10 articles detailing Hillary’s long, controversial climb from Wellesley to presidential candidate
It’s been a 50-year journey
The Class of ‘69
Hillary Rodham became the first student at Wellesley to give a commencement address to her graduating class in 1969. Her daring move to challenge the preceding speaker’s talk—Edward W. Brooke, then a sitting U.S. senator—earned her a profile in LIFE Magazine’s June 20th issue that year.
The formative Wellesley Years
As First Lady, Hillary was unlike any who had preceded her. In 1993, the Boston Globe attempted to demystify her in a profile that read, in part, “Close friends and classmates from Wellesley will tell you that to know and understand Hillary Rodham then is to know and understand Hillary Clinton of today.”
Following Bill to Arkansas: sacrifice or strategy?
Many who knew her were surprised when Hillary moved to Arkansas in 1973 to be with Bill Clinton, whom she subsequently married. It seemed she was leaving her first love of “effecting public policy,” but when New York magazine profiled Hillary in May of 1994, they painted Hillary’s early career decisions in a very different light.
She’s no Barbara Bush
During Bill’s 1992 presidential campaign, Hillary was rarely viewed as a typical or desirable candidate for First Lady. The New York Times detailed her public-image struggle, especially after she angrily defended her career that spring by saying, “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.”
Standing by her man
In the Clintons’ 1992 60 Minutes interview—intended to address the allegations that Bill had participated in a 12-year affair with Gennifer Flowers—Hillary famously said, “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 he’s been through and we’ve been through together. And you know what, if that’s not enough, then heck, don’t vote for him.”
“She is the elephant in the living room.”
In 2005, it was practically undisputed in Washington that Hillary would run for president in 2008. New York magazine explored the possibility, asking, “How did the reluctant cookie-baker, the socializer of health care, and the theorizer of a right-wing conspiracy become the presumptive nominee for the party in 2008?”
In spite of losing to Obama
When Clinton ultimately lost the race for the Democratic nomination to Obama in 2008, New York claimed that the reasons for the collapse of her campaign were “achingly familiar,” choosing instead to focus on “what Hillary achieved in spite of losing, and maybe even because of it.”
The many caricatures of Clinton
Vice’s Broadly explores the myriad cultural representations of Clinton that have popped up over the course of her career which help to dissect Hillary, the enigma. “The problem is there is no real Hillary: She is as constructed as Susan Stanton and Claire Underwood and Elaine Barrish — to have lived so many lives and survived so many scandals, you’d have to be.”
Oh, and don’t forget the scandals
The Atlantic takes a look back at the prolific series of Clinton scandals that have been popping up and threatening the power-couple since 1975.
40 years in the public eye
