Special Report: U.S. presidential election 2008
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Democratic presidential hopeful Sen.
Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., coughs as she conducts a roundtable
discussion at the Yale Child Study Center in New Haven, Conn., Monday,
Feb. 4, 2008. (Photo: huanqiu.com) Photo Gallery>>> |
BEIJING, March 20 (Xinhuanet) --
Wondering the innermost details of Hillary Clinton's time as first lady in the
White House? The U.S. National Archives on Wednesday released 11,000 pages of
documents detailing her day-to-day routine throughout eight years of Bill
Clinton's presidency.
The quest for public disclosure of the schedules has attracted
close attention throughout the presidential campaign, since Hillary has
spoken extensively of her "35 years of experience" in public life,
saying she learnt how to achieve success in Washington from her early mistakes.
The released documents reveal her to have been hard at
work on health care, education, international development, women's rights and
democracy.
They reveal Hillary got to work on health care reform
within days of her arrival at the White House as first lady in 1993.
Almost from the moment she arrived in the White
House on Jan. 23, 1993, only three days after her husband's
inauguration, she was calling meetings on her ultimately doomed initiative
on health reform.
The documents cover nearly 2,900 days. An additional 27
days will be posted in the near future, the archives said.
According to the archives, 4,746 of the schedules have
redactions, information removed before being released, that largely relate to
privacy concerns including Social Security and telephone numbers and home
addresses.
"Arranged chronologically, these records document in
detail the activities of the first lady, including meetings, trips, speaking
engagements and social activities for the eight years of the Clinton
administration," the archives said.
The papers show Hillary had no public schedule on the
day independent counsel Kenneth Starr was appointed to investigate Bill
Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky, or on the day he was deposed in the case.
On the day the affair began, Hillary had a private meeting
and a meet-and-greet with then-Vice-President Al Gore and Nobel Prize winners.
She kept up a busy schedule as the affair spiraled into impeachment.
During the week in January 1998 when the Lewinsky
controversy exploded, she was at Bill's side at an event where he
angrily rejected the reports.
In the following days, she attended his State of the Union
address and chose flowers for a black-tie dinner to celebrate a "Guns Aren't
Cool" awards event.
(Agencies)