The Top 10 Moments In the Career of Hillary Clinton

Posted by Brian Fairbanks

 

Not that we're saying it's over for her politically or anything. We'd fully encourage her to run for Governor of New York if David Paterson decides not to in two years. How hot would that be? "Governor Clinton-- The Sequel!"

10. Kept her job as a lawyer in spite of sexist criticism of how she and her then-Governor husband ran their family. 

9. Played a key role in the end of Richard Nixon's Presidency as "a member of the impeachment inquiry staff, advising the House Committee on the Judiciary during" the Watergate hearings.

8. In 1968, at Wesleyan, Hillary "organized a two-day student strike and worked with Wellesley's black students to recruit more black students and faculty." It was a successful endeavor.

7. "Played a role in advocating for the establishment of the State Children's Health Insurance Program."

6. Not taking Bill Clinton's shit on Monica by letting him suffer after he embarrassed and humiliated her in front of the entire world. 

5. Securing, with Rep. Pete King and others, a huge monetary boost for New York City following the 9/11 attacks.

4. Beat an incredibly well-funded New York and national Republican political machine to become the first First Lady ever elected to national or any office. If she never did anything else, before or since, it would still put her on an historical par with her President husband.

3. By all accounts, she won a marathon vodka-drinking contest while on a Congressional tour of Estonia. Her opponent? Senator John McCain. 

2. Earning far more votes than any woman running for President ever dreamed of just a few short years ago. Shirley Chisholm is smiling down on her, for sure. 

And the greatest moment (so far) in Hillary Clinton's storied career...


 

1. Her Wellesley's class's commencement speech. The address, which received a seven minute standing ovation and was the first commencement speech in the college's history to be made by a student, was gutsy, eloquent and passionate. It woke the country up, in much the same way Woodstock and the moon landing would again one month later, making the front page of Life on June 20, 1969. Very few people who heard it at the time did not agree the 22-year-old was destined for great things...

UPDATE: Relax, people, they're called typos. And they're what you get when you are writing leaning out a second story window, stealing internet, thanks to Time Warner having decided you don't exist anymore. 

[Related: In Which We Salute Hillary Clinton...


Comments

profrobert said:

Wellesley.  She went to Wellesley, not Wesleyan.  Moreover, she was the *student* speaker at her Commencement, not the principal speaker; that was Sen. Edward Brooke (R-Mass.), the first African-American elected to the Senate since Reconstruction (Barack Obama is the third.)

And you want to proofread paragraph 6, too.

June 4, 2008 5:27 PM

Brian Fairbanks said:

Profrobert, love ya, man, but I did use the word student. Please read it again. Also, if you are questioning my use of the word commencement, see the Wikipedia entry for HRC: "Following pressure from some fellow students,[28] she became the first student in Wellesley College history to deliver their commencement address"

June 4, 2008 8:52 PM

biff said:

And after all the race baiting and bigotry deployed in service to her campaign, I doubt that Shirley Chisolm is smiling.

June 4, 2008 8:57 PM

greatgatsby1 said:

Dear Brian-

This is a nice little post.  And I've totally started to take a liking to your political blog entries.  What happened?  Who knows?  I know you get a lot of (sometimes-deserved) shit, so I wanted to say thanks for a rather classy list of things I didn't know about H.C.  You have a nice day.

June 4, 2008 9:13 PM

profrobert said:

From context, it seemed that you were saying that she was the first student to deliver the commencement address  rather than the first person to deliver a student address at commencement.  Sorry if I misunderstood.

June 5, 2008 12:00 AM

About Brian Fairbanks

Brian Fairbanks, the Senior National Political Correspondent for Nerve, is a filmmaker living in Brooklyn or New Orleans, depending on the season. He is a heavily-armed advocate of gun control.

in