Hillary Clinton is a prominent American political figure, former First Lady, U.S. Senator, Secretary of State, and the first woman to secure a major party’s nomination for President. Born in 1947 in Chicago, Illinois, Clinton attended Wellesley College and later Yale Law School, where she met her husband, Bill Clinton, who would become the 42nd President of the United States. Her career has spanned decades of public service, distinguished by her dedication to healthcare reform, women’s rights, and foreign policy.
As First Lady from 1993 to 2001, Clinton led initiatives on healthcare reform and children’s welfare. She was the first First Lady to hold an office in the West Wing, taking on a more public and policy-oriented role than her predecessors. Though her healthcare reform plan in 1993 ultimately did not pass, her efforts laid groundwork for future discussions on universal healthcare and expanded children’s healthcare programs. She also championed global women’s rights, delivering her landmark speech in Beijing in 1995, where she famously declared, “Women’s rights are human rights.”
In 2000, Clinton was elected as the U.S. Senator for New York, becoming the first First Lady to win public office. She served in the Senate for eight years, where she worked on issues including post-9/11 recovery efforts and military and veteran affairs. In 2009, she became Secretary of State under President Barack Obama. During her tenure, she played a significant role in managing U.S. diplomatic relations, notably focusing on the Asia-Pacific “pivot,” strengthening ties in Europe and NATO, and championing human rights. Clinton was instrumental in the U.S. response to the Arab Spring, but her handling of the 2012 Benghazi attack drew controversy.
In 2016, Clinton made history as the Democratic nominee for President, marking the closest a woman has come to the U.S. presidency. Though she won the popular vote, she ultimately lost the Electoral College to Donald Trump. Her campaign emphasized inclusivity, economic reform, and international cooperation.
Since her presidential bid, Clinton has remained an influential voice in U.S. politics, advocating for women’s rights, democracy, and voter participation through initiatives like Onward Together, her nonprofit organization. She has also authored several books, including What Happened, a memoir reflecting on her presidential campaign. Her legacy as a trailblazer in American politics and an advocate for equality endures, with her career reflecting a commitment to public service and social justice across multiple domains.
I’m tired of the country being divided by gender, race, status, etc. I don’t care for candidates being pushed because they will be the first such and such. I care about the character and values of a candidate, and how much they love this country, and I am not impressed with the character of this candidate. It disgusts me that she could call someone a friend, yet abandon him in Benghazi, and apparently lose no sleep over it.
Hillary Clinton has nothing in common with me, and doesn’t understand my struggles any better than the male candidates do, and I won’t throw away my vote because she happens to be female. She’s shown no respect or consideration for those women claiming to be sexually harassed and/or assaulted by her husband, and that tells me all I need to know about her stance on women’s rights.
I’m not saying I trust Hillary Clinton, I’m also not saying that she will be a good president. But she is the best out of the current lot. The republican side is composed primarily of buffoons and charlatans. Bernie Sanders, while he means well, simply does not have the capacity or skill to lead America’s economy AND forge good relations with the rest of the world. Clinton may be slimy, but she has the panache, guts and intellect to stop America from begin ravaged by Russia and the middle east.
I just can not understand why new polls show over half of the American population find Hillary Clinton to be untrustworthy – how then are we electing her? How is she continuing to get the African-American vote, when her and her husband are two of the greatest culprits behind private prisons, and Bill’s infamous crime bill, which have systematically kept the African American communities at a disadvantage. Personally, I can not bring myself to support her even if she does win the democratic nomination, because she is the antithesis of everything I believe needs to happen in this country. We have to get big money and corporations out of our political system, and she is the poster child for taking money from these giants who are deciding the way our country is ran instead of us.
This is truly such an important issue in our country right now (as we see with the Panama papers, and with #DemocracySpring.