Why Is it Hillary Clinton's Turn?
By Barbara J. Stock
January 29, 2007
Page 2 of 4
The staff at the Arkansas governor's mansion often took the brunt of Hillary's anger as did the Arkansas State police assigned to protect the governor, Bill Clinton. When Hillary would wake up to find her husband gone, she would set out to find him and word would quickly go out for the wandering Bill to get home to face the wrath of Hillary. Their fights became so legendary, that they would later be parodied on "Saturday Night Live" in skits portraying a battered Bill promising never to do it again and police warning Hillary that they just couldn't allow her to pound on the governor like that.
But through it all, Hillary stayed with Bill Clinton. Why? No doubt, Hillary gave up her bright future because of love. An attractive, popular young man swept her off her feet promising her that he had a bright future. He was a man going somewhere and wanted her to come along with him. The plain-Jane girl with the big glasses and dirty blonde hair was probably in awe of the charismatic Bill Clinton who had such big dreams.
Bill Clinton's mother was not terribly impressed with Hillary. She asked her son why he didn't find a more attractive woman to marry. He told her when it came to his wife, looks didn't matter - but brains did. Where he planned to go, he needed a smart wife; the looks could be worked on. It seems that Bill wasn't looking for a wife as much as he was looking for a political partner and, in the end, that's what he got.
When Bill Clinton's presidency was threatened by yet another foray into adultery, Bill needed Hillary to stand strong, in public anyway, with him. Hillary blamed the evil "right wing conspiracy" for all the lies about her husband. Everyone probably remembers Hillary's well-rehearsed shock when the truth could no longer be denied nor blamed on Newt Gingrich or Rush Limbaugh. In light of Bill's history and Hillary's knowledge and acceptance of his behavior, one would have to be pretty naïve to believe that she didn't know about Bill's affair with intern Monica Lewinski. However, by this time, Hillary didn't care much about Bill's reputation, but she did care about her own and she cared about their legacy.
It was often rumored that as a reward for the "60 Minutes" academy-award-winning performance, Hillary was given the job of reforming America's ailing health care system. It was a disaster. Hillary's plan was pure socialized medicine. Americans were not the least bit interested, and Hillary's leadership qualities certainly did not come to the fore. Hillary made it clear she wanted no real input from the health care industry and people began to realize their choices would be very limited. Doctors learned that if they dared practice medicine outside Hillary's plan they could be jailed. It was so bad that even Democrats abandoned her to distance themselves from her plan. It was quietly and unceremoniously shelved, never again to see the light of day. Some blamed the unexpected and stunning Democratic loss of the House and Senate in 1994 on the abomination dubbed, "Hillarycare." If this was what a co-presidency looked like, Americans made it well known that they wanted no part of it.
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