Hillary Rodham Clinton was a dedicated and unapologetic liberal. She was an eminent member of the Democrats’ left wing. Several years of hard work had enabled her to reach this prominent position. Right from her college days Hillary had been a passionate proponent of each and every liberal cause. She is an ardent feminist; she dislikes wars and she is an antiwar activist. She gradually changed her philosophy and is no longer a liberal. This change was evident in her emergence as a Senator from New York. From that juncture she has divested herself of her erstwhile liberal attire and donned the garb of a moderate activist.
Soon after her becoming a junior senator, she came out of the shadow of her husband Bill Clinton. She has dealt with problems of national importance as a senator and she has collaborated with her fellow senators, including the Republican senators. In this manner, she has evolved into a mature leader and she has left her tough, arrogant nature and the liberal image behind her (Buchanan). For the first time in the history of the United States, a former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton was elected to the office of Senator.
Subsequently, she announced that she would contest in the 2008 elections for the post of the US President. Several political groups and people are backing her candidacy in the presidential elections. Several strategists like Mark Corallo have expressed the opinion that Hillary Clinton has very good chances to win the 2008 (Greene). On the 7th of November, 2000, Hillary Rodham Clinton was elected to the US Senate from the state of New York. She earned this position after having worked hard for children and families. Hillary is the only First Lady of the US to be elected to public office.
She is the first woman to have been elected independently from New York State. Being a staunch supporter of New York, Senator Hillary Clinton, joined hands with communities, in the entire state to improve its economy. Hillary Clinton favors financial responsibility to enhance the national economic policies which are necessary to strengthen the future of America (New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton). She is a member of several committees like Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. She serves on the Environment and Public Works Committee and the Special Committee on Aging.
Hillary Clinton is the first representative from New York to serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee (New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton). The attacks on the World Trade Center on the 11th of September, 2001 resulted in a huge loss. Senator Clinton along with her colleagues raised funds to rebuild New York City. She strived hard to provide aid to the families of the victims, grants to business that had been severely affected due to the attacks and health care to the personnel who worked at Ground Zero.
She campaigned incessantly to secure resources for developing New York, to intensify homeland security for New York and other communities and to prevent future terrorist attacks on the US. In order to provide sufficient resources for first responders and vulnerable communities she enacted legislation for direct and threat based homeland security funding (New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton). The Department of Defense in 2004 invited Senator Clinton to function as the only Senate member of the Transformation Advisory Group to the Joint Forces Command.
She went to Iraq and Afghanistan to visit the US troops. She also visited troops at Fort Drum in New York, which is the base of the 10th Mountain Division. She visited Walter Reed Military Hospital to understand the threats and challenges faced by the American combat forces. Subsequently, she enacted legislation, in order to provide better health benefits to members of the National Guard and Reserves (New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton). Hillary Rodham Clinton, though the possessor of exemplary moral values has to bear the cross of her husband’s peccadilloes.
However, no one seriously holds this against her and her calm and collected demeanor at the time of the Monica Lewinsky scandal speaks volumes for her iron will and control. In some quarters it has been alleged that she failed to protest against the Iraq war and improperly handled the health care reforms in the 1990s. Further, she is regarded as being too much of a liberal and being insufficiently motivated (Dionne Jr). Initially, Hillary Clinton had been a vehement supporter of the Iraq war. Later on she explained her stand on this war.
According to her she had been misled by the Bush administration’s lies regarding the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. At first the Bush administration had promised that they would ask the UN’s weapons instructors to conduct searches for weapons in Iraq. However, this exercise was not allowed to be completed, because it became apparent that Iraq did not possess any such weapons. Hillary further accused of the Bush administration of disseminating false information in order to continue with their hawkish policies.
This shows the moral fiber of Hillary, she readily accepted that she had been mistaken in supporting the war against Iraq (Hillary Clinton: Iraq War Vote a Mistake). Everyone commits mistakes, but few if any have the moral uprightness to admit that they had committed a blunder. Moreover, Hillary like the rest of the nation had been lied to by Bush and Co. A much annoyed Hillary made the proposal that Congress should revoke the authority bestowed upon Bush to attack and invade Iraq.
She was joined by other Democratic senators who were desirous of implementing a plan to bring to an end this authority. Her chief aim is to end the war and bring back the men and women of the US Army (Hulse and Healy). Barrack Obama is considered by many to emerge as the Democrat candidate for presidential elections. In order to win over Obama, Hillary will have to prove her ability in all respects and only this will set to rest the doubts that have swarmed around her. Obama’s 2008 candidacy resembles that of Bill Clinton in 1992.
Bill Clinton was in his forties at that time and he obtained the support of the youth, Obama will also be in his forties and this coincidence has to be downplayed by Hillary (Dionne Jr). Obama in his New Hampshire debut claimed that the people were consumed by negative advertising, bickering, and that the narrow minded politicians prevented them from moving forward. He also stressed that America was going to radically change history and that it was ready to face new challenges. The import of this speech was that Obama aimed at eradicating the effects of the Clinton and Bush eras (Dionne Jr).
However, Hillary has been ahead of Obama in the national polls. Hillary has rightly pointed out that she has a deep understanding of foreign policy and the manner in which Washington functions. To this Obama has replied that a vast and fundamental change is required in these areas. Such talk forces one to conclude that Obama is indulging in mere rhetoric. His speeches are mainly focused on criticizing Hillary. Such strategy indicates a pathetic lack of ideas and strategies to improve the lot of the US. Hillary is any day a far better choice for the post of US President than this rhetorical rabble rouser (Balz).
Another presidential aspirant is the New York Mayor, Rudy Giuliani. He indulges in harangues against Hillary in the name of campaigning. Some of the defects he finds with Hillary’s views are that she is extremely liberal, that her health plans are nothing but socialized medicine and so on and so forth. The truth of the matter is that he subscribes to extremely moderate views on issues like abortion, rights for gay couples and gun control laws. Even the average Republican has more forceful views on these issues. Like Obama his only hope of attracting attention is to criticize Hillary.
If such a person is to be considered a threat to Hillary, then such an opinion would be construed to be ludicrous. Of late he has commenced to appeal to the emotions of the electorate, as it would be futile for him to appeal to their intellect. His lack of originality, coherence and relevancy is awe inspiring (Cillizza). Fred Thompson has been on the wane in the political firmament. He was behind Giuliani and his setbacks can be attributed to insipid campaigning. As a contestant to Hillary he does not pose much of a challenge.
Hillary is way ahead of these tired old men (CNNPolitics. com Poll: As Thompson’s star fades, Clinton’s on the rise). The need of the hour for Hillary is to ensure that her past does not overwhelm her position. If Hillary puts her past behind her, then the Democrats would be at an advantage and Hillary would become the US president (Dionne Jr). As Senator, Hillary Clinton stressed the importance of the safety in prescribing drugs for children. As a result, the Pediatric Research Equity Act was enacted. She strived hard to implement the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
This program enhanced the scope for children in low income working families. She ensured that schools dealt with issues relating to environmental hazards (New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton). Hillary Clinton as Senator increased access to health care. She drafted legislation, which increased the recruitment and retention of nurses; ensured the quality and pricing of prescription drugs; and ensured that food would not be subjected to bioterrorism. Senator Clinton promoted statutes to improve the US’s international stand against AIDS.
The statute sponsored by her promotes the widespread use of information technology in the medical sector, which is cutting down administrative overheads and reducing medical errors (New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton). Senator Clinton was keen on securing constitutional rights. She respected the Supreme Court’s ruling in Roe v Wade case. She had supported Roe and her continuous efforts to reduce abortions by appealing to reduce unwanted pregnancies were acclaimed by scholars and the media (New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton).
Hillary Clinton is very much committed to ensuring that every American is provided the right to vote in fair, accessible and credible elections. Her unflagging efforts in this regard resulted in the enactment of the Count Every Vote Act of 2005. This statute provides a confirmed paper ballot in token of every vote cast in the electronic voting machines. It also implements a uniform standard for provisional ballots. The Federal Election Assistance Commission is required to set up standards that enable uniform access to voting machines and election staff in every community (New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton).
According to Senator Clinton, there are several chemical substances to which humans are subjected to; these chemicals include lead, mercury and other pollutants that cause adverse effect on the human health systems. However, there was little research in this regard. If the understanding of this link between chemical exposure and human health is increased, there is a distinct possibility that dangerous diseases, which are caused by environmental factors, could be averted. To address this problem, Senator Clinton established the Coordinated Environmental Public Health Network Act.
Under this statute, bio – monitoring will be further expanded so that it will be easier to identify chemical deposits in human bodies. The statute would establish networks in an effort to link the disease records with databases that contain pollution records (Environmental Health ). Talking on the subject of climatic conditions, Senator Clinton said that she is of the opinion that the United States has to initiate stringent measures that hinder the emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
Accumulation of these gases in the atmosphere contributes to global warming and results in severe climatic changes. In order to address this problem, she said that she would support the introduction of the Climate Stewardship Act of 2003, which had been sponsored by Senators Lieberman and McCain. This statute would bring about an increase of investment in and an expansion of renewable energy, carbon sequestration and the flexible market based emission reduction program (Climate Change). Hillary was brought up as a middle class child.
She grew up into an eminent advocate who fought for the rights of children and families. She is one of the most honored individual in the US. While she was the First Lady of the state of Arkansas, she played an active part in transforming schools. Moreover, she is a very good writer who has exercised the utmost care in respect of children’s health and the overall well-being of families. In addition, she had successfully fought for the rights of Women and as such she has been a staunch advocate of human rights. Hillary on being made the President is sure to improve the overall prosperity of the US.