ABSTRACT
Hillary Clinton was motivated to run for the Senate in part by Elizabeth Dole's running for president. Seeing Dole get all the attention as the first possible woman president got under the First Lady's skin in ways that were primordial. If historians judge the success of the Clinton presidency by its staying power, then Hillary's victory is every bit as critical to her husband's legacy as Vice President A1 Gore's. Many analysts think the First Lady's political ambition made it harder for Gore to break away and be his own man when the stage remains crowded with Clinton's, his and hers. Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, who backed away from her state's governor's race in 1998, put anger on the New York Democratic party. Hillary Clinton sees public office as liberating experience and a way to gain legitimacy. It was a reminder of how quickly and dramatically political fortunes can change, a lesson Hillary Clinton had lived many times over.
