October 26

Hillary Diane Rodham's Birthday  
 

Hillary Rodham Clinton is one of the most powerful and admired women in the world, due in part to her appointment as the 67th United States Secretary of State by her former opponent for the Democratic Presidential nomination, President Barack Obama.   She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009, and  was the First Lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001.

During her White House years, she was involved in a few scandals including the Whitewater scandal, a controversy that began with the real estate investments of Bill and Hillary and their associates, Jim and Susan McDougal in the Whitewater Development Corporation.. On January 26, 1996, Hillary testified before a grand jury about her investments in Whitewater. This was the first time in American history that a First Lady had been subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury. She testified that they never borrowed any money from the bank, and denied having caused anyone to borrow money on their behalf. Over the course of the investigation, fifteen individuals. .including Jim and Susan McDougal, were convicted of federal charges.

In 1998, investigations revealed that the President had had sex  with White House intern Monica Lewinsky  When the allegations against Bill were first made public, Hillary stated that they were the result of a "vast right-wing conspiracy." After the evidence of Bill encounters with Monica and her semen-stained dress became a political sex scandal, Hillary reaffirmed her commitment to their marriage, In her 2003 memoir, she would attribute her decision to stay married to "a love that has persisted for decades" and add: "No one understands me better and no one can make me laugh the way Bill does. Even after all these years, he is still the most interesting, energizing and fully alive person I have ever met."

During the 1992 Democratic primaries, Hillary told  a journalist that the only way a working attorney who happened to also be the governor's wife could have avoided any controversy would have been if she had "stayed home and baked cookies" which created an outcry from thousands of women who considered her remark demeaning.   Good Housekeeping magazine subsequently sponsored a cookie contest asking readers to vote for their choice of recipes used by the wives of the two presidential candidates. Hillary responded by explaining that she has been baking chocolate-chip cookies since she and her brothers competed to see who could produce the largest on Christmas, and soon it was Hilary's chocolate chip cookie recipe that was featured in hundreds of magazines.

So to celebrate Hilary's birthday, we suggest making a batch of her famous chocolate chip cookies and watching a semi-fictional portrayal of her by Emma Thompson in Primary Colors (1998).
 

Hillary Rodham Clinton's Chocolate Chip Cookies