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| Yes | 25% | 67 votes | Total: 270 votes | |
| No | 75% | 203 votes |
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Hillary Clinton graduated from Yale Law School, then began working in Congress back in 1973 as a Congressional Legal Counsel. (In January of 2008, Hillary reminded audiences in New Hampshire that "I am offering 35 years of experience...") Within six years she'd become the first female partner at the Rose Law Firm, and ten years later was named one of the 100 most influential lawyers in America.
But besides her experience with lawmakers and lawyers, she also has experience sitting on the board of directors of major corporations, including Wal-Mart (which has the single-largest revenue for any corporation on the planet).
Her resume is only part of the story. What it really reveals is a deep ambition - starting from the age of 18, when she set her sights on graduating from one of America's top-ranked colleges, Wellesley. There, Hillary immediately began running for President - of the campus's Young Republicans organization! She soon formed sympathy for the Democrats, moved by powerful 1960s events like the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, and the death of Martin Luther King, and she was later elected president of the college's Government Association. She wrote her senior thesis about a famous radical organizer, and delivered the commencement address which the AP later reported received a 7-minute standing ovation.
It was over 40 years ago that she became actively involved in campaigning for Senator Eugene McCarthy, organized a two-day student strike, and even attended the Presidential nominating convention in Miami. In 1968 Hillary, attended the Republican convention which nominated Richard Nixon, but then made her final switch to the Democratic party.
All these things were done before Hillary had even heard of the man named Bill she would eventually marry. While she's used her First Lady role to win the Presidency, her history suggests she would've sought the Presidency anyways. (A full 16 years ago, Bill Clinton bragged at his nominating convention that his election would get voters "two for the price of one," since his wife would be bringing her expertise to the office, too.)
Hillary's Presidential ambitions go back to the 1960s, and she's spent her lifetime building up to it. If her husband hadn't also been elected, would Hillary still be running for President today?
Yes.
Learn more about this author, Moe Zilla.
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No
Chance is the only reason that most Americans even recognize the name of Hillary Clinton, the same chance that propelled her husband, Bill, into the national spotlight.
If memory serves, Bill Clinton was scraping to be taken seriously among the many candidates for the Democrat nomination as the Presidential elections began in the early 1990s. He was relatively unknown, and even then, surrounded by scandal. Two things happened to bring Mr. Clinton and, by extension, Mrs. Clinton out of obscurity: The first was the overwhelming popularity of President Bush after the first Gulf War; this served to scare off the front-runners in the Democrat party. The second event was the commander-in-chief's sudden drop in those same polls when the economy begin to falter. Mr. Clinton was able to capitalize on this situation by some great political maneuvering to win the White House. Considering these unlikely events, I find it hard to believe that Hillary Clinton could have raised herself our of the Arkansas shadows any other way.
The fact that Hillary Clinton was in the right place at the right time to enable her to stand beside her husband at the top of the heap, also provides her with her main job credentials. Somehow, candidate Clinton has parlayed her time as First Lady into "experience" which, she claims, qualifies her to be President. As absurd as that is on its face, it seems to be selling with the American people. The point is, however, without Mr. Clinton, she wouldn't have her main gravitas.
To play devil's advocate for a moment: suppose that Mrs. Clinton could have lifted herself up by her own Prada shoe-straps. Let's give her sole credit for becoming a senator in the most powerful state in the Union. How many senators have been elected President in our two hundred plus year history? Answer: 0. So without her connections to the Oval Office through her husband, Mrs. Clinton would probably not even be in the race, let alone leading the pack.
Is it possible that a famously sour-looking, staunch feminist could have, on her own, propelled herself to national fame enough to have a shot at the nation's highest office? Not a chance.
Learn more about this author, Dell.
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