Would Hillary Clinton be running for president today if she weren't married to former president Bill Clinton?

Yes

5 of 9

by Briana Murphy

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There is no doubt in my mind that Hillary Rodham Clinton would still be a presidential candidate today, even if the "Clinton" on the end of her name didn't exist.

Years before I was born, my parents lived in Little Rock, Arkansas. My dad's job required him to travel around the country quite a bit. Even before the 2008 election drama, one of his favorite airplane stories to tell was about his flight sitting next to Hillary Rodham. She was not yet the Hillary Rodham Clinton America knows today, but perhaps the only difference is the "Clinton" addition to the end of her name.

My dad, being quite a talkative fellow, struck up conversation with the woman sitting next to him on the flight home from Oklahoma City. They talked almost nonstop throughout the flight. She was coming home from a conference in either Denver or San Francisco. His first impressions marked her as very intelligent and well-spoken, and well-equipped to win any argument. If you told her the sky was blue, she would say it was gray. If you told her it was a nice day, she would say it would be better if it were five degrees cooler. And then comes his favorite part of the story. He walked off the plane and said to my mom, who was waiting for him at the Little Rock airport,

"I just met the woman that could make any man President."

This is a telling remark about Hillary as a person. On her own, without my dad having any knowledge of her personal ties to Bill Clinton, she struck a deep chord that my dad remembered long before Hillary Rodham Clinton was the public figure she is today.

What about that public figure? Sure, Bill Clinton's presidency allowed her to shine as First Lady. But as First Lady, she shone on her own. She was not a socialite First Lady, as some First Ladies have been. Rather, she was extremely involved in national and international politics and used her prowess as an already successful attorney to help the United States as much as she could. With all the drama that circulated during Bill Clinton's presidency, Hillary was never torn down by opposing forces. She showed incredible personal strength throughout all the questions, and was never overtaken by the media. Hillary never manipulated Bill's personal popularity to further her own. She was and is popular in her own right.

However, while Hillary could be called "popular," this is no fast-track election. Although personal details of life have nothing to do with politics, Hillary has had the most negative media attention of any Democratic candidate. No doubt much of this negativity comes from her past ties with Bill Clinton. She was fully aware that her candidacy would raise endless banters from everybody. It began with her opposition, the Republicans but the negative remarks have most recently and most noticeably filtered into the Obama bandwagon, coming from mouths such as the staunch liberal Keith Olbermann. But regardless of this eminent bantering, Hillary dove headfirst into the "all-boys club of presidential politics." She clearly made this dive as an individual. If you removed Bill from the equation, there would be no changes in her ambitions or her campaign.

In the past year, my dad has admitted the need to edit the closing sentence of his story. His prediction was close, but he would have been right on the money if he had said,

"I just met the woman who could someday be President."

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