Hillary Clinton To End Presidential Campaign Saturday
by Al Jazeera
Hillary Clinton’s decision to suspend her presidential campaign marks the end of a long, at times bitter, battle with her Democratic rivals, most notably Barack Obama.
The New York senator and former first lady had been her party’s early leading contender to clinch the presidential nomination.
She made US history by becoming the first woman to win a US presidential primary.
However, her campaign was marked by errors, including some comments that were swiftly pounced on by rivals, and the nomination, ultimately, slipped from her grasp.
From the outset of Clinton’s announcement in January last year that she was to enter the US presidential race, she faced a battle with many US voters’ perceptions of her and with perspective rivals.
Many argued that US voters would forever associate her with the scandals of her husband’s tenure in the White House.
But while detractors argued she used her husband’s name to gain political credibility, her supporters charged the hostility stemmed from sexism and emphasised her political experience, both in the US and on the international stage.
Political beginnings
Born Hillary Rodham in the Midwestern US state of Illinois in 1947 to a politically conservative family, Clinton was an excellent student and active in politics from an early age.
Initially a Republican who campaigned for presidential candidate Barry Goldwater and president of the Young Republicans group at Wellesley College, where she majored in political science, Clinton later switched to the Democratic party.
She trained as a lawyer at Yale University, working for child advocacy groups, supporting women’s rights and campaigning on behalf of several Democratic politicians, including Walter Mondale, the former Democratic presidential candidate.
It was at Yale that she met fellow law student Bill Clinton, whom she later married in 1975 in his home state of Arkansas.
She became first lady of the southern state following her husband’s successful bid for the state governorship in 1978, holding the position for more than 10 years. Her only child, daughter Chelsea, was born in 1980.
Following her husband’s leap to national politics and entry to the White House in 1992, Clinton was appointed by her husband as head of a task force aimed at an ambitious overhaul of America’s beleaguered healthcare system.
However, the task force’s recommendations were ultimately rejected by the US congress after Republicans and health professionals criticised the proposals.
In addition to the sting of public failure following the healthcare plan collapse, Clinton also faced a constant struggle against the traditionally perceived role of the first lady, once commenting acerbically that she did not just want to stay at home and “bake cookies” while her husband ran the country.
From scandal to senator
Successive scandals during her husband’s two terms in office, culminating in his unsuccessful impeachment for a liaison with intern Monica Lewinsky, also took their toll on her public image.
Clinton weathered the so-called Whitewater property scandal, but her husband’s liaison with Lewinsky proved harder to ignore.
Clinton later admitted in her autobiography, Living History, that the revelations of her husband’s infidelity wounded her deeply.
In 2000, after the Clintons left the White House, she successfully ran for the US senate for New York state, despite criticism that she had never previously resided in the state.
Foreign affairs
Clinton’s move to the centre of the Democratic party was seen by political analysts as a calculated move to appeal to as broad a base of voters as possible.
However, once on the campaign trail, several of her previous political decisions would come back to haunt her, most specifically, her decision in 2003 to vote in favour of the Iraq war, a vote she later distanced herself from but that proved highly damaging to her campaign.
Clinton was also heavily criticised for hawkish comments on Iran in which she said that, if made president, she would “totally obliterate” Iran should it ever attack Israel, a comment that Obama said smacked of “sabre rattling” and which many commentators said seemed closer to a Republican stance.
And there were further gaffes on the campaign trail - claims of coming under sniper fire in Bosnia which were swiftly disproved, leading to an embarrassing climbdown.
Ultimately, Obama, largely seen as untainted by any scandal or any vote for the Iraq war, garnered a momentum that Clinton simply could not overcome.
While some point to sexism, alleging the US remains unwilling to elect a woman to the highest office, others point to Democratic voters simply unwilling to hand the nomination to a Clinton and creating a political dynasty in one of the world’s largest democracies.
Either way, Clinton now faces a choice - whether to pitch in and aid the Obama campaign as it prepares to take on McCain, to concentrate on her senatorial career, or to look to other avenues.
Whichever route she chooses, it is extremely unlikely that the world has heard the last from Hillary Clinton.
Tags: Hillary Clinton