Hillary Clinton: Renaissance Woman by Karen Bartet Read Free Book Online Page A

what was to come.
     
    Rodham interned at a firm specialising in civil liberties and constitutional rights, a factoid that her official bio ignores in favour of touting her work with 'children and families' – another irritating compromise to appeal to conservatives, given that one might think a working knowledge of the constitution was rather more important for a president and rather more important to conservative voters.
     
    Both Hillary and Bill graduated from Yale in 1973, Rodham having taken a course of post-graduate study partly to be with her future husband, who was one year behind her at Yale. During this time, she published the first of many scholarly articles, which were well-received and frequently cited in the academic and legal community.

 
    Scholar, Lawyer, Politician, Investor
     
    Having worked as a Congressional counsel but failed to pass the bar in Washington DC, Rodham moved to Arkansas with Bill Clinton so that he could pursue his legal and political career there. Of course, she had no intention of becoming a housewife: She taught Law at the University of Arkansas and helped found a legal aid clinic there while Bill pursued a congressional race (which he lost) before his successful attempt to be elected Attorney General of Arkansas.
     
    During this time, while Bill Clinton pursued his political career, Rodham maintained her professional and intellectual independence. She practised law with the Rose Law firm, adding experience with intellectual property law to her existing knowledge of civil rights and, of course, the law pertaining to children and families. She also authored, as she had previously, important scholarly articles in this latter area, bringing coherence and intellectual rigour to a set of ideas regarding the rights of children under American law. These articles and the ideas they set out and clarified have been praised by the American Bar Association and, like her articles written while still at Yale, were frequently cited by others. At this stage, Rodham seems to have been content to effect change in the background, while her husband had the high-profile political career. However, her continuing engagement with the ideas that drove her demonstrated an ability to exercise considerable influence over her areas of expertise, and would foreshadow her later roles as First Lady, Senator and Secretary of State.
     
    Increasingly, though, her profile would rise, both independently and in tandem with that of her husband, as she founded advocacy organizations, campaigned for Democratic politicians, made successful investments (some argued these were suspiciously successful) and eventually came to the notice of then-President Jimmy Carter, who appointed her to the board of the Legal Services Corporation.
     
    Those who suggest that Hillary Clinton's current high profile is due partly or wholly to her husband's would do well to remember her list of achievements, all made before Bill Clinton came to any kind of political prominence. Clearly, then, Rodham's subsequent successful political career has less to do with her husband than a casual observer might assume. Although his successful bid to become Governor of Arkansas led to her appointment to various state-level committees as First Lady of Arkansas and undoubtedly deepened her political expertise, her independent successes as a scholar, lawyer, campaigner and investor more than qualified her for her subsequent positions, whoever her husband might have been.
     
    The 1970 and '80s weren't all good for Rodham: It was during this time she became involved in a disastrous investment in the Whitewater Development Corporation, something that would haunt both her and Bill Clinton during his presidency as legal proceedings over accusations of fraud dragged on interminably. Although both were cleared of any wrongdoing, the legal case ran for years and several of their associates, including Bill's successor as Governor, were prosecuted.
     
    Thus began an