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Her record shows that she proved that she can deliver hope, change, and unity:
"(CBS) Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential potential has been a topic of discussion among her peers since the '60s, CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes reports.
"I have 35 years of experience," she says on the campaign trail.
That would take us back to 1973, the year she graduated from Yale Law School and went to work for the Children's Defense Fund, interviewing juvenile offenders and dropouts.
Over the next few years she moved from one success to the next: Serving as a staff lawyer on the House Judiciary Committee as it considered impeaching President Nixon during Watergate; teaching criminal law at the University of Arkansas; heading the Legal Services Corporation, which represented the poor, after first being appointed to the board by President Carter.
In 1979, the year her husband became Governor of Arkansas, Hillary Rodham who raised eyebrows by declining to take his name, became the first female partner at the prestigious Rose Law Firm in Little Rock.
"Because there were so few women and particularly so few young women involved in traditional male venues, clearly her mere presence probably turned some people off," said Jay Barth, an associate professor of political science at Hendrix College.
Arkansas' first lady decided to take a shot at reforming the state's abysmal education system.
"I really believe that our young students need as much personal attention as they can get," Clinton said at the time.
It was a tough sell, involving the largest tax increase in the state's history and testing for teachers.
"Hillary went out into the state. She held public hearings I think in all 75 counties and she very effectively disarmed her critics," said Political Science Professor Hal Bass of Ouachita Baptist University."
[continued in part 2 - just a supporter]
