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Hillary Clinton become more famous after being a first lady for the United States in 1993 to 2001. The scandal between her hubby (Bill Clinton) and his secretary (Monica Lewinsky) doesn’t make her struggle for her career in political down. Events surrounding the Lewinsky scandal eventually led to the impeachment of Bill Clinton. When the allegations against her husband were first made public, Hillary Clinton stated that they were the result of a “vast right-wing conspiracy characterizing the Lewinsky charges as the latest in a long, organized, collaborative series of charges by Clinton political enemies, rather than any wrongdoing by her husband. She defended her husband. Now, she is the junior United States Senator from New York, and a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2008 presidential election. Well, let’s learn from her story below.

Hillary Diane Rodham, Dorothy and Hugh Rodham’s first child, was born on October 26, 1947. Two brothers, Hugh and Tony, soon followed. Hillary’s childhood in Park Ridge, Illinois, was happy and disciplined. She loved sports and her church, and was a member of the National Honor Society, and a student leader. Her parents encouraged her to study hard and to pursue any career that interested her.

As an undergraduate at Wellesley College, Hillary mixed academic excellence with school government. At Wellesley she served as President of the College Republicans, before changing her mind and becoming a dedicated Democrat. She earned a BA in Political Science a graduated with honors in 1969. She attracted national attention in 1969 when she delivered a controversial 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, moving to Arkansas and marrying Bill Clinton in 1975, following her career as a Congressional legal counsel; she was 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 served as the First Lady of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and 1983 to 1992, was active in a number of organizations concerned with the welfare of children, and was on the Wal-Mart and several other corporate boards.

As First Lady of the United States, she took a prominent position in policy matters. 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 first First Lady to be subpoenaed, testifying before a Federal grand jury as a consequence of the Whitewater scandal in 1996. She was never charged with any wrongdoing in this or several other investigations during her husband’s administration.

She was one of the most prominent international figures at the time to speak out against the treatment of Afghan women by the Islamist fundamentalist Taliban that had seized control of Afghanistan. She helped create Vital Voices, an international initiative sponsored by the United States to promote the participation of women in the political processes of their countries.

She was elected United States Senator from New York on November 7, 2000. She is the first First Lady elected to the United States Senate and the first woman elected statewide in New York. Then as a Senator, she voted against the tax cuts introduced by President Bush, including the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 and the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003, saying it was fiscally irresponsible to reopen the budget deficit. Clinton voted in 2005 against the confirmation of John Roberts as Chief Justice of the United States, and in 2006 against the nomination of Samuel Alito to the United States Supreme Court; both were confirmed. In 2005, Clinton called for the Federal Trade Commission to investigate how hidden sex scenes showed up in the controversial video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Along with Senators Joe Lieberman and Evan Bayh, she introduced the Family Entertainment Protection Act, intended to protect children from inappropriate content found in video games. In July 2004 and June 2006, Clinton voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment that sought to prohibit same-sex marriage. The proposed constitutional amendment fell well short of passage on both occasions.

Clinton had been mentioned as a potential candidate for United States President since at least October 2002. She has been ranked among the world’s most powerful people by Forbes magazine and Time magazine’s Time 100. 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.” No woman has ever been nominated by a major party for President of the United States; Clinton is also the first wife of an American president to run for the office.

Her 2008 campaign strategy is a reverse image of the liberal stereotype, one that has its eye on the November election. But in retooling her image so she can be acceptable to moderate voters in swing states, she risks finding herself at odds with an angry Democratic primary electorate that has not forgiven her vote on Iraq.

As a First Lady and then as a Senator from New York, she has always been a more moderate and pragmatic politician than either her admirers or her detractors believed. She will fight to anything that she thinks is contrary to her beliefs.

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