Meet the Candidate: Hillary Rodham Clinton

The New York Family Policy Council's mission statement demands that we educate the public about the issues that impact the family. The coming elections will impact the family to a great extent, therefore, we will be bringing you information on the candidates from each party which is found on the candidates own website and on wikipedia.org.

The New York Family Policy neither supports nor opposes any political party or candidate running for office. The information contained in this blog is solely for the purpose of educating the reader about the candidate's political history, personal history and positions on the issues.

The following is the Clinton Agenda as published on Hillary's website: www.hillaryclinton.com/

"Strengthening the Middle Class
America's middle class is under siege and ready for change. People are working harder and longer for less and less. For six long years, America's middle class and working families have been invisible to our president. When Hillary is in the White House, no American will be invisible to the president of the United States.

Providing Affordable and Accessible Health Care
Nearly 47 million Americans -- including 9 million children -- don't have health insurance. America is ready for universal health care. Hillary has the vision and the experience to make it a reality. This is a battle Hillary has fought before -- and she has the scars to prove it. She knows better than anyone how to fight and build the political support to get the job done.

Ending the War in Iraq
America is ready for a leader who will end the war in Iraq. Hillary's roadmap out of Iraq, the Iraq Troop Protection and Reduction Act of 2007, is a plan to end the war before the next president takes the oath of office. But if the Bush administration won't end the war, as president and commander in chief, Hillary will.

Promoting Energy Independence and Fighting Global Warming
The choices we make about energy touch nearly every aspect of our lives. Our economy, our national security, our health, and the future of our planet are all at stake as we make a choice between energy independence and dependence on foreign sources of oil. Hillary has proposed an Apollo Project-like program dedicated to achieving energy independence.

Fulfilling Our Promises to Veterans
Hillary will ensure that all those who sacrifice on behalf of our country receive the help and care they need. They not only deserve our country's gratitude and support; they deserve the gold standard in health care and benefits when they return home. That is our most solemn obligation to those who have put their lives on the line for our country.

Supporting Parents and Caring for Children
America is ready for a president who fights for our children. From her first job out of law school at the Children's Defense Fund to her time as First Lady of Arkansas and of the United States to her service in the Senate, helping children has been at the center of Hillary's public life.

Restoring America's Standing in the World
The next president's most urgent task will be to restore America's standing in the world to promote our interests, ensure our security, and advance our values. America is stronger when we lead the world through alliances. As president, Hillary will lead by the words of the Declaration of Independence, which pledged "a decent respect to the opinions of mankind."

A Champion for Women
Hillary's historic statement in 1995 that "women's rights are human rights" still echoes worldwide. As a lawyer, advocate, First Lady, and senator, Hillary has fought for issues important to women here at home and around the world for decades. Hillary will continue her lifelong fight to ensure that all Americans are treated with respect and dignity.

Comprehensive Government Reform
Americans are ready for a government that puts competency ahead of cronyism. For the past six years, we've had an administration that has contempt for government. And because they view it with contempt, they treat it with contempt. We need a return to transparency and a system of checks and balances, and a 21st century government to meet our 21st century challenges.

Strengthening Our Democracy
Fair and honest elections are the bedrock of a successful democracy. Yet we have seen abuses in national elections since 2000 that have undermined our democracy and Americans' faith in our electoral system. Hillary is a leading champion of election reform. She has introduced the Count Every Vote Act to avoid repeating the problems of the past and ensure the integrity of our elections."


The following was found on www.wikipedia.org

"Political positions
Main article: Political positions of Hillary Rodham Clinton
In terms of public perception of her views, in a Gallup poll conducted during May 2005, 54% of respondents considered Senator Clinton a liberal, 30% considered her a moderate, and 9% considered her a conservative.[246]
Several organizations have attempted to scientifically measure her place in the political spectrum: National Journal's 2004 study of roll-call votes assigned Clinton a rating of 30 in the political spectrum, relative to the then-current Senate, with a rating of 1 being most liberal and 100 being most conservative.[247]
A 2004 analysis by three political scientists found her to be likely the sixth-to-eighth-most liberal Senator.[248]
The 2006 Almanac of American Politics rated her, with most liberal = 100, most conservative = 0, according to a three-dimensional spectrum: Economic = 63, Social = 82, Foreign = 58. Average = 68.[249]
Various interest groups have given Senator Clinton scores or grades as to how well her votes align with the positions of the group:
Through 2006, she has a lifetime 96% "Liberal Quotient" from Americans for Democratic Action.[250]
ProgressivePunch gives her a 91.4% lifetime progressive rating, ranking her the 28th most progressive of current senators.[251]
Through 2006, she has a lifetime 9% rating from the American Conservative Union.[252]
She received an 'A' (excellent) on the Drum Major Institute's 2005 Congressional Scorecard on middle-class issues.[253]
The American Civil Liberties Union has given her a 75% lifetime rating through September 2007.[254]
NARAL Pro-Choice America consistently gave her a 100% pro-choice rating from 2002 to 2006.[255]
The National Rifle Association gave her an 'F' (failing) rating in 2006 for her stance on Second Amendment issues.[256]

Writings and recordings
Front cover of It Takes a Village
As First Lady of the United States, Clinton published a weekly syndicated newspaper column entitled "Talking It Over" from 1995 to 2000, distributed by Creators Syndicate.[257] It focused on her experiences and those of women, children and families she encountered during her travels around the world.[10]
In 1996, Clinton presented a vision for the children of America in the book It Takes a Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us. The book was a New York Times Best Seller,[258] and Clinton received the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album in 1997 for the book's audio recording.[258] The title refers to an African proverb that states "It takes a village to raise a child".
Clinton's autobiography Living History
Other books released by Clinton when she was First Lady include Dear Socks, Dear Buddy: Kids' Letters to the First Pets (1998) and An Invitation to the White House: At Home with History (2000).
In 2001, she wrote the foreword to the children's book Beatrice's Goat.
In 2003, Clinton released a 562-page autobiography, Living History. In anticipation of high sales, publisher Simon & Schuster paid Clinton a record advance of $8 million. The book sold more than one million copies in the first month following publication[259] and was translated into twelve foreign languages.[260]
Clinton's audio recording of the book earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best Spoken Word Album.

Cultural and political image
Observers have consistently characterized Hillary Clinton as a polarizing figure in American politics. By 1992, during her husband's presidential campaign, a reporter asked her, "Some people think of you as an inspiring female attorney mother, and other people think of you as the overbearing yuppie wife from hell. How would you describe yourself?"[261] Political operatives said she could be easily seen as either a positive role model or a nagging "hall monitor" type.[261] The polarized response to Clinton ran along both political and cultural lines. In 1995, after the failure of her health care reform initiative, New York Times reporter Todd Purdum labelled Hillary Clinton "a complex and polarizing figure in public opinion," and "the First Lady as Rorschach test;"[262] the latter assessment was echoed by feminist writer and activist Betty Friedan.[263]
In part, this led from her background and her new role. Colorado State University communication studies professor Karrin Vasby Anderson describes the First Lady position as a "site" for American womanhood, one ready made for the symbolic negotiation of female identity.[264] In particular there has been a cultural bias towards traditional first ladies and a cultural prohibition against modern first ladies; by the time of Clinton, the First Lady position had become a site of heterogeneity and paradox.[264] Nowhere was this paradox more evident than when Clinton achieved her highest approval ratings as First Lady late in 1998, not for any professional or political achievement of her own but for being seen as the victim of her husband's very public infidelity.[166] University of Pennsylvania communications professor Kathleen Hall Jamieson saw Hillary Clinton as an exemplar of the double bind, who though able to live in a "both-and" world of both career and family, nevertheless "became a surrogate on whom we projected our attitudes about attributes once thought incompatible," leading to her being placed in a variety of no-win situations.[263] The world of political cartoons also played in the symbolic negotiation: University of Indianapolis English professor Charlotte Templin found cartoonists using a variety of stereotypes such as gender reversal, radical feminist as emasculator, and the wife the husband wants to get rid of, to portray Hillary Clinton as violating gender norms.[265]
Over fifty books and scholarly works have been written about Hillary Clinton, from many different angles. There has been a cottage industry in attack books against her, put out by Regnery Publishing and its brethren, with lurid subtitles such as Madame Hillary: The Dark Road to the White House, Hillary's Scheme: Inside the Next Clinton's Ruthless Agenda to Take the White House, and Can She Be Stopped? : Hillary Clinton Will Be the Next President of the United States Unless ....[266] When she ran for Senate in 2000, a number of fundraising groups with dire-sounding names such as Save Our Senate and the Emergency Committee to Stop Hillary Rodham Clinton sprang up.[267] She was a reliable bogeyman of Republican and conservative fundraising letters, on a par with Ted Kennedy and the equivalent of Democratic beggings to fear about Newt Gingrich.[268]
By the 2000s she had escaped the First Lady role for the Senate, but her polarizing status largely remained. In 2006, before her presidential campaign began in earnest, Time magazine's Ana Marie Cox said "she may be the most polarizing figure on the current political landscape,"[269] NPR's Daniel Schorr said that, in light of her qualities as a public figure and candidate, her polarizing force made her the "great political paradox of our time,"[270] and historian Gil Troy titled his biography of her Hillary Rodham Clinton: Polarizing First Lady.[271] A Time magazine cover that year showed a large picture of her, with two checkboxes labeled "Love Her", "Hate Her",[272] while Mother Jones titled its Jack Hitt-written profile of her "Harpy, Hero, Heretic: Hillary".[273] A typical public opinion poll reporting Hillary Clinton's favorability versus unfavorability showed large percentages in both camps, few undecided, and none who did not know who she is.[274] By the time of her presidential campaign for 2008, however, there were a few signs that her polarizing quality be abating. Democratic netroots activists consistently rated Clinton very low in polls of their desired candidates,[275] while some conservative figures such as Bruce Bartlett and Christopher Ruddy were declaring a Hillary Clinton presidency not so bad after all[276][277] and an October 2007 cover of The American Conservative magazine was titled "The Waning Power of Hillary Hate".[278]

Awards and honors
Main article: Hillary Rodham Clinton awards and honors
Clinton has received over a dozen awards and honors during her career, from both American and international organizations, for her activities concerning health, women, and children.

Electoral history
New York United States Senate election, 2000

Party Candidate Votes
Democratic Hillary Rodham Clinton 3,747,310
Republican Rick Lazio 2,915,730"

The above information was obtained from http://www.wikipedia.org/. To access footnotes, go to wikipedia.