Biography Hilary Clinton

Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton (born October 26, 1947) is a United States Senator from New York, and a member of the Democratic Party. 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. She is also a lawyer and a former First Lady of Arkansas. Under Barack Obama she has served as Secretary of State.

She went to Yale College, and practised as a lawyer, becoming one of the countries most influential lawyers. In 1975, she moved to Arkansas and married Bill Clinton - an up and coming politician in the Democrat party. Bill Clinton was elected President in 1992, and she served as first lady from 1993-2001.

As the first lady, she played a highly political role in supporting her husband, Bill Clinton during his Presidential term. She tried unsuccessfully to pass her Clinton Health care plan. She received intense media scrutiny after her husband's affair with Monika Lewinsky. Although this put their marriage at risk, the couple have stayed together, with Clinton saying she forgave her husband, though humorously added:“In the bible it says you have to forgive seventy times seven. I want you all to know, I'm keeping a chart.”

Clinton was elected to the United States Senate in 2000, becoming the first wife of a President to be elected to public office. As senator, she sat on the Committee on Armed Services, the Committee on Environment and Public Works, the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, and the Special Committee on Aging.

In 2007, Clinton announced she would seek the US presidential nomination for the Democratic party. Despite no woman being ever selected to be a Presidential candidate, she began actively campaigning and with the support of her husband, she was considered to be a strong favourite.

However, she lost the nomination process to Barack Obama. Obama was more successful at motivating grassroots support. He was considered less polarising than Clinton and had the added advantage of being opposed to the Iraq war, which by 2008 had become unpopular.

On a tidal wave of enthusiasm, Obama won the 2008 election, and on becoming President, offered Clinton the post of Secretary of State. This gave Clinton a high profile on foreign affairs.

Clinton faced a difficult term, with the fallout from the Iraq and Afghanistan war making America unpopular. The wiki leaks scandal also embarrassed with many top secret US diplomatic cables being published on the internet. She was a prominent member of the cabinet dealing with the Arab Spring, and controversially advocated military intervention in Libya. She has been criticised for failing to stop new Isreali settlements in Palestine, and putting at risk any middle-east peace settlement. She visited 112 countries during her four year term, making her one of the most travelled secretary of states.

She left the state department in Jan 2013, saying:"I am so grateful that we've had a chance to contribute in each of our ways to making our country and our world stronger, safer, fairer and better," Clinton has hinted at the possibility of running for President in 2016.

• Hilary Clinton at Amazon.com
• Official site of Hilary Clinton
• Biography at White House

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