Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton: on Principles & Values

Al Gore: Shared power with Hillary but had bad relationship

Hillary had never had to compete for her husband’s attention on policy matters. Gore shared her passion for policy, though his interests were different from her. But, a Clinton official recalled, they were “both alike in some ways” in public, “too rigid & they don’t like to be challenged.“

The two ”never had a good relationship“ and vied over access to Bill. Hillary was upset that Gore had too much influence over her husband. Gore saw Hillary as too much involved in presidential decision-making. The bad chemistry was obvious to White House insiders. Before long, Gore would present an additional rivalry: he had been aiming for the presidency as long as Bill. He had his own plans, and they certainly did not include waiting for Hillary to run.

Bill Clinton: Met Hillary in 1970: impressed with strength, not appearance

Bill followed Hillary, fully intending to introduce himself. When he came within two feet of her, a force larger than himself stopped him. “It was almost a physical reaction. Somehow I knew that this wasn’t another tap on the shoulder, that I might be starting something I couldn’t stop.”

Bill and Hillary met near the end of their first year. They were inseparable that first week. Over the weekend, Hillary went to see a man she had been dating. Bill spent the weekend fretting. When she returned, he called her but she was sick. Bill brought her soup, and with that, neither was interested in anyone else.

Bill Clinton: Start of “20-Year Project”:Hillary managed Bill’s House race

In a letter to Bill, Hillary laid out some of the details. One of Bill’s ex-girlfriends accidentally stumbled upon the letter. “The note talked about all their future plans. political plans. the letter had everything to do with their careers, there was no talk of a home, family, and marriage.” Having glimpsed the missive Crider was not surprised to see Hillary running Bill’s first campaign for Congress. Hillary did everything. She wrote Bill’s speeches. She even sold sandwiches to raise money.

Bill Clinton: 1974:Turned down dairy money because it had strings attached

The operative asked Bill, “Do you want to win or do you want to lose?” Hillary said, “If we can’t earn it, we can’t go.” And that was that. On election night, Bill’s opponent won by 6,000 votes.

Bill Clinton: 1986: Attacked for Hillary working at Rose while First Lady

These arguments resonated. In the eyes of the voters, the relationship became a non-issue. But previously undisclosed law firm records show that Hillary didn’t ask the firm to segregate her share of the state business until two months after White’s unsuccessful attack. Hillary eventually rectified the situation by repaying her share of past state fees “in any year Bill served as Governor,” which she calculated at $12,235.83.

Bill Clinton: Expanding Whitewater to Lewinsky was a perjury trap

The deposition amounted to nothing less than an elaborate perjury trap designed to catch the president in an under-oath lie. The trap by Jones’s lawyers was intended to harm Bill politically and possibly drive him from the presidency.

Kenneth Starr sought permission to extend the Whitewater inquiry into Tripp’s allegations. The thinking was that the president’s alleged attempt to “buy” Lewinsky’s silence through a job in NY was tantamount to the same sort of obstruction of justice. By virtue of the wording of the independent-counsel statute, he was within his rights to follow nearly any lead. It was not surprising that Attorney General Janet Reno granted Starr’s request to investigate it.

Bill Clinton: “What the meaning of is, is” became symbol of hairsplitting

The prosecutor pointed to a passage in the Jones deposition when his lawyer had assured everyone that there is no sex of any kind in any manner, shape, or form between the president & Lewinsky. The prosecutor asked the president whether he agreed that this “was an utterly false statement.”

With a wan smile, the president said, “It depends on what the meaning of ‘is’... is. If ‘is’ means is, and never has been, that is one thing. If it means, there is none, that was a completely true statement.” The quotation came to symbolize Bill’s hairsplitting obfuscation, and infuriated the prosecutors.

Hillary Clinton: Secret “20-Year Project” with Bill to revolutionize Dems

While their plan was hatched together, Hillary had her own ideas about what it would take to achieve victory. She concluded that if she had any chance of winning the ultimate prize of her life, she would need to pursue it her way. That meant, among other things, carefully crafting a persona and a narrative to present to the American public that knew both so much and so little about her.

Hillary Clinton: Pre-Wellesley, confident her conservatism wouldn’t change

Hillary’s high school government teachers warned her that college would likely change her conservative politics. “You’re going to Wellesley, and you’re going to become a liberal and a Democrat.” Hillary blanched and replied, “I’m smart, I know where I stand on the issues. And that’s not going to change.”

In the mid-1960s, student activism, spurred by growing disenchantment with the war in Vietnam and racism at home, was beginning its ascent. Wellesley was beginning to change too, though more tentatively than other campuses. Hillary’s class would accelerate the transformation of Wellesley from a genteel island to a campus with much more in common with the “beatnik” Harvard Square vibe.

Hillary Clinton: 1969: Entered law school as “vehicle for social change”

For Hillary, Yale Law School presented itself as the perfect venue to accomplish such goals. Yale was in the throes of a revolution in the American legal profession and also in the way the institution dealt with social and cultural change.

Hillary was one of 27 women entered Yale Law School in 1969--barely more than 10%, though as Hillary observed, “It was a breakthrough at the time and meant that women would no longer be token students at Yale.”

Hillary Clinton: 1974: Studied Nixon’s White House for impeachment committee

They presented proposed articles of impeachment on July 19, 1974, and the House Judiciary Committee approved three of the articles, citing abuse of power, obstruction of justice, and contempt of Congress. Nixon resigned less than a month later.

Hillary Clinton: Changed name from Rodham because many were offended

Hillary saw clearly that if his political career was going to be rebuilt, it would have to happen in Arkansas, not Washington. The fact that Hillary used her maiden name was increasingly perceived as an issue in the Clinton camp. A few months after the election, Hillary heard a pitch from Vernon Jordan, “You are in the South. And in the South, you are not Hillary Rodham, you’re Mrs. Clinton.“ Hillary did not argue.

”I learned the hard way that some voters were offended by the fact that I kept my maiden name.“ She changed her name to Hillary Rodham Clinton. Whatever Hillary may have personally felt as a feminist who came of age in the 1960s, her devotion to Bill’s ambitions--which also meant her ambitions--outweighed all else.

The comeback worked, and by 1983, Bill and Hillary were once again living in the governor’s mansion.

Hillary Clinton: 1986: Attacked for accepting state fee with Bill as governor

These arguments resonated. In the eyes of the voters, the relationship became a non-issue. But previously undisclosed law firm records show that Hillary didn’t ask the firm to segregate her share of the state business until two months after White’s unsuccessful attack. Hillary eventually rectified the situation by repaying her share of past state fees “in any year Bill served as Governor,” which she calculated at $12,235.83.

Hillary Clinton: Whitewater deal: the only “stupid dumb thing we ever did”

Right before Super Tuesday, 1992, the New York Times published an article that disclosed the real estate partnership between the McDougals and the Clintons, the connections to the failed savings and loan, and the existence of Hillary’s name on her law firm’s filings on behalf of the savings & loan before state regulators.

The piece raised questions about a governor being in business with someone whose company was regulated by the state, and the governor’s wife being involved in representing that business partner before state regulators that the governor had appointed. The article also reported that McDougal’s savings and loan had been subsidizing the unsuccessful real estate venture with the Clintons.

Clinton aides emphasized that Whitewater never made the Clintons any money.

Hillary Clinton: 1996: Enthusiastic crowd at DNC got her “bitten by the bug”

Nearly 20,000 delegates, guests, and media were in the arena. Millions were watching at home. Whey Hillary took the stage, she was nervous, but the crowd greeted her with a wall of enthusiastic noise. She began by speaking about Chelsea, then went on to rebut Dole’s critique of her book, It Takes A Village. The crowd roared its approval. Afterward, Hillary felt as if she had truly connected with her audience. For so long, she had stood alongside the object of the audience’s affection. Now she was the one they were applauding. It was a rush like none other. “I knew then she was bitten by the bug,” one friend recalled. “I could tell she wanted to hear those cheers again and again.”

Hillary Clinton: 1998: “Conspiracy” infuriated Starr; resonated with public

The First Lady’s highly charged phrase to describe the Clinton enemies--“a vast right wing conspiracy”--infuriated the men and women working in Ken Starr’s office, to whom the word “conspiracy” connoted criminal activity on their part. Starr took the unusual step of releasing a statement describing Hillary’s allegation as “nonsense.”

But the First Lady’s invocation reached its intended audience. One week later, a poll showed that 59% believed that “Clinton’s political enemies are conspiring to bring down his presidency.”

Hillary Clinton: Accepted draft for Senate to avoid being “derivative spouse”

Why choose New York? Hillary confided that she’d investigated “some other states, but they have a number of qualified people running who had worked hard and long to be congressional candidates.”

Hillary said that the other thing that was appealing about a Senate run was that it would be a rare thing in American politics--a candidacy by acclamation. “I’m being drafted. It is so rare to be drafted in this way. the nature of politics is such that you have to seize the moment when and if it comes, or it may never come again.” She wanted to be wanted.

Hillary Clinton: DC home, “Whitehaven”, became center of “Hillaryland”

To buy a house, she needed a few million dollars. She & Bill had already stretched by paying $1.7 million for a home in Chappaqua. Bill was poised to make lots of money. But in early 2001, the couple was still saddled with significant legal debts of more than $5 million.

In January, 2001, Hillary signed a book contract to tell her story. She was paid an advance of $8 million. Two weeks later, Hillary and Bill paid $2,850,000 to buy a colonial in northwest Washington. The house is named Whitehaven.

In 2006, Whitehaven served as a presidential campaign salon. Immediately after her reelection as senator, Hillary hosted political leaders from NH and IA in her home.