10 fascinating facts about Hillary Clinton
Here are 10 facts about Hillary Clinton, from her childhood ambitions to her brief time as a Republican. Clinton will receive the National Constitution Center’s Liberty Medal this September.
1. Yes, young Hillary Rodham was a Republican.
Hillary was a Republican as a teen, until the events of 1968 led her to switch parties as a college student at Wellesley College.
2. Being in politics wasn’t one of her career goals. Young Hillary has told audiences that her early career goals were becoming a baseball player, a journalist, and an astronaut. She wrote NASA about being an astronaut in the 1960s and was told the program didn’t accept women.
3. Which baseball team does Clinton follow? An important question for any Chicagoan, Clinton is believed to be mostly a Cubs fan. She caused a stir a few years back by appearing in public sporting a New York Yankees cap. Turns out she grew up rooting for both teams and dreamed of Cubs-Yankees World Series someday. But she made her feelings clear in a 1994 appearance, where she said, “”Being a Cubs fan prepares you for life, and for Washington.”
4. Clinton worked in a cannery sliming salmon. In the summer of 1969, Hillary worked her away across Alaska. Not only did she wash dishes at Mount McKinley, she had a brief stint working at a cannery in Valdez, where she gutted and took the slime off salmon.
5. Bill and Hillary were teachers at the same school. Hillary and Bill Clinton were faculty members of the University Of Arkansas Law School in Fayetteville until Bill ran for election and became Arkansas’ attorney general in 1976.
6. She was an active First Lady the first time. Clinton served as Arkansas’ First Lady for 12 years, where she served on various committees and groups about children and education. She was named as one of America’s top 100 lawyers in 1991.
7. She was an active First Lady the second time, too. When Bill Clinton became president, Hillary Clinton pioneered a new role as a very active FLOTUS. In addition to leading an effort about health care reform, she was highly visible in public.
8. Hillary the Senator. She transitioned from the White House to the Capitol by winning her first election—a bid for the U.S. Senate seat from New York. She won a tough campaign in 2000 and easily won re-election in 2006. She was the first First Lady to win elected office.
9. She is the most successful women presidential candidate (so far). Clinton came close to defeating White Sox fan Barack Obama for the 2008 presidential nomination for the Democratic Party. She received more than 17 million votes during the nomination process and trailed Obama by 103 delegates as the end of it.
10. She’s the most traveled Secretary of State ever. Last year, Clinton surpassed Madeleine Albright’s record of countries visited; Clinton wound up seeing 112 countries in four years. She traveled almost 1 million miles and spent more about 25 percent of her time on the road (and in the air). Clinton said her first goal after leaving the State Department was to sleep in.
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