Jeff Gerth - Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton

Copyright 2007 by Back Nine Books LLC

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Little, Brown and Company

Hachette Book Group

237 Park Avenue

New York, NY 10017

Visit our website at www.HachetteBookGroup.com.

www.twitter.com/littlebrown

The Little, Brown and Company name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

First eBook Edition: June 2007

ISBN: 978-0-316-00784-9

Also by Don Van Natta Jr.

First Off the Tee: Presidential Hackers,
Duffers, and Cheaters from Taft to Bush

For Janice and Jessica, the two Js and so much more

J.G.

For my mother, with love

D.V.N.

We embarked on Her Way with the ambitious goal of writing a comprehensive and compelling portrait of Hillary Rodham Clinton, one of Americas most famous and yet enigmatic public figures.

This is an unauthorized biography. Before we began, we contacted Senator Clintons representatives to request her cooperation and the cooperation of her aides and most-loyal supporters. We then met with Senator Clintons communications director, who told us that any cooperation from the senator and members of her office was unlikely. We were later told that Senator Clinton declined to be interviewed by us. Many of her friends, former aides, associates, and even fellow senators also declined to speak with us. Some, including at least one leading Democratic senator, refused our interview request after a member of Senator Clintons office advised them not to cooperate with our project.

Despite these roadblocks, we conducted more than five hundred interviews, including some with the senators closest friends, aides, former aides, and confidants. And we examined thousands of pages of previously undisclosed documents, some of which were unearthed from government archives through the Freedom of Information Act and from the Library of Congress.

Senator Clintons voice is not missing from these pages. We examined more than a thousand of her speeches, public statements, and interviews given over the course of thirty-eight years. We quote a number of her recollections and observations from her autobiography, Living History, which was published in 2003. And we attended some of her Senate press conferences and campaign events.

Most of the information in this book is derived from named sources cited in the endnotes. However, dozens of people who spoke with us agreed to do so only if we promised not to quote them by name. Many of these people said they feared retribution from Senator Clinton or her staff if they were quoted by name in this book.

In Living History, Senator Clinton acknowledged, Im sure there are many othereven competingviews of the events and people I describe. Thats someone elses story to describe.

What follows in these pages is certainly not the final word on Hillary Rodham Clinton. But we hope you will agree that our story is a fair and rigorously reported portrait of Senator Clintons fascinating life and historic career.

Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta Jr.

May 2007

In to Win

Rules for traveling with a candidate: Always be on time. Do as little talking as humanly possible. Remember to lean back in the parade car so everybody can see the President.

Eleanor Roosevelt, in 1936

Well have a woman president by 2010.

Hillary Rodham Clinton, in 1991

WHEN WILL A WOMAN become president of the United States?

The tantalizing question was broadcast across America on a Tuesday evening in September 1934. To many, the idea of a female commander in chief was perhaps a bit preposterous, considering that women had won the right to vote only fourteen years earlier. But for a young lawyer and womens rights activist named Lillian D. Rock, the historic day when Americans would elect their first female president was not hard to imagine.

Mrs. Rock posed her question to Eleanor Roosevelt during the First Ladys weekly radio program, broadcast from Rockefeller Center in Manhattan. On each show, Mrs. Roosevelt delivered a few comments about the news of the day before answering listeners questions. Most of these inquiries were routine and even humdrum, but Lillian Rocks questionbeamed across America on the NBC radio networkseemed to surprise the First Lady, who asked for a moment to think before replying. While the Beautyrest Orchestra (the show was sponsored by the Simmons mattress company) played Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, Mrs. Roosevelt sat behind a silver microphone and puzzled over the best way to respond.

When the music ended, the programs host said, Mrs. Roosevelt promised she would give her opinion of the question brought up by Lillian D. RockWhen will a woman become president of the United States?... Mrs. Roosevelt!

I do not think that it would be impossible to find a woman who could be president, but I hope it doesnt happen in the near future, said Mrs. Roosevelt, speaking, as she always did, methodically, carefully choosing every word.

There are exceptional women just as there are exceptional men, and it takes an exceptional man to be a successful and useful president. Though women are doing more and more and are proving each year that they are capable of assuming responsibilities which were considered to be out of their province in the past, I do not think that we have yet reached the point where the majority of people would feel satisfied to follow the leadership and trust the judgment of a woman as president. And no woman could therefore succeed as president any more than could any man who did not have the trust and confidence of the majority of the nation, for this is a democracy and governed by majority rule.

People say no woman could stand the physical strain, but that I think is nonsense.... No man works harder in the fields than the farmers wife in her home and on the farm. Women have carried the same jobs in factories, even in mines up to a few years ago. And besides their industrial jobs, they have almost always carried on the work of the homesometimes badly, to be surebut still that work has always been before them when the other work was done....

Women have not as yet had, however, as many years of background in public life; or as many years of experience in learning how to give and take in the world of affairs, and I personally would be sorry to see any woman take any position of responsibility which she was not well equipped to undertake and where she could not command the following, which she would need for success. Some day, a woman may be president, but I hope it will not be while we still speak of a womans vote. I hope it will only become a reality when she is elected as an individual because of her capacity and the trust which the majority of the people have in her integrity and ability as a person....

The future lies before us, however, and women have a big contribution to make. So let us hope that when a woman does assume any important office, it will be because the services she can render are apparent to all.

The audience applauded, and Mrs. Roosevelt smiled.

IM IN, AND IM IN TO WIN.

With that supremely confident pronouncement, Hillary Rodham Clinton took the first bold step toward becoming Americas first female president. Her declaration came in an e-mail message that landed in millions of Americans in-boxes at 10:00 a.m. sharp on Saturday, January 20, 2007.