Hillary: Making the Grade

At the end of the Bush Administration, the country and the world has found itself worse off than when Bush began his tenor in office. It will have been eight whole years of weak and limited foreign diplomacy; eight years of bad economic policy; eight years of lying about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; eight years of deteriating schools and lost after school programs; and eight years of incompetence. 2009 will be the first year where all that ends and things are put back on track. Hillary Clinton is the one that can set us on the path forward.

Much has been made of the fact that many voters, despite her eight years in the White House as First Lady, do not know much about Hillary Clinton's personal history. In her book, 'Living History', she answers that question. Sen. Clinton was raised in a conservative middle class family in Illinois in an era where women were just beginning to break way into colleges and universities, and the business world of executive power.

Growing up in the 50's, a deep sense of ones own responsibility was ingrained into her psyche. She strived to make the grade in grade school, no matter how much effort was required, just as she strives to make the grade as one of New York's most successful senators.

Hillary grew up believing in the power of active citizenry as she roamed the city alone knocking door to door trying to get people to register to vote. Her drive as a Goldwater Girl has remained, and has strengthened over years of hard fought battle.

Hillary Clinton's career in the nonprofit sector and public service began early in her college years; first she counseled women for Planned Parenthood, then later in law school she worked with the Children's Defense Fund. This work led her to her first experience in forming legislation when she worked to ensure persons with disabilities were able to go to school and get their education.

Her work as assistant during the Watergate Hearings taught her the power of the system to both work the way it's meant to, and to fail when elected officials fail the public. These lessons of both the power of the people and of the government has remained with her.

These early years hold important lessons that any potential president could ever ask for, and Hillary is the only one of either party who has learned them. These lessons prepared her for her life as one of the countries most revered attorneys, as Arkansas First Lady, as the First Lady of the United States, and then as Senator for New York. These early lessons and those since have prepared her with the strength and know-how to run a split government, and a troubled world. If she is indeed elected president of these United States, Hillary Rodham Clinton will no doubt leave the world better off than how she found it. She can make the grade.