From First Lady to President?

Abstract

On February 12, 1999, the president of the United States was delivered an acquittal in his impeachment trial before the U.S. Senate. For only the second time in the history of the Republic, a president had been impeached with the possibility of being forcibly removed from office. For the preceding thirteen months, Bill Clinton had performed masterful political gymnastics to remain in office. He had survived lying to a federal judge and to the American public. He survived the indignity of appearing before the nation on TV and admitting that he had an affair in the White House with a young intern. He had survived an impeachment from the House of Representatives and a trial in the U.S. Senate. To celebrate his victory in the U.S. Senate, his closest political partner, his wife Hillary, did not hold a reception. Instead, on the very day their personal and political nightmare was over, she began planning her own political future. Even before the Senate had officially voted, she was meeting with her political adviser Harold Ickes about running for the U.S. Senate from New York in the 2000 election.² This odd juxtaposition was the culmination of a long road for Hillary Rodham Clinton. After more than twenty-five years together, she would no longer put her political desires second to his.

“It’s her turn now.”¹

—Democratic Convention delegate in 2000 commenting on Hillary Clinton.