Hillary Clinton: Renaissance Woman (5 page)
Clinton's personal life has been public property for decades. Her husband's marital indiscretions – both real and imagined – have frequently been the subject of intense media speculation, and Clinton's forbearance and steadfastness in light of some of these revelations have arguably contributed to her popularity, and have certainly highlighted some of her better qualities: Loyalty and levelheadedness, as well as contributing to her (well-founded) suspicion of the media. It's no wonder that the
Correct the Record
Super PAC – dedicated to 'correcting' the media when it criticises any Democratic presidential candidate – has already found so much reason to throw its support behind her.
Clinton has maintained her independence in her personal life just as strongly as she has in her political life – unsurprisingly given that the two are so intertwined! From her initial refusal of Bill's suggestion of marriage to her decision to keep her maiden name for so long, she has always been keen to be in nobody's shadow. It's worth mentioning here that, at the time of writing, Clinton's colossal Wikipedia page is flagged with a banner telling users and editors that 'The current title of this article is disputed', as it is titled 'Hillary
Rodham
Clinton'. Perhaps if Clinton does use both surnames in her official presidential name it will be seen as as big a decision as Barack Hussein Obama's decision to include his Islamic middle name in his.
Clinton is the mother of one child, Chelsea, born in 1980, and grandmother to Chelsea's daughter, Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky. Another example of Clinton's aversion to media intrusion was her and Bill's decision to send Chelsea to a private school in Washington DC during Bill's presidency, supposedly to help shelter her from the press intrusion that was inevitable for the only daughter of the President. Chelsea has since gone on to work with the Clinton Foundation.
Some have described the Clintons – usually critically – as one of America's 'political dynasties' along with the Roosevelts, Kennedys and Bushes. This criticism has intensified in light of the strong possibility that, with Jeb Bush having put his name forward for the Republican nomination, both the major parties will nominate a relative of a former, living President as their candidate.
There's some truth to this criticism, of course, in that Bill was President, Hillary was… Well, everything Hillary was, and Chelsea has campaigned for her mother and played a prominent role in the Clinton Foundation. However, there are some fairly obvious differences: Unlike the current crop of Bushes, Bill and Hillary Clinton were both self-made, while both George W. and Jeb owe some of their political prominence and success to their father. While Clinton initially came to prominence because of her husband's political career, her experience with politics stretched much further back: It's not difficult to imagine a prominent role for her in American politics even if she had never met Bill. In any case, it remains to be seen if the Clinton 'dynasty' will really stretch much beyond a single generation in terms of elected office.
There's also the fact that there's just very little point in criticising the individuals involved in these dynasties. They're a product of various trends in American society, not the cause of them. If you want to blame something for the phenomenon, then America's obsession with celebrity and stagnant social mobility surely make a better target than the families themselves. After all, if you're an intelligent, committed, politically-engaged person, you can hardly be expected to self-impose a cap on your ambition just because you happen to share a surname with a former president or Senator (or two).
Given her experience, fame and popularity, there seems little doubt that Clinton's run at the presidency will, this time, succeed; of course, there's a warning there, as it also seemed that way in 2008. However, with no serious candidate looking likely to oppose her in the Democratic nomination, it seems that this time, Hillary Clinton may have the opportunity to change the world she’s been fighting for.