Hillary will be the People's President

by Nancy Kivlen


Rather than go through the pluses of a Hillary Presidency vs. the minuses of an Obama Presidency, I thought it would be better to simply let you know about My Candidate and why I think she is the best person to be our next President.

First, I'd like you to know about her and who she is. Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton was brought up in the conservative, all white Chicago suburb of Park Ridge, Illinois. Her father was a self made small business man who had is own textile business. He played sports when he was younger, boxing and football. Her mother, Dorothy, who is now 88 years old and lives with Hillary and Bill had a difficult childhood and upbringing. Hillary's father was strict, ruled the household, and was a conservative Republican. She didn't earn an allowance because her father's philosophy was "I feed you".  Her mother's attitude was similar "get out there and fend for yourself."  So, the tough little girl who was a brownie and then a girl scout, earned extra cash at the age of 12 by supervising a local park hauling wagons and bats around for other kids to play with, and she also baby sat.

To compete with her two younger brothers and to gain her father's attention, Hillary competed in sports playing football and baseball with other boys in her neighborhood.  She was brought up with no gender bias and has said that the one good thing about playing team sports was that she learned early on about winning and losing.

When she was 13 years old, she campaigned in her neighborhood (with her father) for Republican Senator Barry Goldwater who was running for President. When she was 15 years old, her Methodist Youth Minister took her to meet and hear Martin Luther King, Jr. give a speech. This was a turning point for Hillary as it was the first time she  became aware of the Civil Rights Movement and the inequities that existed between the middle class and poor.

When Hillary was in High School she ran for class President, only to lose to a boy that laughed at her and said "don't you know that a girl can never be class President?". After NASA launched it's go to the moon project, Hillary wrote a letter and essay about wanting to become an astronaut and why she thought she should be the one to go to the moon. She received a letter back from NASA stating that "girls and women are not accepted into the NASA program."  Both these rejections impacted Hillary because she had been brought up to believe that if you worked hard you could achieve whatever you wanted.

After graduating high school, Hillary went to Wellesley College. She felt uncomfortable away from home and thought she didn't fit in. She called her mother begging to come home, but her parents said "no" and made her stay there. She forged her way as a Political Science major and eventually became the President of the Young Republicans Club on campus. But while she was at Wellesley the Civil Rights movement was heating up and Martin Luthur King was assassinated. His loss had a profound effect on her.  At the same time the Vietnam war was also escalating and Hillary came to terms with the fact that her  political views were changing and she stepped down as President of the Young Republicans. Hillary became a supporter of anti-war democratic candidate, Eugene McCarthy.  Hillary organized a two-day student strike at Wellesley.  She became involved in recruiting more black students and faculty to Wellesley College. She still had one foot in the Republican party door and attended the Republican Convention in Miami in 1968. It was there she decided to leave the Republican party for good as she believed there was veiled racism throughout the party.

In her Senior year of College, Hillary became President of the Wellesley College Government Association. In 1969, she graduated with honors and became the first student to deliver the commencement ceremony address (students selected her to do this). Her speech criticized Senator Brooke who spoke prior to Hillary, she received a seven minute standing ovation, which gained her national attention.when she appeared on the cover of Life Magazine as an up and coming figure.

Hillary entered Yale Law School in 1970 and met Bill Clinton in 1971 and they began dating. Hillary was awarded a grant to work at Marian Wright Edelman's Washington research project to research migrant workers problems in housing, sanitation, health and education. She became friends with Wright Edelman, an African American woman, who became one of Hillary's greatest mentors.

Hillary wrote a research paper that was later published entitled Beyond the Best Interests of the Child, about early childhood brain development. She took on cases, pro-bono, of child abuse at the Yale New Haven Hospital and also volunteered to provide free legal advice to the poor.  In the summer of '71, Hillary interned in Oakland, Ca for a radical civil liberties law firm, where she worked on child custody and abuse cases. Bill Clinton followed her to Oakland where they rented an apartment and lived together for the summer. When they returned to Yale in the fall, they got an apartment together. Bill proposed marriage to her a few different times, but Hillary had not yet decided what she wanted to do with her life.

Hillary received her law degree from Yale in 1973. Her paper, Children under the Law, was published in the Harvard Educational Review and was sited as one of the first studies of Children and Medicine at the Yale Child Study Center.  In 1974, Hillary was asked to advise the House Judiciary Committee in Washington D.C. to research the grounds and standards for impeachment of Richard Nixon, which later lead to his resignation. (and, in my opinion is one reason she has been attacked relentlessly by the right wing media and Republicans).

Hillary finally accepted Bill Clinton's marriage proposal in 1975 and they moved to Fayetteville, Arkansas. Bill Clinton first became the Attorney General, then later the Governor of Arkansas. He was the youngest Governor ever elected at that time.

During her years as First Lady in Arkansas, Hillary had a long ist of accomplishments that were quite impressive: she co-founded the Arkansas Advocates for Children ad Families, an alliance with the Children's Defense Fund; she was appointed by Jimmy Carter to the Board of Directors of the Legal Services Corporation, as the first woman chair; she ran the Rural Health Advisory Committee where she obtained federal funds to expand medical facilities in Arkansas' poorest areas; she became the first woman partner at the Rose Law Firm; she chaired the Arkansas Education Standards Committee where she sought to bring about reform in the state's public education system; she was successful in fighting the Arkansas Education Association to put mandatory testing for teachers; she introduced Arkansas Home Instruction program for Preschool Youth; she was named Woman of the year in 1983.  She also chaired the ABA's Commission on Women in Law program; she was twice named by the National Law Review as one of the most influential lawyers in America; she served on the Arkansas Children's Hospital legal services and the Children's Defense Fund Boards.

Hillary gave birth to Chelsea, their only child in 1980.

In 1992, Bill Clinton was elected President of the United States, the second youngest President (after JFK) in history. When Bill and Hillary came to D.C., Bill promised supporters they would get "two for the price of one" as they were a team.  This approach, of bringing in a First Lady that would play a role in his administration had never occurred so openly before. 

Hillary was put in charge of a Task Force on National Health Care Reform in 1993. Hoping to replicate the success she had in reforming education in Arkansas, she wove together a proposal that would mandate employers to provide health care coverage to their employees.  The plan was later dubbed "Hillarycare" by republican opponents and failed to pass the Senate. Hillary has since acknowledged that she made mistakes partly due to her inexperience in Washington politics. 

Hillary's role as First Lady become more of an adviser and confidant to her husband. But she did accomplish several things that were unprecedented:  she visited Bosnia and Kosovo on behalf of her husband, entering war zones and acting as a spokeswoman for American interests; she went to Northern Ireland to help foster a peace deal as a female leader bringing women together that were split by sectarian divide and hosting a meeting between Catholic and Protestant women in Belfast.  Hillary made trips to over 80 countries, and also visited Africa where she met with heads of state.

Hillary was the keynote speaker at the 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing. Her famous speech was entitled Women's Rights are Human Rights. She was the only person to make a forceful statement against China's human rights abuses on Chinese soil. She also spoke out about the Taliban's treatment of women in the muslim world. She worked with Madeline Albright to help set up a financial aid fund for women owned businesses in developing third world countries.

Domestically, Hillary did battle with drug companies and forced them to test their drugs for children and to make sure all kids get the immunizations they need through the Vaccines for Children Program.

She is the only first lady to testify before a grand jury due to allegations surrounding her involvement in the Whitewater Scandal. After seven years of being investigated (at a cost of $40million), the special prosecutor found no evidence of any wrong doing by the First Lady.

Hillary has spoken openly about her husbands affair with Monica Lewinsky and the scandal surrounding it. It was, to be sure, the darkest days of her life. But as she said, as recently as a week ago on the Tyra Banks show, it was her faith and personal decision to stay with Bill based on their 35 years of marriage, their daughter and extended family. She admitted that many women have asked her about this and have been in the same situation. Her advice is that each person much decide what's right for her and "be true to yourself first and foremost".  She also stated that every person's situation is different and no one can judge another person if they haven't walked in their shoes.

When Hillary decided to run for the Senate of NY in 2000, she had a tough and politically nasty campaign lodged against her by then ex-mayor, Rudy Guiliani. Due to health problems and scandals of his own, he pulled out of the race and she won the Senate seat. In 2004, she was handily reelected by 67% of New Yorkers, winning in all counties, even Republican areas of New York. Her approval rating in New York has been consistently above 60%.

As a U.S. Senator, here are just some of Hillary's accomplishments:  Serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee, The Committee on Environment and Public Works, Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Special committee on Aging, Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. Following 9/11 she worked with Charles Schumer to obtain $21.4 billion in funding for the WTC site. She took a leading role to investigate health issues of the 9/11 workers who became sick; she worked with Senator's Leiberman and Bayh to pass the Family Entertainment Protection Act (to protect Children from inappropriate video games); she initialized the sCHPS program to get all children covered by national health care; she sponsored legislation to fight AIDS/HIV at home and abroad; she sponsored legislation called Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act - a safety program addressing prescription drugs for children; she sponsored legislation making Adoption easier for children in Foster Care.

As the New York Times states in their endorsement of Hillary Clinton for President: 

"While Clinton and Obama hold similar views on most major issues, Clinton's policy proposals are more complex and nuanced, the Times argued, asserting that Clinton had already "won the respect of world leaders and many in the American military" during her years in the Senate.

"She would be a strong commander in chief," the Times claimed.

The paper conceded Obama's appeal but called him "still undefined."

"We need more specifics to go with his amorphous promise of a new governing majority, a clearer sense of how he would govern," it said.

"The potential upside of a great Obama presidency is enticing, but this country faces huge problems, and will no doubt be facing more that we can't foresee.

"The next president needs to start immediately on challenges that will require concrete solutions, resolve, and the ability to make government work. Mrs. Clinton is more qualified, right now, to be president."

Hillary has some of the most incredible endorsements, not just newspapers and politicians but also solid and well respected leaders.  One of those leaders is Dr. Maya Angelou, the African American poet, educator, and best selling author. She remarked recently on her commitment to Hillary Clinton's Presidential bid:

"I made up my mind 15 years ago that if she ever ran for office I'd be on her wagon. My only difficulty with Senator Obama is that I believe in going out with who I went in with."

I'll end with a poem that Maya Angelou wrote for Hillary Clinton:

State Package for Hillary Clinton
You may write me down in history

With your bitter, twisted lies,

You may tread me in the very dirt

But still, like dust, I'll rise.

This is not the first time you have seen Hillary Clinton seemingly at her wits' end, but she has always risen, always risen, don't forget she has always risen, much to the dismay of her adversaries and the delight of her friends.

Hillary Clinton will not give up on you and all she asks of you is that you do not give up on her.

There is a world of difference between being a woman and being an old female. If you're born a girl, grow up, and live long enough, you can become an old female. But to become a woman is a serious matter. A woman takes responsibility for the time she takes up and the space she occupies. Hillary Clinton is a woman. She has been there and done that and has still risen. She is in this race for the long haul. She intends to make a difference in our country. Hillary Clinton intends to help our country to be what it can become.

She declares she wants to see more smiles in the family, more courtesies between men and women, more honesty in the marketplace. She is the prayer of every woman and man who longs for fair play, healthy families, good schools, and a balanced economy.

She means to rise.

Don't give up on Hillary. In fact, if you help her to rise, you will rise with her and help her make this country the wonderful, wonderful place where every man and every woman can live freely without sanctimonious piety and without crippling fear.

Rise, Hillary.

Rise.

On February 5th, VOTE FOR HILLARY CLINTON for President  - Help Hillary Rise and become The People's President.