Hillary Clinton
Hillary Clinton is well known across the globe as not only the former First Lady of the United States, but also as Secretary of State, U.S. Senator from New York, a law professor, and First Lady of Arkansas. Not to mention that she is the first woman to be nominated by a major political party to run for the highest office, President of the Unites States. Throughout her life, she has faced hardships along the way but this never stopped her from achieving greatness. Hillary Diane Rodham was born October 26, 1947in Chicago, Illinois, October 26, 1947. Her family moved to a home in a beautiful suburban area of Park Ridge, Illinois which was a few miles northwest of downtown Chicago. This is where she grew up with her father, mother, and her two younger brothers. Her father, Hugh Rodham, was a WWII Navy Veteran and a successful fabric store owner. He was very strict with his family and the upbringing of his children. Mr. Rodham was a serious man who was a proud Republican. Hillary had been inspired by her mother, Dorothy, who was an avid reader and a person who was always willing to help other people out in life. She encouraged Hillary to be bold and to not be afraid to learn new things. As a result, when Hillary was a teen she played softball and was a girl scout. Growing up; her religious beliefs were formed at a young age as a Methodist. Her mother taught Sunday school at their church and brought her up with a religious view which is the reason why she still loves to attend church services. It was an important part of her upbringing and one that helped shape the person who she is today.
Once Hillary graduated from high school she attended Wellesley College where she started her journey into stardom. During her stay at Wellesley, she became involved with many social activities in the justice field all while exceeding scholastically. She was the head of the Young Republicans Club from 1966 until 1967. In the summer of 1968 Hillary held an internship as a research assistant for the House Republican Conference in Washington, D.C., she also served as President of the College Government Association. In 1969 she was named a Durant Scholar, Wellesley’s highest academic honor, her fellow classmates were so impressed by her communication skills that they decided that she should be the first-ever student commencement speaker for their college. She majored in political science and as a result of her hard work and stellar academics ended up graduating with high honors. Her commencement speech is where her breakout moment occurred. She captivated the attention of everyone in the room and in the nation. Her confidence in public speaking came from hearing the Martin Luther King’s speech in 1968 which also opened up her interest to help others. Hillary became the face and voice of her generation, fighting to be heard, and bringing attention to issues that went unnoticed. She went against Washington and some of the very things she initially supported. While others were afraid to speak up against the war and the injustices taking place in America, she was in the front row waiting to deliver her message.
Upon graduating from Wellesley college Hillary Rodham attended the prestigious Yale Law School in New Haven, CT, she was one of just 27 women in a graduating class of 235. It was while attending Yale Law School that Hillary became even more aware of issues concerning children and the poor, which led her to develop a stronger concern for what was happening around our country. She became an activist to protect the right of others who were being dismissed and going unnoticed. For all of Hillary’s interests during her law school days, it was her legal advocacy for children that truly defined her time at Yale. As a young college graduate, it was captivating to see how much she cared about these causes. In 1971, she went to Washington, D.C. to work on U.S. Senator Walter Mondale's subcommittee for her summer job which was to research the education and health of migrant farmworkers and how their children were being educated and cared for. With her hands on experience, she was able to focus more on children’s rights. Children are not old enough to vote, and make decisions on their own which is why it is important to guide them on the right path into adulthood. It was also at Yale that she met her future husband, William Jefferson Clinton.
Excelling again in her education, Hillary graduated from Yale with honors in 1973. She went right on and enrolled at Yale Child Study Center, where she completed one post-graduate year of study courses on children and medicine. It was in the spring of 1974 that Hillary became a member of the presidential impeachment inquiry staff, advising the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives during the Watergate Scandal. In August President Richard Nixon resigned and she became a faculty member at the University of Arkansas Law School. This is also where her boyfriend and Yale Law School classmate, Bill Clinton was teaching. It was a time where it brought them closer in their career goals and love life. Bill was so smitten by Hillary that he purchased a small house they had seen together before they even got married. Hillary Rodham and Bill Clinton tied the knot on October 1, 1975, at their home in Fayetteville. The power couple quickly began to gain more popularity. Hillary started to work on Jimmy Carter's winning campaign in 1976, and Bill was elected the governor of Arkansas in 1978 at the young age of 32. He unfortunately lost his reelection in 1980 but came back strong to win in 1982, 1984 and 1986. In the meantime Hillary decided to join the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock and in 1977, she was given the position of part-time chairman of the Legal Services Corporation by President Carter. Now as an established first lady of the Arkansas with several years of experience, she held the chair of the Arkansas Educational Standards Committee, co-founded the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, and served on the boards of Arkansas Legal Services, the Arkansas Children's Hospital, and the Children's Defense Fund. All of these were causes that she was passionate about. Hillary gave birth to their daughter, Chelsea Victoria Clinton, who was born on February 27, 1980, at the same house her parents were married in.
Hillary and Bill Clinton were ready to move up in the political arena. After serving as governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton decided to run for president of the United States. During his presidential campaign in 1992, Bill and Hill were equal partners in their family and political partnerships. Each devoted themselves to make a difference in the lives of all Americans. Bill was elected as the 42nd president of America, a victory not just for him but for Hillary who would be an important part of the White House. She wasn't just any First Lady but an experienced and outspoken woman who knew how to get things done. It wasn't an easy job.
She was assigned as the head of the Task Force on National Health Reform which took place in 1993. It proved to be a complicated plan which sadly never made it to the senate or congress floors. After all the hard work spent on this plan; it was abandoned in the Fall of 1994. The Clintons then invested in the Whitewater real estate project. When Morgan Guaranty Savings and Loan, the project's bank failed to deliver, it led the federal government to a big loss of money, which was $73 million. An independent investigation had to take place, and Whitewater made headlines as the subject of congressional hearings. Another scandal took place in 1998, when White House intern, Monica Lewinsky accused Bill Clinton of having a sexual relationship with her. It was a difficult time for Hillary and her family. Mrs. Clinton is a strong woman who decided to stand by her husband and support him. Hillary was worried about her husband when newspapers and television shows were covering the story twenty-four hours a day, but she was more concerned for how all this was affecting their daughter, Chelsea. Bill Clinton was impeached; however after much speculation the U.S. senate was not able convict him so he remained in office until 2001.
In 1999 while still in the White House, Hillary decided to run for the New York U.S. Senate seat which was held by Daniel Patrick Moynihan who was retiring after serving four terms. She was labeled as an opportunist and needed to establish herself and demonstrate that she was committed to doing a good and fair job if elected. Hillary Clinton was able to run a good race and beat Republican Rick Lazio who was a favorite to win . She won by a large margin of 55 percent to 43 percent. Mrs. Clinton became the first wife of a president to run and win a public office post, and she was the first woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate from New York. As a senator she was doing a good job and was able to easily win reelection in November 2006.
Climbing yet another step in her political career; Hillary announced her plans to try to for another major role as the first first female president. That turned out to be an unfavorable event. In the 2008 Democratic primaries, Senator Clinton had to concede her nomination when a newcomer nominee, Barack Obama had a majority of the delegate vote. Clinton ended her campaign, and made a speech to all her loyal supporters. "Although we were not able to shatter that highest and hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you it has 18 million cracks in it," she said, "and the light is shining through like never before, filling us all with the hope and the sure knowledge that the path will be a little easier next time, and we are going to keep working to make it so, today keep with me and stand for me, we still have so much to do together, we made history, and let's make some more." She was great at giving speeches and this would not be her last one.
Once Barack Obama was in office, he nominated Hillary Clinton as secretary of state. She gladly accepted the nomination and on January 21, 2009 was officially approved by the senate as the 67th U.S. secretary of state. She utilized her job to enhance women's rights and human rights. During her term she became known as one of the most traveled secretaries of state in American history, and led the U.S. diplomatic efforts in the military intervention in Libya. Under her supervision The State Department came under a major investigation after the attack on a U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya. The devastating attack on September 11, 2012, killed Christopher Stevens the U.S. ambassador as well as three other Americans. A report by an independent source was issued in which it stated that there were management and leadership failures.
On January 23, 2013 Clinton had to testify about the Benghazi attack to the members of the House Foreign Relations Committee. She continued to defended her actions and took full responsibility for the incident that killed the four American. On February 1, 2013, she officially announced that she stepped down from her position as Secretary of State effective immediately. Then on May 2014, the House Select Committee on Benghazi, was created to investigate further into the Benghazi attack. Hillary Clinton had to testify again in front of the committee on October 22, 2015, which took several hours. The final report which was about 800 pages long was issued on June 28, 2016, and there was no evidence that Hillary did anything wrong. It did state that the blame should be on the CIA and the Defense Department for failure recognize the risks which would have prevented the attack in Benghazi. Hillary still had to face controversy when it was revealed that she used her personal email address to conduct official government transactions while she was Secretary of State. She turned over all of her emails to the Obama administration to help them with the investigation.
Finally on April 12,2015, Clinton announced that she would be running for president again. She had several issues she wanted address including lowering student debt, criminal justice reform, campaign finance reform, improving health care coverage and the cost of the Affordable Care Act, and women's rights. She did seem to flip flop on gay marriage, since she was initially against it but now fully supports it. The same applies to the death penalty which she has mixed feelings about.
The State Department issued a statement on May 2016, about Clinton's ongoing email scandal, it stated that she used a private server while serving as secretary of state without any consent. The department was very critical of Clinton's actions. After an entire year investigating Clinton's email, F.B.I. Director James B. Comey announced on July 5, 2016, that the agency would not recommend that Hillary Clinton be charged with any wrongdoing.
Hillary went on to win the democratic party nomination, and was the first woman in American history to be on the presidential ticket. She beat Bernie Sanders a popular democrat senator from Vermont. Both Hillary and Bernie had something in common, they both had ties to New York. With another historical achievement under her belt, she delivered a speech from Brooklyn, NY. She was wanted to appeal to Bernie’s supporters because he had millions of votes, most by younger americans. She told the crowd “tonight’s victory is not about one person, it belongs to generations of women and men who struggled and sacrificed and made this moment possible”. Hillary also mentioned how she felt toward Donald Trump, the billionaire Republican presidential nominee. In her speech she called Mr. Trump “temperamentally unfit to be President and Commander-in-Chief. He’s not just trying to build a wall between America and Mexico; he’s trying to wall off Americans from each other”. Of course she talked about her mother, Dorothy, the person who made her want to succeed in life, the one who was always proud of her for being a woman determined to change history.
Hillary’s next move was to pick a good candidate to run as her vice-president. She chose Tim Kaine, the U.S. Senator from Virginia who had also served as a mayor, and governor. They had something in common, they believed in helping others. Tim Kaine, a family man with good values was what she needed to appeal to all americans. Now, during the presidential campaign Hillary encountered some obstacles when wikileaks decided to publish thousands of emails claiming that the Democratic National Convention had rigged the election in favor of her. This made many of the Bernie Sanders supporters angry which created tension during the convention. Then on October 28, 2016, while the FBI was investigating congressman, Anthony Weiner for his misconduct with a teenage girl, they encountered potential emails that could have been related to the closed investigation of Clinton’s personal email server use. It was because Huma Abedin a top Clinton aide and Weiner’ wife had a chain of emails sent from her laptop to Clinton’s email. This caused a lot of people to have doubt about Hillary’s credibility. It was suspected that the Russians were involved in order to help Donald Trump's campaign. Then on November 6, 2016, just days before the much publicized election, the FBI announced that there was nothing new in the emails and that there would be no charges brought against Hillary. By then it was too late to undo the damage. Many voters felt uneasy voting for her, so they either stayed home or voted for Jill Stein or Donald Trump. It was a devastating long night on election day. Hillary waited for hours, looking at the results on television, it became clear that she had lost but she refused to give a concession speech until the next day. When it came time for her to step up and deliver her speech, she was emotional, and proud of all her staff, family and supporters who shared her vision of what America should be like. Donald Trump may have won the electoral votes, but Hillary Clinton won three million more popular votes than Mr. Trump. She currently holds the record for winning the most votes than any other U.S. presidential candidate in history. Today there is still much talk about how the Russians rigged the election to help Trump come out on top. Hackers working for the Russian government had penetrated into the Democratic National Committee's computers, stealing information, viewing the staff’s emails and chat records. However, the Russian government denies that they were involved. She remains a strong woman who inspires others to achieve their goals.