Hillary Clinton in Living History, by Hillary Rodham Clinton
On Abortion:
Alternatives to pro-choice like forced pregnancy in Romania
When I defend my pro-choice position in the debate over abortion in our country, I frequently refer to Romania, where pregnancy could be monitored on behalf of the state, & to China, where it could be forcibly terminated. One reason I continue to oppose
efforts to criminalize abortion is that I do not believe any government should have the power to dictate, through law or police action, a woman’s most personal decision. [The Romanian dictatorship in the 1980s] banned birth control and abortion,
insisting that women bear children for the sake of the state. Women told me how they had been carted from their workplace once a month to be examined by government doctors whose task was to make sure they weren’t using contraceptives or aborting
pregnancies. I could not imagine a more humiliating experience.
In Romania and elsewhere, many children were born unwanted or into families that could not afford to care for them. They became wards of the state, warehoused in orphanages.
Source: Living History, by Hillary Rodham Clinton, p. 354-5
Nov 1, 2003
On Abortion:
Advocates birth control but OK with faith-based disagreement
Mother Teresa had just delivered a speech against abortion, and she wanted to talk to me. Mother Teresa was unerringly direct. She disagreed with my views on a woman's right to choose and told me so. Over the years, she sent me dozens of notes & messages
with the same gentle entreaty. Mother Teresa never lectured or scolded me; her admonitions were always loving & heartfelt. I had the greatest respect for her opposition to abortion, but I believe that it is dangerous to give any state the power to enforce
criminal penalties against women & doctors. I consider that a slippery slope to state control in China & Communist Romania. I also disagreed with her opposition--and that of the Catholic Church--to birth control. However, I support the right of people of
faith to speak out against abortion and try to dissuade women, without coercion or criminalization, from choosing abortion instead of adoption. Mother Teresa and I found much common ground in many other areas including the importance of adoption.
Source: Living History, by Hillary Rodham Clinton, p.417-418
Nov 1, 2003
On Civil Rights:
1972: Worked with Edelman on school desegregation in South
In 1972, I returned to D.C. to work for Marian Wright Edelman. My assignment was to gather information about the Nixon Administration’s failure to enforce the legal ban on granting tax-exempt status to the private segregated academies that had sprung up
in the South to avoid integrated public schools. The academies claimed they were created in response to parents deciding to form private schools; it had nothing to do with court-ordered integration. I went to Atlanta to meet with the lawyers and civil
rights workers who were compiling evidence that proved the academies were created solely for the purpose of avoiding the constitutional mandate of the Supreme Court’s decisions.As part of my investigation, I drove to Alabama. At a local private
school, I had an appointment to meet an administrator to discuss enrolling my imaginary child. I went through my role-playing, asking questions about the curriculum and makeup of the student body. I was assured that no black students would be enrolled.
Source: Living History, by Hillary Clinton, p. 57
Nov 1, 2003
On Civil Rights:
Professional woman AND hostess; feminist AND traditionalist
If I was serious about substantive policy issues, why was I talking to a reporter about entertainment? Conversely, if I was really worrying about floral centerpieces, how could I be substantive enough to head a major policy effort? What kind of message
was I sending, anyway?It seemed that people could perceive me only as one thing or the other--EITHER a professional woman OR a conscientious hostess. Gender stereotypes trap women by categorizing them in ways that don't reflect the true complexities o
their lives. It was becoming clear to me that people who wanted me to fit into a certain box, traditionalist or feminist, would never be entirely satisfied with me as me--which is to say, with my many different, and sometimes paradoxical roles.
In my
own mind, I was traditional in some ways and not in others. I cared about the food I served our guests, and I also wanted to improve the delivery of health care for all Americans. To me, there was nothing incongruous about my interests and activities.
Source: Living History, by Hillary Rodham Clinton, p.140-141
Nov 1, 2003
On Civil Rights:
Gay soldiers need to shoot straight, not be straight
One of Bill’s first challenges as commander in chief became the promise he made during the campaign to let gays and lesbians serve in the military as long as their sexual orientation did not in any way compromise their performance or unit cohesion.
I agreed with the commonsense proposition that the code of military conduct should be enforced strictly against behavior, not sexual orientation. Bill knew the issue was a political loser, but it galled him that he couldn’t persuade the Joint Chiefs
of Staff to align the reality-that gays and lesbians have served, are serving, and will always serve-with an appropriate change in policy that enforced common behavior standards for all. Bill agreed to a compromise: the “Don’t Ask, Don’t’ Tell” policy.
It has not worked well.
I just wish the opposition would listen to Barry Goldwater, an icon of the American Right, who said, “You don’t need to be straight to fight and die for your country. You just need to shoot straight.”
Source: Living History, by Hillary Rodham Clinton, p.241-2
Nov 1, 2003
On Crime:
2000: NYPD needs higher pay and better minority relations
A March 2000 fatal police shooting in NYC of a black man named Patrick Dorismond underscored the Mayor's political vulnerabilities. Giuliani's handling of this tragic case inflamed old hostilities between his office and the city's minority populations.
Police officers, in turn, were legitimately frustrated that they were being misunderstood while trying to do their jobs effectively because of a city leadership at war with the communities they were trying to protect. When Giuliani released Dorismond's
sealed juvenile records, casting aspersions on a man who was dead, he merely drove the wedge deeper.The more Giuliani continued with his divisive rhetoric, the more determined I was to offer a different approach. I laid out a plan for improving
relations between the police & minorities, including better recruitment, training and compensation for the NYPD. Giuliani's handling of the Dorismond case was wrong. Instead of easing the tensions and uniting the city, he had poured salt into the wound.
Source: Living History, by Hillary Rodham Clinton, p.514
Nov 1, 2003
On Education:
AR Reform plan pushed mandatory teacher testing
Bill asked me to chair an Education Standards Committee to recommend reforms. Nobody, including me, thought it was a good idea. Bill was convinced he was right to appoint me, & I relented.This was a risky move. Improving the schools would require an
increase in taxes--never popular. The 15-member committee recommended that students take standardized tests, including one before they could graduate from 8th grade. But the cornerstone of the proposed reform plan was mandatory teacher testing. Though
this enraged the teachers union, civil rights groups & others who were vital to the Democratic Party in Arkansas, we felt there was no way around the issue. How could we expect children to perform at national levels when their teachers fell short? Gettin
the legislature to approve and fund the reform package turned into a knock-down-drag-out fight among interest groups. I pled our case for improving schools before a joint session of the Arkansas legislature, and the reform plan was implemented in 1984.
Source: Living History, by Hillary Clinton, p. 93-94
Nov 1, 2003
On Families & Children:
1974 article: put abused children into state care
My first article, titled “Children Under the Law,” was published in 1974 in the Harvard Educational Review. My views were shaped by what I had observed as a volunteer for Legal Services representing children in foster care & by my experiences at the Child
Study Center in Yale-New Haven Hospital. I advised doctors as they tried to ascertain whether a child should be put into the child welfare system. I come from a strong family and believe in a parent’s presumptive right to raise his or her child as he or
she sees fit. But at Yale-New Haven Hospital, I saw children whose parents beat and burned them; who left them alone for days in squalid apartments; who failed and refused to seek necessary medical care. The truth was that certain parents abdicated their
rights as parents.Who would have predicted that during the 1992 presidential campaign, nearly two decades after I wrote the article, conservative Republicans like Marilyn Quayle and Pat Buchanan would twist my words to portray me as “anti-family”?
Source: Living History, by Hillary Clinton, p. 50
Nov 1, 2003
On Families & Children:
Even welfare children are better off with their parents
Minor controversy erupted over remarks Newt Gingrich made about welfare reform and orphanages. Some Republicans had suggested that the nation could reduce welfare rolls by placing the children of unwed welfare mothers in orphanages.I thought this was
horrible idea. All the work I have done on behalf of children convinced me that they are almost always best off with their families, that poverty is not a disqualification from good parenting, that financial and social support for families with special
problems, including poverty, should be a first step before we give up on them and take away their children. Only when children are endangered by abuse and neglect should the government intervene on their behalf.
In a speech before the New York Women's
Agenda on Nov. 30, 1994, I criticized Gingrich for promoting legislation that punished children for circumstances over which they had no control.
Gingrich swung back: "I'd ask her to go to Blockbuster and rent the movie Boys Town [an orphanage]."
Source: Living History, by Hillary Rodham Clinton, p.262-263
Nov 1, 2003
On Families & Children:
"It Takes a Village" implies family as part of society
Bob Dole, in his acceptance speech at the Republican Convention, had attacked the premise of my book It Takes a Village. He mistakenly used my notion of the village as a metaphor for "the state" and implied that I, and by extension Democrats,
favor government intrusions into every aspect of American life. "After the virtual devastation of the American family, we are told that it takes a village, and thus the state, to raise a child," he said. "I am here to tell you it does not take a village
to raise a child. It takes a family to raise a child."Dole missed the point of the book, which is that families are the first line of responsibility for children, but that the village--a metaphor for society as a whole--shares responsibility for the
culture, economy and environment in which our children grow up. The policeman walking the beat, the teacher in the classroom, the legislator passing laws and the corporate executive deciding what movies to make all have influence over America's children.
Source: Living History, by Hillary Rodham Clinton, p.375
Nov 1, 2003
On Foreign Policy:
Supports USAID projects in developing world
My visit to the subcontinent was meant to demonstrate that this strategic and volatile part of the world was important to the US and that Bill supported their efforts to strengthen democracy, expand free markets and promote tolerance and human rights.
Source: Living History, by Hillary Rodham Clinton, p.268-270
Nov 1, 2003
On Foreign Policy:
Focus on women's rights in international policy
China had been chosen to host the upcoming UN Fourth World Conference on Women, and I was scheduled to attend as honorary Chair of the US delegation.Typically, governments limit their foreign policies to diplomatic, military and trade issues,
the staple of most treaties, pacts and negotiations. Seldom are issues such as women's health, the education of girls, the absence of women's legal and political rights or their economic isolation injected into the foreign policy debate. Yet it was clear
to me that in the new global economy, individual countries and regions would find it difficult to make economic or social progress if a disproportionate percentage of their female population remained poor, uneducated, unhealthy, and disenfranchised.
The UN women's conference was expected to provide an important forum for nations to address issues such as maternal and child health care, microfinance, domestic violence, girls' education, family planning, women's suffrage, property and legal rights.
Source: Living History, by Hillary Rodham Clinton, p.298-299
Nov 1, 2003
On Government Reform:
Called for ban on all soft money in 2000 campaign
When the focus of the [Senate debate with Rick Lazio] turned to campaign commercials and the use of so-called soft money, the moderator showed clips of a Lazio commercial. The ad was paid for with soft money, large contributions that could be used by
political committees to attack a candidate’s opponent. I had earlier called for a ban on all soft money, but I wasn’t going to commit to it unilaterally. The Republicans had refused to forswear the use of soft money from outside groups, some of whom were
busily raising $32 million in support of Lazio’s Senate bid. Near the end of the debate, Lazio marched over to me, waving a piece of paper called the “New York Freedom from Soft Money Pact”--and demanded my signature. I declined as he shouted, “Sign
it right now!” I offered to shake hands, but he kept badgering me.
I wasn’t sure how Lazio’s confrontational ploy would be received. Opinion polls soon made it clear that a lot of voters, especially women, were offended by Lazio’s tactics.
Source: Living History, by Hillary Rodham Clinton, p. 520
Nov 1, 2003
On Government Reform:
Defined appropriate high crimes for impeaching Nixon in 1973
[Working on the Nixon Impeachment inquiry]: Andrew Johnson was the only previous President to be impeached, and historians generally agreed that the Congress had misused its solemn constitutional responsibility for partisan political purposes. [Our
committee chair] was committed to running a process that the public and history would judge as nonpartisan and fair, no matter what the outcome. I helped draft procedural rules to present to the House Judiciary Committee. I attended public meetings of th
committee and sat at the counsel's table while the chairman presented the procedures he wanted the members to accept.After working on procedures, I moved on to research the legal grounds for a presidential impeachment and wrote along memo summarizing
my conclusions about what did--and did not--constitute an impeachable offense. Years later, I reread the memo. I still agreed with its assessment of the kinds of "high Crimes and Misdemeanors" the framers of the Constitution intended to be impeachable.
Source: Living History, by Hillary Rodham Clinton, p. 67
Nov 1, 2003
On Government Reform:
Triangulation replaces partisanship with a dynamic center
Dick Morris helped Bill develop a strategy to break through the wall of obstructionist Republicans.When opposing camps are in two polar positions, they can decide to move toward a third position--like the apex of the triangle--what came to be called
"triangulation." This was essentially a restatement of the philosophy Bill had developed as Governor & as Chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council. In the 1992 campaign, he championed moving beyond the "brain-dead" politics of both parties to craft
a "dynamic center." More than old-fashioned compromise of splitting the difference, triangulation reflected the approach Bill had promised to bring to Washington.
When, for example, the Republicans tried to claim ownership of welfare reform, an issue
Bill had been working on since 1980, Bill would avoid saying no. Instead, he would support the objectives of reform but insist on changes that would improve the legislation and attract enough moderate support to defeat the extreme Republican position.
Source: Living History, by Hillary Rodham Clinton, p.290
Nov 1, 2003
On Gun Control:
Congress’ failure at Littleton response inspired Senate run
A month after the Columbine shootings, Bill & I went to Littleton Colorado to visit with the families of victims & survivors. The Columbine tragedy was not the first, nor the last, episode involving gun violence at an American high school. But it ignited
a call for more federal action to keep guns out of the hands of the violent, troubled and young--a lethal combination. Bill and I announced a proposal to raise the legal age of handgun ownership to 21, and limit purchases of handguns to one per month.
Source: Living History, by Hillary Rodham Clinton, p. 503-4
Nov 1, 2003
On Health Care:
1990s reform called “secretive” but had 600 in working group
In the absence of a crisis like a depression, passing a health care plan was going to be difficult. We wanted a plan that dealt with all aspects of the health care system.In addition to the President’s Task Force, we organized a giant working group of
experts that would consider every aspect of health care. This group, comprising as many as 600 people, met regularly to debate and review specific parts of the plan in detail.
On February 24, we were dealt a blow that none anticipated.
Groups affiliated with the health care industry sued the task force over its composition, claiming that because I was not a government employee, I was not allowed to chair or attend closed task force meetings.
It was a deft political move, designed to
disrupt our work and foster an impression with the public and the media that we were conducting secret meetings.
We were trying to move too quickly on a bill that would fundamentally alter social and economic policy for years to come.
Source: Living History, by Hillary Clinton, p.153-154
Nov 1, 2003
On Health Care:
Millions uninsured is source of America's healthcare crisis
By the time Bill became President, 37 million Americans, most of them working people & their children, were uninsured. They weren't getting access to care until they were in a medical crisis. Some went broke trying to pay for medical emergencies on their
own.Rising health care costs were sapping the nation's economy, undermining American competitiveness, eroding workers' wages, increasing personal bankruptcies & inflating the national budget deficit. As a nation, we were spending more on health care--
14% of our GDP--that any other industrialized country.
This terrible cycle of escalating costs and declining coverage was largely the result of a growing number of uninsured Americans. Patients without insurance seldom could afford to pay for their
medical expenses out-of-pocket, so their costs were absorbed by the doctors and hospitals that treated them. Doctors and hospitals, in turn, raised their rates to cover the expense of caring for patients who weren't covered or couldn't pay.
Source: Living History, by Hillary Rodham Clinton, p.144-145
Nov 1, 2003
On Health Care:
Recommended "managed competition"; not single-payer system
[On the 1994 healthcare taskforce], some proposed a "single payer" approach, modeled on the European and Canadian health care systems. The federal government, through tax payments, would become the sole financier--or single payer--of most medical care.
A few favored a gradual expansion of Medicare what would eventually cover all uninsured Americans, starting first with those aged 55 to 65.Bill and other Democrats rejected the single-payer and Medicare models, preferring a quasi-private system
called "managed competition" that relied on private market forces to drive down costs through competition. The government would have a smaller role, including setting standards for benefit packages and helping to organize purchasing cooperatives.
The cooperatives were groups of individuals and businesses forget for the purpose of purchasing insurance. Together, they could bargain with insurance companies for better benefits and prices and use their leverage to assure high-quality care.
Source: Living History, by Hillary Rodham Clinton, p.150
Nov 1, 2003
On Health Care:
1994 "Harry & Louise" ads exploited consumer fears
The Health Insurance Association of America launched a round of advertisements, featuring a couple named Harry and Louise. Sitting at a kitchen table, Harry and Louise asked each other cleverly contrived questions about the plan and wondered aloud what
it might cost them. As intended, the ads explained the fears--pinpointed by focus groups--of the 85 percent of Americans who already had health insurance and worried it might be taken away.For the Gridiron Dinner, Bill and I decided to stage a
parody of the insurance lobby's TV spot, with Bill playing "Harry" and me playing "Louise." It would give us a chance to expose the scare tactics employed by our opponents and have some fun:
Me: On page 3,764 that under the
Clinton health security plan, we could get sick.
Bill: That's terrible.
Announcer: "Paid for by the Coalition to Scare Your Pants Off."
Our videotaped performance was widely covered, even replayed on several Sunday morning new shows.
Source: Living History, by Hillary Rodham Clinton, p.228-229
Nov 1, 2003
On Health Care:
When last Republican backed out, HillaryCare died
[In July 1994], we continued to try to work for a compromise with Republicans in Congress on various aspects of reform. I admired Sen. John Chafee (R, RI) for his principled stands and decent manner; he had been an early supporter of reform and an
advocate for universal coverage. Sen. Chafee had worked with his Republican colleagues to develop his own thoughtful proposal and hoped that, by melding his plan with ours, he would garner enough bipartisan support to pass a bill.
Chafee made heroic efforts to bridge the gap between Republicans and Democrats, keeping up his effort until he was the lone Republican still fighting for reform. Finally, he, too, abandoned his cause. Without a single Republican supporter, health care
reform was like a patient on life support being given last rites.Health care faded with barley a whimper. I still think that was the wrong call. Giving up without one last public fight demoralized Democrats and let the opposition rewrite history.
Source: Living History, by Hillary Rodham Clinton, p.245-247
Nov 1, 2003
On Health Care:
Despite failure, glad she tried system-wide reform
Bill and I were disappointed and discouraged [by reform failure]. I knew I had contributed to our failure, both because of my own missteps and because I underestimated the resistance I would meet as a First Lady with a political mission. But our most
critical mistake was trying to do too much, too fast.That said, I still believe we were right to try. Our work in 1993 and 1994 paved the way for what several economists dubbed the "Hillary Factor," the purposeful restraint on price increases during
the 1990s. It also helped to create the ideas and political will that led to important smaller reforms in the years following.
On balance I think we made the right decision to try to reform the whole system. Someday we will fix the system.
When we do it, it will be the result of more than fifty years of efforts by Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter and Bill and me. Yes, I'm still glad we tried.
Source: Living History, by Hillary Rodham Clinton, p.248-249
Nov 1, 2003
On Health Care:
Low-tech low-cost water treatment for developing world
Bangladesh, the most densely populated country on earth, presented the starkest contrast of wealth and poverty I saw in South Asia. But this was another country I had long wanted to visit, because it was home to two international recognized projects--the
International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research (ICDDR/B) in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and the Grameen Bank, a pioneer of microcredit. The ICDDR/B is an important example of the positive results that come from foreign aid. Dysentery is a leading cause of
death, particularly among children, in parts of the world where there are limited sources of clean drinking water, The ICDDR/B developed "oral rehydration therapy" (ORT), a solution composed mostly of salt, sugar and water, that is easy to administer
and responsible for saving the lives of millions of children. This simple, inexpensive solution has been called one of the most important medical advances of the century, and the hospital that pioneered it depends on American aid.
Source: Living History, by Hillary Rodham Clinton, p.283-284
Nov 1, 2003
On Homeland Security:
I despise terrorism and the nihilism it represents
On Oct. 11, the USS Cole was attacked by terrorists in Yemen. The explosion killed 17 US sailors and ripped a hole in the destroyer’s hull. This attack, like the embassy bombings, was later traced to al Qaeda.I despise terrorism and the nihilism it
represents, and I was incredulous when the NY Republican Party and Lazio campaign insinuated that I was somehow involved with the terrorists who blew up the Cole. They made this charge in a TV ad and an automatic telephone message directed to NY voters
12 days before the election. The story they concocted was that I had received a donation from somebody who belonged to a group that they said supported terrorists--“the same kind of terrorism that killed our sailors on the USS Cole.” The phone script
told people to call me and tell me to “stop supporting terrorism.” This last-minute desperation tactic blew up, however, thanks to a vigorous response by my campaign and with help from former NYC mayor Ed Koch, who cut a TV commercial scolding Lazio.
Source: Living History, by Hillary Clinton, p.521-522
Nov 1, 2003
On Principles & Values:
My mom could not live my life; father could not imagine it
I was not born a first lady or a senator. I was not born a Democrat. I was not born a lawyer or an advocate for women’s rights and human rights. I was not born a wife or a mother.
I was born an American in the middle of the 20th century, a fortunate time and place. I was free to make choices unavailable to many women in the world today.
I came of age on the crest of tumultuous social change and took part in the political battles fought over the meaning of America and its role in the world.
My mother and grandmothers could never have lived my life; my father and my grandfathers could never have imagined it. But they bestowed on my the promise of American, which made my life and my choices possible.
Source: Living History, by Hillary Clinton, p. 1
Nov 1, 2003
On Principles & Values:
Mother, Dorothy, offended by mistreatment of any human being
My mother, Dorothy Rodham, loved her home and her family, but she felt limited by the narrow choices of her life. It is easy to forget now, when women’s choices can seem overwhelming, how few there were for my mother’s generation.
She started taking college courses when we were older. She never graduated, but she amassed mountains of credits in subjects ranging from logic to child development.My mother was offended by the mistreatment of any human being, especially children.
She understood from personal experience that many children--through no fault of their own--were disadvantaged. and discriminated against from birth. She hated self-righteousness and pretensions of moral superiority and impressed on my brothers
and me that we were no better or worse than anyone else. As a child in California, she had watched the Japanese Americans in her school endure blatant discrimination and daily taunts from the Anglo students.
Source: Living History, by Hillary Clinton, p. 10-11
Nov 1, 2003
On Principles & Values:
Father, Hugh, focused on self-reliance & personal initiative
I grew up between the push & tug of my parents’ values and my own political beliefs reflect both. The gender gap started in families like mine. My mother was basically a Democrat, although she kept it quiet in Republican Park Ridge. My dad, Hugh Rodham,
was a rock-ribbed, up-by-your-bootstraps, conservative Republican and proud of it. He was also tight-fisted with money. He did not believe in credit and he ran his business on a strict pay-as-you=go policy. His ideology was based on self-reliance and
personal initiative, but unlike many people who call themselves conservatives today, he understood the importance of fiscal responsibility and supported taxpayer investments in highways, schools, parks, and other important public goods.
My father could not stand waste. Like so many who grew up in the Depression, his fear of poverty colored his life. To this day, I put uneaten olives back in the jar, wrap up the tiniest pieces of cheese and feel guilty when I throw anything away.
Source: Living History, by Hillary Clinton, p. 11
Nov 1, 2003
On Principles & Values:
AuH2O: Supported Goldwater on basis of individual rights
I was interested in politics from an early age. I successfully ran for student council and junior class Vice President. I was also an active Young Republican and, later, a Goldwater girl, right down to my cowgirl outfit and straw cowboy hat emblazoned
with the slogan “AuH2O.”My ninth-grade history teacher, Paul Carlson, encouraged me to read Senator Barry Goldwater’s book, The Conscience of a Conservative. I liked Goldwater because he was an individualist who swam against the political tide.
Years later, I admired his outspoken support of individual rights, which he considered consistent with his old-fashioned conservative principles: “Don’t raise hell about the gays, the blacks, and the Mexicans. Free people have a right to do as they damn
please.” When Goldwater learned I had supported him in 1964, he sent the White House a case of barbecue fixings and invited me to see him. I went to his home in 1996 and spent a wonderful hour talking to him and his wife, Susan.
Source: Living History, by Hillary Clinton, p. 21
Nov 1, 2003
On Principles & Values:
1976: Organized Indiana for Carter-Mondale campaign
Bill Clinton’s first election victory as Attorney General in Arkansas in 1976 was anticlimactic. He had won the primary in May and had no Republican opponent. The big show that year was between Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford.
With Bill’s election assured, we both felt free to get involved in Carter’s campaign when he became the Democratic nominee. Carter’s staff asked Bill to head the campaign in Arkansas and me to be the field coordinator in Indiana.
Indiana was a heavily Republican state, but Carter thought his Southern roots and farming background might appeal. I thought it was a long shot, but I was game to try.
Even though Carter did not carry Indiana, I was thrilled that he won the national election.
Source: Living History, by Hillary Clinton, p. 76-78
Nov 1, 2003
On Principles & Values:
1980: Bill practiced Lamaze, but Chelsea delivered Caesarian
Bill and I were trying to have a baby. Anyone with kids knows there is never a “convenient” time to start a family. Bill’s first term as Governor seemed as inconvenient a time as any. We weren’t having any luck until we decided to take a vacation.As
my due date drew near, my doctor said I couldn’t travel, which meant I missed the White House dinner for Governors. Bill got back on Wednesday, Feb. 27, in time for my water to break.
After we arrived at the hospital, it became clear I would have to
have a caesarian. Bill requested that the hospital permit him to accompany me in the operating room, which was unprecedented. Soon, the policy was changed to permit fathers in the room during caesarians.
Our daughter’s birth was the most miraculous
event in my life. Chelsea arrived on Feb. 27, 1980. Chelsea has heard us tell stories about her childhood many time. She knows she was named after Joni Mitchell’s song, “Chelsea Morning,” which Bill and I heard as we strolled around Chelsea in London.
Source: Living History, by Hillary Clinton, p. 83-84
Nov 1, 2003
On Principles & Values:
1992: Meant “active partner” with “buy one get one free”
One evening, when Bill and I were stumping in New Hampshire, he introduced me to a crowd of supporters. Recounting my two decades of work on children’s issues, he joked we had a new campaign slogan: “Buy one, get one free.”
He said it as a way of explaining that I would be an active partner in his administration and would continue to champion the causes I had worked on in the past. It was a good line, and my campaign staff adopted it.
Widely reported in the press, it then took on a life of its own, disseminated everywhere as evidence of my alleged secret aspirations to become “co-President” with my husband.The “buy one, get one free” comment was a reminder to
Bill and me that our remarks might be taken out of context because news reporters did not have the time or space to provide the text of an entire conversation. Simplicity and brevity were essential to reporters.
Source: Living History, by Hillary Clinton, p.105
Nov 1, 2003
On Principles & Values:
Loves Bill despite affairs; not just “Stand By Your Man”
On Jan. 23 1992, Bill called to warn me about an upcoming tabloid story in which a woman named Gennifer Flowers claimed she had a 12-year affair with him. He told me it wasn’t true.The interviewer started with questions about our relationship, adulter
& divorce. Bill acknowledged that he had caused pain in our marriage.
Q: You seem to have reached some sort of an understanding or an arrangement.Bill: You’re looking at two people who love each other. This is not an arrangement or an
understanding. This is a marriage.
Hillary: I’m not sitting here, some little woman standing by my man like Tammy Wynette. I’m sitting here because I love him and I respect him and I honor what we’ve been through together. If that’s not enough for
people, then heck, don’t vote for him.
The fallout from my reference to Tammy Wynette was instant & brutal. I meant to refer to Tammy Wynette’s famous song, “Stand By Your Man,” not to her as a person. I regretted the way I had come across.
Source: Living History, by Hillary Clinton, p.106-107
Nov 1, 2003
On Principles & Values:
Meant “women work conflict” with “stay home & bake cookies”
A reporter asked whether I could have avoided an appearance of conflict of interest when my husband was Governor. I said, “You know, I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was fulfill my profession,
which I entered before my husband was in public life. And I have worked very hard to be as careful as possible.”I could have said, “Look, short of abandoning my law firm partnership and staying home, there was nothing more I could have done to avoid
the appearance of a conflict of interest.“
My aides suggested that I talk to reporters a second time. On the spot, I had a press conference. It had little effect. Thirteen minutes after I answered the question, a story ran on the AP wire. CNN quickly
aired one too.
It turned into a story about my alleged callousness towards stay-at-home-mothers. Republicans labeled me the ”ideological leader of a Clinton-Clinton Administration that would push a radical-feminist agenda.“
Source: Living History, by Hillary Clinton, p.109-110
Nov 1, 2003
On Principles & Values:
Hillaryland meant active & influential First Lady staff
Before long, my staff was recognized within the administration and by the press as active and influential. Soon they became known around the White House as “Hillary-land.” We were fully immersed in the daily operations of the West Wing, but we were also
While the President’s senior advisers jockeyed for big offices with proximity to the Oval Office, my senior staff happily shared offices with their young assistants. We had toys and crayons for children in our main conference room. One
Christmas, we ordered lapel buttons that read, in very small letters, HILLARYLAND, and she and I began handing out honorary memberships, usually to long-suffering spouses and children of my overworked staffers. Membership entitled them to visit anytime.
Source: Living History, by Hillary Clinton, p.133
Nov 1, 2003
On Principles & Values:
Vince Foster’s suicide spurred conspiracy theories galore
Vince Foster was dead. At that moment, Bill was on Larry King Live. I thought he should cut the interview short so we could tell Bill as soon as possible.[A friend] conducted a search for a suicide note on the night but found nothing. According to
subsequent testimony, he discovered Vince had stored personal files in his office, including files that had to do with the land deal called Whitewater. These files were transferred to our private attorney in Washington. Since Vince’s office was never a
crime scene, these actions were legal. But they would soon spawn a cottage industry of conspiracy theorists trying to prove that Vince was murdered to cover up what he “knew about Whitewater.”
Those rumors should have ended with the official report
ruling his death a suicide and with the sheet of notepaper found in Vince’s briefcase: “I was not meant for a job in the spotlight of Washington. Here ruining people is considered sport...The public will never believe the innocence of the Clintons.”
Source: Living History, by Hillary Clinton, p.175-178
Nov 1, 2003
On Principles & Values:
Monica investigation abused process to undermine presidency
Bill told me that Monica Lewinsky was an intern he had befriended two years earlier when she was volunteering in the West Wing during the government shutdown. He had talked to her a few times, and she had asked him for some job-hunting help. He said that
she had misinterpreted his attention. It was such a familiar scenario that I had little trouble believing the accusations were groundless. I expected that, ultimately, the intern story would be a footnote in tabloid history. But I knew, too, that the
political danger was real. A nuisance civil action had metastasized into a criminal investigation by Ken Starr. It appeared that the questions in the Paula Jones deposition were designed solely to trap the President into charges of perjury, which might
then justify a demand for his resignation or impeachment.
In my view, the prosecutors were undermining the office of the Presidency and abusing their authority in an effort to win back the political power they had lost at the ballot box.
Source: Living History, by Hillary Rodham Clinton, p. 441-3
Nov 1, 2003
On Principles & Values:
Case for Bill’s impeachment was unjustified constitutionally
I have not read the Starr report, but I’ve been told that the word sex (or some variation of it) appears 581 times in the 445-page report. Whitewater, the putative subject of Kenneth Starr’s probe, reportedly appears four times, to identify
a figure, like the “Whitewater Independent Counsel.” Starr’s distribution of his report was gratuitously graphic and degrading to the Presidency and the Constitution. Its public release was a low moment in American history. Starr appointed himself
prosecutor, judge and jury in his zeal to impeach Bill Clinton. And the more I believed Starr was abusing his power, the more I sympathized with Bill--at least politically. Privately, I was still working on forgiving Bill, but my fury at those who had
deliberately sabotaged him helped me on that score.
Although the case for impeachment was both unpopular and unjustified under the constitutional standard, I assumed that the House Republicans would pursue it if they thought they could.
Source: Living History, by Hillary Rodham Clinton, p. 475-7
Nov 1, 2003
On Principles & Values:
Bill talked about social change; I embodied it
While Bill talked about social change, I embodied it. I represented a fundamental change in the way women functioned in our society. And if my husband won,
I would be filling a position in which the duties were not spelled out, but the performance was judged by everybody. I soon realized how many people had a fixed notion of the proper role of a President's wife. I was called a "Rorschach test" for the
American public, and it was an apt way of conveying the varied and extreme reactions that I provoked.Neither the fawning admiration nor the virulent rage seemed close to the truth.
I was being labeled and categorized because of my positions and mistakes, and also because I had been turned into a symbol for women of my generation. That's why everything I said or did--and even what I wore--became a hot button for debate.
Source: Living History, by Hillary Rodham Clinton, p.110-111
Nov 1, 2003
On Principles & Values:
I liked headbands; but First Lady's appearance matters
Everything I said or did--and even what I wore--became a hot button for debate. Hair and fashion were my first clues. For most of my life I had paid little attention to my clothes. I liked headbands. They were easy, and
I couldn't imagine that they suggested anything good, bad or indifferent about me to the American public. But during the campaign, some of my friends began a mission to spruce up my appearance.
They brought me racks of clothes to try on, and they told me the headband had to go.What they understood, and I didn't, was that a First Lady's appearance matters.
I was no longer representing only myself. I was asking the American people to let me represent them in a role that has conveyed everything from glamour to other comfort.
Source: Living History, by Hillary Rodham Clinton, p.111
Nov 1, 2003
On Principles & Values:
"Saint Hillary" pushes politics of meaning and spirituality
I drew on different sources to put together a statement about the need to "remold society by redefining that it means to be a human being in the 20th century, moving into a new millennium.""We need a new politics of meaning. We need a new ethos of
individual responsibility and caring. We need a new definition of civil society which answers the unanswerable questions posed by both the market forces and the governmental ones, as to how we can have a society that fills us up again and make us feel
that we are part of something bigger than ourselves."
I suggested a response to Lee Atwater's poignant question: "Who will lead us out of this 'spiritual vacuum?'" The answer, I said, is: "All of us."
My words were derided in a New York Times
Magazine cover story facetiously titled "Saint Hillary." The article dismissed my discussion of spirituality as "easy, moralistic preaching" couched in the "gauzy and gushy wrappings of New Age jargon."
Source: Living History, by Hillary Rodham Clinton, p.160-161
Nov 1, 2003
On Principles & Values:
Death of her father spurred questioning 'spiritual vacuum'
Lee Atwater was a political street fighter and famous for his ruthless tactics. Winning, Atwater proclaimed, was all that mattered--until he got sick. Shortly before he died, he wrote about a "spiritual vacuum at the heart of American society." His
message had moved me when I first read it, and it seemed even more important now, with my father dying.Atwater wrote, "The 80's were about acquiring--acquiring wealth, power, prestige. I know. I acquired more than most. But you can acquire all you wan
and still feel empty. What power wouldn't I trade for a little more time with my family? What price wouldn't I pay for an evening with friends? It took a deadly illness to put me eye to eye with that truth, but it is a truth that the country caught up in
its ruthless ambitions and moral decay, can learn on my dime."
I suggested a response to Lee Atwater's poignant question: "Who will lead us out of this 'spiritual vacuum?'" The answer, I said, is: "All of us." The day after my speech, my father died.
Source: Living History, by Hillary Rodham Clinton, p.160-161
Nov 1, 2003
On Principles & Values:
Contract "On" America nationalized the House election
In Sept. 1994, Newt Gingrich stood on the steps of the Capitol, surrounded by like-minded members, to unveil his game plan for midterm victory: a "Contract With America." The Contract came to be known around the White House as the "Contract ON
America" because of the damage it would cause our country. The numbers behind its contradictory agenda didn't add up. You can't increase military spending, decrease taxes and balance the federal budget unless you cut much of what the government does.
Gingrich counted on voters to skip the arithmetic. The Contract was a strategy to nationalize local elections and turn congressional races into a referendum on Republican terms: negative on the Clinton Administration and positive on their Contract.The
Democrats lost 8 Senate seats and an astounding 54 seats in the House--ushering in the first Republican majority since the Eisenhower Administration. It was disheartening to imagine the next two years with a Republican controlled House and Senate.
Source: Living History, by Hillary Rodham Clinton, p.249-257
Nov 1, 2003
On Principles & Values:
Not happy with what Bill did, but impeachment isn't answer
"You all may be mad at Bill Clinton," I said. "Certainly, I'm not happy about what my husband did. But impeachment is not the answer." I reminded them that we were all American citizens living under the rule of law and that and that we owe it to our
system of government to follow the Constitution. The case for impeachment was part of a political war waged by people determined to sabotage the President's agenda. We couldn't let it happen.
We all knew last-ditch efforts to avoid impeachment would fail. I was saddened for my country as our cherished system of laws was abused in what amounted to an attempted congressional coup d'etat. As a law school graduate, I had studied the politically
motivated impeachment of President Andrew Jackson. As a member of the congressional staff that had investigated Richard Nixon, I knew how hard we worked to ensure that the impeachment process was fair and conducted according to the Constitution.
Source: Living History, by Hillary Rodham Clinton, p.489-490
Nov 1, 2003
On Welfare & Poverty:
Welfare reform was critical step despite flaws
Bill & I, along with members of Congress who wanted productive reform, believed that people able to work should work. But we recognize that assistance & incentives were necessary to help people move permanently from welfare to employment & that successful
reform would require large investment in education and training, subsidies for child care and transportation, transitional health care, tax incentives to encourage employers to hire welfare recipients, and tougher child support collection efforts.
The third bill passed by Congress had the support of the majority of the Democrats in the House & Senate. It contained more financial support for moving people to work, offered new money for child care and restored the federal guarantees of food stamps &
medical benefits.
The President eventually signed this third bill into law. Even with its flaws, it was a critical first step to reforming our nation's welfare system. I agreed that he should sign it and worked hard to round up votes for its passage.
Source: Living History, by Hillary Rodham Clinton, p.366-368
Nov 1, 2003
Page last updated: Feb 14, 2019