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Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton (born October 26,
1947) is the junior United States Senator from New York, and a
leading candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2008
presidential election. She is married to Bill Clinton—the 42nd
President of the United States—and was the First Lady of the
United States from 1993 to 2001.
A native of Illinois, Hillary Rodham attracted national
attention in 1969 when she delivered an address as the first
student to speak at commencement exercises for Wellesley
College. She began her career as a lawyer after graduating from
Yale Law School in 1973, moving to Arkansas and marrying Bill
Clinton in 1975, following her career as a Congressional legal
counsel; she was named the first female partner at Rose Law Firm
in 1979 and was listed as one of the one hundred most
influential lawyers in America in 1988 and 1991. She was the
First Lady of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and 1983 to 1992, was
active in a number of organizations concerned with the welfare
of children, and was on the board of Wal-Mart and several other
corporate boards.
As First Lady of the United States, she took a prominent
position in policy matters. Her major initiative, the Clinton
health care plan, failed to gain approval by the U.S. Congress
in 1994, but in 1997 she helped establish the State Children's
Health Insurance Program and the Adoption and Safe Families Act.
She became the only First Lady to be subpoenaed, testifying
before a federal grand jury as a consequence of the Whitewater
controversy in 1996. She was never charged with any wrongdoing
in this or several other investigations during her husband's
administration. The state of her marriage to Bill Clinton was
the subject of considerable public discussion following the
Lewinsky scandal in 1998.
After moving to New York, Clinton was elected as senator for New
York State in 2000; this was the first time an American First
Lady ran for public office and she is the first female senator
from that state. In the Senate, she initially supported the
George W. Bush administration on some foreign policy issues,
which included voting for the Iraq War Resolution. She has
subsequently opposed the administration on its conduct of the
Iraq War and has opposed it on most domestic issues. She was
re-elected by a wide margin in 2006. Clinton is the first woman
in U.S. history to win a presidential party primary, and as the
2008 race takes place, she is in a contest with Senator Barack
Obama for the nomination of the Democratic Party. |
Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. ( born August 4, 1961)
is the junior United States Senator from Illinois and a leading
candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2008 U.S.
presidential election.
Born to a Kenyan father and an American mother, he spent most of
his early life in Honolulu, Hawaii. From ages six to ten, he
lived in Jakarta, Indonesia with his mother and Indonesian
stepfather. A graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law
School, Obama worked as a community organizer, university
lecturer, and civil rights lawyer before running for public
office and serving in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004.
After an unsuccessful bid for a seat in the U.S. House of
Representatives in 2000, he announced his campaign for U.S.
Senate in 2003.
The following year, while still an Illinois state legislator,
Obama delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic
National Convention. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in
November 2004 with 70% of the vote. As a member of the
Democratic minority in the 109th Congress, he co-sponsored
bipartisan legislation for controlling conventional weapons and
for promoting greater public accountability in the use of
federal funds. He also made official trips to Eastern Europe,
the Middle East, and Africa. In the current 110th Congress, he
has sponsored legislation on lobbying and electoral fraud,
climate change, nuclear terrorism, and care for returned U.S.
military personnel.
Since announcing his presidential campaign in February 2007,
Obama has emphasized ending the Iraq War, increasing energy
independence, and providing universal health care as his top
three priorities. He married in 1992 and has two daughters. He
has written two bestselling books: a memoir of his youth titled
Dreams from My Father, and The Audacity of Hope, a personal
commentary on U.S. politics.
Vote For Obama if
you want to be known as "A Dumb Ass" |