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Hillary Clinton the Tomboy and Her "Ah-Ha" Moment
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ShareMarch 30, 2009 7:32 PM
ABC News' Kirit Radia reports:
In an appearance at the Women's Museum in Dallas on Friday, a transcript of which was released over the weekend, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke candidly about the challenges she faced in breaking the glass ceiling, and referenced her run for the presidency last year.
Clinton revealed that she was "sort of a tomboy" when she was a young girl. "I did love to play sports and played with a lot of the boys in my neighborhood," she said. She said the experience instilled a thirst for competition that served her well later.
"I wanted to be a baseball player," she told an amused audience. "I wanted to be a journalist. I know you’ll never believe that."
Clinton the story about her aspirations to be an astronaut, one of her earliest encounters with the glass ceiling.
"I think I was thirteen or so, and so I wrote to NASA to ask how I could become an astronaut. And I got a response back which was, 'We’re not interested in women astronauts,'" she said.
She spoke of the obstacles she faced in pursuing her professional and academic goals.
"When we were growing up, there were just so many overt and implied obstacles to what young women could aspire to. There were certainly schools you couldn’t go to, scholarships you couldn’t apply for - jobs that were not available to you," Clinton said.
"You really have to prepare. And you have to get knocked down, and you have to pick yourself up, and you have to keep going," she added later.
Clinton referenced her lost bid for the Democratic nomination last year. When asked about an "ah-ha" moment that she was going to be able to meet the lofty goals she'd set for herself, Clinton said there was another "ah-ha" moment of another manner.
"I had an ah-ha moment that I wasn’t going to be the Democratic nominee for the presidency of the United States," she said as the audience laughed (according to the transcript). "That’s a kind of different ah-ha moment."
March 30, 2009 | Permalink | User Comments (23)
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Hmmm, nothing about her contemplating joining the military? Very noble, uh, thinking about it that is. I guess.
Posted by: RR GOP | Mar 30, 2009 7:42:35 PM
Sounds like we're back in last March and Hillary's on the campaign trail...
Posted by: matt | Mar 30, 2009 8:15:56 PM
Kirit: Not fair to post about Secy. Clinton. The wingnuts will have to depart from their anti-Obama screed. The Palin Posse only has limited mental flexibility. Ya Betcha!
Posted by: B. Bear | Mar 30, 2009 8:17:11 PM
The military didn't want women soldiers any more than NASA wanted woment astronauts.
Posted by: ahumbleopinion | Mar 30, 2009 8:23:52 PM
Good point. Why didn't she fight to get drafted? Why no problem with the inequity there? It's amazing how that seems to slide right by without a comment.
Posted by: J Robinson | Mar 30, 2009 8:27:48 PM
to J Robinson and others - ligthen up on Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton. What are you doing with your life then what is better then what she is doing? She is a faboulous Secretary of State and had to go through more discrimmination then any of us or our daughters will have to. Give her props and find more interesting comment to say.
Posted by: Jacqueline Burke | Mar 31, 2009 10:32:06 AM
Hillary is brilliant! And a CNN poll from last week shows that 71% approve of how she is performing as Sec. of State - that is an amazingly high approval rating!
Posted by: ch | Mar 31, 2009 10:55:21 AM
This one's even better than when Hillary told the Europeans that she does not understand parliamentary democracy........
--During her recent visit to Mexico, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made an unexpected stop at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe and left a bouquet of white flowers “on behalf of the American people,” after asking who painted the famous image.
The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was miraculously imprinted by Mary on the tilma, or cloak, of St. Juan Diego in 1531. The image has numerous unexplainable phenomena, such as the appearance on Mary’s eyes of those present in the room when the tilma was opened and the image’s lack of decay.
Mrs. Clinton was received on Thursday at 8:15 a.m. by the rector of the Basilica, Msgr. Diego Monroy
Msgr. Monroy took Mrs. Clinton to the famous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which had been previously lowered from its usual altar for the occasion.
After observing it for a while, Mrs. Clinton asked “who painted it?” to which Msgr. Monroy responded “God!”--
Posted by: Great Moments in Foreign Relations | Mar 31, 2009 12:17:30 PM
I believe that Hillary Clinton's class at Yale Law School was the first to include women.
Posted by: Keith | Mar 31, 2009 1:37:02 PM
Amazing to think we could have had a competent, centrist, Clinton in the White House and instead opted for the left-wing Bush.
America's gotten it wrong three elections in a row, and we still can't figure out why the country' going down the tubes. Sad, sad.
Posted by: D.K. Jamal | Mar 31, 2009 6:31:57 PM
Go Hillary!!
Posted by: rachel | Apr 1, 2009 6:36:45 PM
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Ann
Posted by: Ann | Apr 1, 2009 11:39:15 PM
Is there any way to prove anything she says? Would NASA have kept that letter she wrote? Or keep a copy the letter they sent to her? Any way to prove or disprove? Or do we just have to take the word of a person who has many, many, many times, caught lying?
Posted by: CC | Apr 2, 2009 1:17:55 AM
She is making up the story about NASA. Remember when she said that she tried to join the army and was turned down?
Posted by: Pervarious | Apr 3, 2009 12:12:14 AM
Hillary Clinton is of the best and the brightest this country has to offer. Many of us just love her; and we will always see her as the classy leader she continues to be.
Posted by: Juris Doc | Apr 3, 2009 9:47:37 PM
Positively adore her!
Go Hillary!
Posted by: Baggem | Apr 4, 2009 11:27:58 AM
I believe her because I was denied an FHA housing loan thirty some years ago. I also wasn't allowed to take a shop class in high school.
Go Hillary!
Posted by: Jude jaszcz | Apr 6, 2009 7:05:14 PM
Let's just hope she is tougher on NK than Madeline Albright...
Posted by: J House | Apr 18, 2009 10:36:40 PM
Hillary is absolutely MY HERO. My slogan all last year was
"A vote for Hillary Clinton means never having to say you're sorry."
Oh, what could have been.
Posted by: PGraber | May 1, 2009 2:48:17 PM
"...fight to get into the military.."???
I wonder how old some of the folks are here. Hillary is in her 60s. Women in combat is a notion way before her time. I'm a little younger and I can tell you that nursing and teaching and social work were the "big opportunities" for girles/women when I graduated from college ... those and the ever-present "secretarial" job. All of these women ... Hillary, Condi, Madeline and, even going back to Frances Perkins (you don't know her, then look it up) -- they are pioneers for the rest of us female citizens who are still waiting, since 1776, for a woman POTUS. Now, tell me about Obama's military service please.
Posted by: Mandelay3 | May 1, 2009 3:44:14 PM
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