Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton /ˈhɪləri daɪˈæn ˈrɒdəm Libya. While accepting responsibility for security lapses ˈklɪntən/ (born October 26, 1947) is an American politi- related to the 2012 Benghazi attack, she said she had cian and a candidate for the Democratic presidential no direct role in consulate security prior to that attack. nomination in the 2016 election. She was the United Leaving office after Obama’s first term, she authored her States Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013, the junior fifth book and undertook speaking engagements before United States Senator representing New York from 2001 announcing her second run for the Democratic nomina- to 2009, First Lady of the United States during the presi- tion, in the 2016 presidential election. dency of Bill Clinton from 1993 to 2001, and First Lady of Arkansas for twelve years. Hillary Rodham grew up in the Chicago area. She at- 1 Early life and education tended Wellesley College, graduating in 1969, and earned a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1973. After serving as 1.1 Early life a congressional legal counsel, she moved to Arkansas, marrying Bill Clinton in 1975. Rodham co-founded Hillary[nb 2] Diane Rodham was born on October 26, Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families in 1977, 1947, at Edgewater Hospital in Chicago, Illinois.[2][3] She became the first female chair of the Legal Services Cor- was raised in a United Methodist family, first in Chicago poration in 1978, then the first female partner at Rose and then, from the age of three, in suburban Park Ridge, Law Firm in 1979. As First Lady of Arkansas (1979–81, Illinois.[4] Her father, Hugh Ellsworth Rodham (1911– 1983–92), she led a task force whose recommendations 1993), was of Welsh and English descent;[5] he man- helped reform Arkansas’ public schools, and served on aged a successful small business in the textile industry.[6] the boards of corporations including Wal-Mart. Her mother, Dorothy Emma Howell (1919–2011), was a As First Lady of the United States, Clinton led the failed homemaker of English, Scottish, French Canadian, and effort to enact the Clinton health plan of 1993. In Welsh descent.[5][7][8] Hillary has two younger brothers, 1997 and 1999, she helped create programs for children’s Hugh and Tony.[9] health insurance, adoption, and foster care. The only first lady to have been subpoenaed, Clinton faced a federal grand jury in 1996 regarding the Whitewater controversy; no charges were brought against her related to this or any other controversies in her life. Her marriage endured the Lewinsky scandal of 1998, and overall her role as first lady drew a polarized response from the public. Clinton was elected in 2000 as the first female senator from New York, the only first lady ever to have sought elective office. Following the September 11 attacks, she voted to approve the War in Afghanistan. She also voted for the Iraq Resolution (which she later regretted), but subsequently sought to hasten the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and opposed the Iraq War troop surge Mementos of Hillary Rodham’s early life are shown at the of 2007 (which she later praised). Clinton voted against William J. Clinton Presidential Center. the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003, and voted against John Roberts and Samuel Alito for the U.S. Supreme Court, As a child, Rodham was a teacher’s favorite at her public filibustering the latter. Clinton was re-elected to the Sen- schools in Park Ridge.[10][11] She participated in sports, ate in 2006. Running for president in 2008, she won far such as swimming and baseball, and earned numerous more delegates than any previous female candidate, but awards as a Brownie and as a Girl Scout.[10][11] She at- lost the Democratic nomination to Barack Obama. tended Maine East High School, where she participated in As Secretary of State in the Obama administration from student council, the school newspaper, and was selected 2009 to 2013, Clinton responded to the Arab Spring, dur- for National Honor Society.[2][12] For her senior year, she ing which she advocated the U.S. military intervention in was redistricted to Maine South High School, where she was a National Merit Finalist and graduated in the top five 1 2 1 EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION percent of her class of 1965.[12][13] Her mother wanted ernor Nelson Rockefeller's late-entry campaign for the her to have an independent, professional career,[8] and Republican nomination.[26] Rodham attended the 1968 her father, otherwise a traditionalist, felt that his daugh- Republican National Convention in Miami. However, ter’s abilities and opportunities should not be limited by she was upset by the way Richard Nixon’s campaign por- gender.[14] trayed Rockefeller and by what she perceived as the con- [8] vention’s “veiled” racist messages, and left the Republi- Raised in a politically conservative household, Rod- [26] ham helped canvass Chicago’s South Side at age thir- can Party for good. Rodham wrote her senior thesis, teen following the very close 1960 U.S. presidential elec- a critique of the tactics of radical community organizer Saul Alinsky, under Professor Schechter.[29] (Years later, tion, where she found evidence of electoral fraud against Republican candidate Richard Nixon.[15] She then vol- while she was first lady, access to her thesis was restricted at the request of the White House and it became the sub- unteered to campaign for Republican candidate Barry [29] Goldwater in the U.S. presidential election of 1964.[16] ject of some speculation. ) Rodham’s early political development was shaped most In 1969, she graduated with a bachelor of arts,[30] by her high school history teacher (like her father, a fer- with departmental honors in political science.[29] Fol- vent anticommunist), who introduced her to Goldwater’s lowing pressure from some fellow seniors, she became The Conscience of a Conservative, and by her Methodist the first student in Wellesley College history to be cho- youth minister (like her mother, concerned with issues of sen by graduating seniors to speak on their behalf, fol- social justice), with whom she saw, and afterwards briefly lowing commencement speaker Senator Brooke.[27][31] met, civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. at a 1962 Her speech received a standing ovation lasting seven speech in Chicago’s Orchestra Hall.[17] minutes.[24][32][33] She was featured in an article pub- lished in Life magazine,[34] due to the response to a part of her speech that criticized Senator Brooke.[31] She also 1.2 Wellesley College years appeared on Irv Kupcinet's nationally syndicated tele- vision talk show as well as in Illinois and New Eng- [35] In 1965, Rodham enrolled at Wellesley College, where land newspapers. That summer, she worked her way she majored in political science.[18] During her fresh- across Alaska, washing dishes in Mount McKinley Na- man year, she served as president of the Wellesley tional Park and sliming salmon in a fish processing can- Young Republicans;[19][20] with this Rockefeller Repub- nery in Valdez (which fired her and shut down overnight [36] lican-oriented group,[21] she supported the elections to when she complained about unhealthful conditions). mayor of John Lindsay (New York City) and to U.S. senator of Edward Brooke (Massachusetts).[22] She later stepped down from this position, as her views changed 1.3 Yale Law School and postgraduate regarding the American Civil Rights Movement and the studies Vietnam War.[19] In a letter to her youth minister at this time, she described herself as “a mind conservative and [23] Rodham then entered Yale Law School. There she served a heart liberal”. In contrast to the 1960s current that on the editorial board of the Yale Review of Law and advocated radical actions against the political system, she [37] [24][25] Social Action. During her second year, she worked at sought to work for change within it. the Yale Child Study Center,[38] learning about new re- In her junior year, Rodham became a supporter of the search on early childhood brain development and work- antiwar presidential nomination campaign of Democrat ing as a research assistant on the seminal work, Beyond Eugene McCarthy.[26] In early 1968, she was elected the Best Interests of the Child (1973).[39][40] She also took president of the Wellesley College Government Associa- on cases of child abuse at Yale–New Haven Hospital[39] tion and served through early 1969.[24][27] Following the and volunteered at New Haven Legal Services to pro- assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Rodham orga- vide free legal advice for the poor.[38] In the summer of nized a two-day student strike and worked with Welles- 1970 she was awarded a grant to work at Marian Wright ley’s black students to recruit more black students and Edelman's Washington Research Project, where she was faculty.[26] In her student government role, she played a assigned to Senator Walter Mondale's Subcommittee on role in keeping Wellesley from being embroiled in the stu- Migratory Labor. There she researched migrant workers' dent disruptions common to other colleges.[24][28] A num- problems in housing, sanitation, health and education.[41] ber of her fellow students thought she might some day be- Edelman later became a significant mentor.[42] Rodham come the first female President of the United States.[24] was recruited by political advisor Anne Wexler to work To help her better understand her changing politi- on the 1970 campaign of Connecticut U.S.