was a co-president with her husband. However, Hillary Clinton was also working on more significant issues of women’s rights worldwide and the matter of children’s health, both of which tempered the content of her book “It Takes a Village,” a book on the social responsibility for taking care of the nation’s future.

Following her husband’s two terms in the White House, Hillary Clinton decided to go head first into politics by running for the open Senate seat in New York state. Her opponent, Rick Lazio, was no match for Hillary’s fundraising ability and political acumen and he easily defeated the native New Yorker to take the seat. Senator Clinton has added homeland security, national healthcare, and defense issues to her senatorial portfolio, especially since the 9/11 disaster. Her re-election bid for the 2006 midterm elections seems to be nearly unopposed, as Republican opponents have withdrawn in a flurry against Clinton’s massive fundraising advantage (14 million dollars for the Senate campaign, with nine million in the first three months of 2006). It appears that her main challenge will be convincing Democrats to nominate her in the 2008 Democratic nominating convention. She has held her ground on her more liberal principles, such as national health care, while promoting democracy in Iraq and a strong national defense to take a more moderate stance and win independents. However, some anti-war activists (including Cindy Sheehan) have dedicated time to halting her Senate campaign and to nominate someone more liberal, like Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin. Nevertheless, it appears by all indications that Clinton’s nomination is a strong possibility.