Who is Hillary Clinton

Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton (born October 26, 1947) is the junior United States Senator from New York, and a leading candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2008 presidential election. She is married to Bill Clinton-the 42nd President of the United States-and was the First Lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001.

A native of Illinois, Hillary Rodham 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 was 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 board of 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 only 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. The state of her marriage to Bill Clinton was the subject of considerable public discussion following the Lewinsky scandal in 1998.

Moving to New York, Clinton was elected to the United States Senate in 2000, the first time an American first lady ran for public office and the first female senator from that state. There she initially supported the George W. Bush administration on some foreign policy issues, which included voting for the Iraq War Resolution. She has subsequently opposed the administration on its conduct of the Iraq War and has opposed it on most domestic issues. She was re-elected by a wide margin in 2006. Long described as a polarizing figure in American politics, she is the first woman in U.S. history with a strong chance of being elected president. During 2007 she was consistently ranked as the front-runner in national polls for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. As the 2008 primaries take place, she is in a tight race with Senator Barack Obama.

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So, who said choosing the democrats' candidate for president would be easy? While the voters have been busy participating in primaries and caucuses, the choice may come down to a group of party leaders called superdelegates at the Democratic National Convention in August.

We'll provide the up-to-date delegate count here while, in the meantime, you can read articles such as this one to learn how the delegate and superdelegate system works.

Updated June 5, 2008.

Hillary Clinton 1926
Barack Obama 2158

Obama has surprassed the 2118 votes needed to secure the nomination. Hillary Clinton vows to support his candidacy.

See the estimated breakdown of pledged delegates and superdelegates here.

If you've noticed that the numbers change from time to time, even between primary and caucus events, it's because the delegate and, especially, the superdelegate process is complicated and dynamic. For a readable explanation, read Why Delegates Matter from CNNPolitics.com.

Project Vote Smart provides voting records of all members of Congress, including Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Barack Obama. Using this objective data, it's easy to compare the voting records of the two senators, great information to study when deciding between the two candidates.

Senator Clinton is the junior senator from New York, having first been elected to the Senate in 2000, then again in November 2006. According to the National Journal's 2007 vote ratings, Hillary Clinton ranked as the 16th-most-liberal senator in their 2007 ratings.

Senator Obama is the junior senator from Illinois, having first been elected to the Senate in November 2004. The National Journal ranked Obama as the most liberal senator in 2007.

Senator Hillary Clinton's voting record
Senator Barack Obama's voting record
Senator John McCain's voting record for those looking ahead to the general election, McCain being the presumed candidate at this time.

Get the book.
Living History
Beginning with a brief outline of her childhood, college years, introduction to politics, and her courtship with Bill Clinton, Clinton covers a wide variety of topics: life on the campaign trail, her troubled tenure as leader of the President's Task Force on National Health Care Reform, meeting with foreign leaders, and her work on human rights, to name a few.

While you're at it, get Bill's new book.
Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World
Bill Clinton shares his own experiences and those of other givers, representing a global flood tide of nongovernmental, nonprofit activity. These remarkable stories demonstrate that gifts of time, skills, things, and ideas are as important and effective as contributions of money. From Bill and Melinda Gates to a six-year-old California girl named McKenzie Steiner, who organized and supervised drives to clean up the beach in her community, Clinton introduces us to both well-known and unknown heroes of giving.

Obama Calls Bill Clinton Untruthful
By LARRY MARGASAK

WASHINGTON (AP) - Barack Obama challenged Bill Clinton's truthfulness Monday in a deepening feud with the husband of Obama's Democratic presidential rival.

Obama's rebuke of the former president, who is still extremely popular with Democrats, came on the holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr., when both Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton focused on the civil rights leader.

In an interview on ABC, Obama twice questioned Bill Clinton's veracity.

"I have to say just broadly, you know, the former president, who I think all of us have a lot of regard for, has taken his advocacy on behalf of his wife to a level that I think is pretty troubling. You know, he continues to make statements that aren't supported by the facts, whether it's about my record of opposition to the war in Iraq, or our approach to organizing in Las Vegas.

"You know, this has become a habit. And one of the things that I think we're going to have to do is to directly confront Bill Clinton when he's not making statements that are factually accurate."

The former president recently has accused Obama of exaggerating his anti-war record and handing out undeserved praise to Republicans. Clinton said he personally witnessed Obama's union forces intimidating Nevada caucus voters and said an Obama radio ad suggested how Democrats could keep votes from his wife.

Read the complete news story.

Friday, October 19, 2007

NEW YORK - Hillary Rodham Clinton likes to say she was born in the middle of the country at the middle of the century, in a Chicago suburb that defined a childhood out of "Father Knows Best" or "Ozzie and Harriet."

Years later, a group of her old teachers and classmates got together with her to reminisce, with a historian to moderate. During the round of introductions, Clinton's second-grade teacher turned to her and deadpanned: "And who are you?"

"Oh yes," said the first lady of the United States. "This is the question we're all trying to answer."

Clinton has charted a decade and a half now on the national stage. She is by far the most familiar to us of the nearly 20 people running for president. And yet she remains somehow paradoxical, impenetrable, unknowable.

Her life has been marked by polar forces: She is the daughter of a left-leaning mother and an archconservative father. She campaigned for Barry Goldwater, and then for Eugene McCarthy. She married a force of nature, then struggled to define her own image.

She has wrestled with a somewhat stilted public speaking voice, a scripted style, belied by what friends say is a whimsical affinity for costume jewelry at the holidays and a signature laugh she lets loose occasionally - boisterous and infectious.

She has an unquestioned intellect but, as former aide Melanne Verveer says, an "absolute tin ear for foreign languages" rivaled only by her flat singing voice infamously pilloried on YouTube.

There always has been a holographic quality to Hillary Clinton: Looked at from one angle, she can be the tough trailblazer, weatherer of a thousand storms. From another, she can be the personification of icy, calculating ambition.

But what about that teacher's basic question? Who is she?

There are clues at each stage of her singular American story.

(Read the rest of the story.)

Newt Gingrich, one of the most partisan Republicans in the nation, says there's an 80% chance the Democrats will win the White House in 2008. Gingrich believes the country feels let down by the Bush administration over Iraq, Katrina, illegal immigration, and enormous federal spending. The former Speaker of the House says the folks want change, and that could very well mean Hillary in the White House.

For me, it is hard to imagine Senator Clinton as president because, according to the polls, almost half of registered voters say they would never vote for her even if she ran against someone like Michael Moore. Her poll negatives are huge and, seemingly, intractable. But people do sit out elections and if the Republicans don't put forth a dynamic candidate, Hillary could very well win by rallying her base while the opposition sulks.

Certainly, even far-left Democrats, who generally dislike Mrs. Clinton, would pull the lever in her direction the next time around. To elect another Republican would be unthinkable.

Republicans, however, are not so united. Many on the right are caught up in selective issues like abortion and gay marriage. If a candidate doesn't see things their way, they won't support that candidate, even if it's Hillary staring at them from across the divide.

There are two wild cards right now. If Iraq improves, the Democrats lose momentum on their big issue. So some Democrats are actually rooting against their own country in Iraq. That is dangerous territory, as the MoveOn.org blunder over General Petraeus demonstrated.

Also, the far left is totally out of control in this country, and a smart Republican candidate will tie those loons around the necks of Hillary or Barack Obama. Few Americans want to see Rosie O'Donnell and George Soros spending the night in the Lincoln bedroom. Separately, of course.

What the Democrats do have going for them is the general feeling that Republicans are out of touch and hypocritical. Believe me, Senator Larry Craig will find his way into some campaign ads, and it won't be pretty. But I think the presidential race will be much closer than many think. Senator Clinton has a penchant for not answering direct questions and avoiding the non-partisan media. Twice she was asked if the MoveOn.org Petraeus ad was appropriate. Twice she dodged the issue. I believe many voters will find her evasiveness off-putting.

In the end, unforeseen circumstances will dictate the election, and it will most likely come down to Florida and Ohio again. The Democrats have a powerful coalition of motivated black, Hispanic, and white liberal voters. The Republicans must turn out all their crew, as well as convince 60% of independent voters that Hillary will turn the country into a socialistic nightmare. That is a very tough task.

So Speaker Gingrich is correct in listing the Democrats as the favorites in this crucial upcoming election. But, for the moment, the smart money is holding out. Stuff can and will happen. Hillary shouldn't be buying that inaugural gown just yet.

This "Select a Candidate Quiz" is an interesting exercise and may help you decide on a presidential candidate.

Just answer a few questions then click the "find your candidate" button and the program selects the candidate whose position on the issues is most like your own.

You may be surprised at what you find. Click here to take the quiz.

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