MAIN People in the News Hillary Clinton

Hillary Rodham Clinton, junior United States Senator from New York, is the first women in America's history to run for President of the United States.

Currently, she is a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2008 presidential election - in an increasingly contentious campaign against the first black presidential candidate in U.S. history, Democratic rival Barack Obama.

She is married to former U.S. President Bill Clinton, and was the First Lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001.

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Hillary Diane Rodham, the oldest of three children raised by parents Dorothy and Hugh Rodman, was born on October 26, 1947 in Park Ridge, Illinois.

A member of a devoutly religious family and a good student, young Hillary became a member of the National Honor Society and later majored in political science at Wellesley College, where she first gained national attention by becoming the first student in Wellesley history to speak at commencement exercises when she graduated in 1969.

Soon after, Hillary entered Yale Law School, where she met future husband Bill Clinton.

Following graduation, she embarked on her political career as advisor to the Children's Defense Fund in Cambridge, and later joined the impeachment inquiry staff in Washington near the end of President Richard Nixon's term of office.

Marriage and a move to Arkansas came in 1975, where Hillary took a teaching position at the University of Arkanas Law School and later a position with the Rose Law Firm, all the while helping her husband's own political career resulting in his being elected governor of the state in 1978.

Their daughter, Chelsea, was born in 1980.

While balancing work and home life, Hillary not only served as Arkansas's First Lady for 12 years, but also chaired the Arkansas Educational Standards Committee, and fought a prolonged and successful battle against the Arkansas Education Association to enact mandatory teacher testing, and to establish curriculum and standard classroom size throughout the state.

As the nation's First Lady, Hillary Clinton continued to fight for better government services for families and children, most notably as chair of the Task Force on National Health Care Reform. Her 1996 book on child rearing, It Takes a Village and Other Lessons Children Teach Us was a best seller, and she received a Grammy Award for her recording of it.

Embroiled in the 1998 Monica Lewinsky scandal - in which her husband was found to have been in a sexual relationship with a young White House intern - Hillary later rose above the controversy in public, but was reportedly furious and contemplating divorce as result of the scandal.

For either personal or political reasons, Hillary remained in the marriage. and was later aided in her own political ambitions by her husband when she was elected United States Senator from New York on November 7, 2000, becoming the first First Lady to be elected to the United States Senate.

Currently, Hillary is again on the campaign trail - with the aid of husband, Bill and daughter, Chelsea - in the first historic bid by a woman to the White House.

Related Web Sites:

Hillary Clinton - Wikipedia

HillaryClinton.com

CNN Election Center - Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton News - msnbc.com

Famous Quotes:

• I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was to fulfill my profession which I entered before my husband was in public life.

• When I am talking about "It Takes a Village", I'm obviously not talking just about or even primarily about geographical villages any longer, but about the network of relationships and values that do connect us and binds us together.

• If I want to knock a story off the front page, I just change my hairstyle.

• In the Bible it says they asked Jesus how many times you should forgive, and he said 70 times 7. Well, I want you all to know that I'm keeping a chart.

• I'm not some Tammy Wynette standing by my man.