MADAM PRESIDENT?
Monday, Aug. 4, 2003
From the Watergate affair to the Children’s Defense Fund, from the “mean streets” of Chicago to the Illinois governor’s mansion to the United States Senate, Senator Hillary Rodham-Marks has always, in the words of her 1969 Wellesley College commencement speech, “[practiced] the art of making what appears to be impossible possible." Now, she is pushing the boundary of the possible once again, with her run for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency of the United States.
Senator Rodham-Marks spoke to TIME reporters Al Gore Jr. and Jerry Adler in her home in Edison Park, only miles from her childhood home in Park Ridge in suburban Chicago. She shares her home with her husband of 31 years, Dr. Gregory Marks, a pediatrician.
Rodham-Marks had just return from a five-day swing to Iowa to court voters and speak at the Iowa Corn Growers Association. However, she seemed as upbeat as ever, wearing a cream-colored dress and a tailored navy blazer. Her husband stopped by to deliver mugs of coffee and a plate of cookies - home-made by Hillary, he insisted, to a chuckle from the Senator. Below is an edited transcript of their conversation.
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TIME: So, how was the trip?
Sen. Rodham-Marks: Enjoyable, thank you. I always appreciate the opportunity to visit our neighbor to the west.
TIME: You’ve spent most of your political career focused on issues of family and children.
Sen. Rodham-Marks: The melody is different in each town and each state, but the kinds of problems American families face are almost universal: jobs, the economy, schools for our kids, health care, clean water and air. The list goes on.
TIME: As a career woman, how do you balance work and family?
Sen. Rodham-Marks: Being a mother [to Daniel, 27] has been the best part of my life, and I’ve been gifted with an extraordinary life partner in my husband Greg, but too many Americans struggle to to give their children all the opportunities they can dream, make ends meet at the end of the month, and still make it to every school play and baseball game.
TIME: How many of those did you miss?
Sen. Rodham-Marks: (laughs) None that I could possibly avoid. I remember driving like a maniac one day back from Springfield, back when I worked for Governor [Adlai] Stevenson [III] as Director of the Department of Children and Family Services, to make it home for Daniel’s game. (Dr. Marks, from the next room, concurs). It was always well worth it.
TIME: You served under Gov. Stevenson, and later served as Governor yourself. How have you worked to address these issues?
Sen. Rodham-Marks: Well, I started with the Children’s Defense Fund right out of law school because I wanted to help kids facing every barrier you can imagine. And I took that ethos to the DCFS. When I came in, we were underfunded, understaffed, and mismanaged. I cleaned up the Department’s finances, and used the money we saved to implement programs like No Child Left Behind, giving every new family free parenting education and a package of basic items to help them get started. That program has been used as a model across the country. It’s those kinds of common-sense, compassionate solutions that I've brought to the Governor’s Mansion, the Senate and, I hope, to the White House.
TIME: You’ve been criticized as, and I quote, “anti-religious” a “radical feminist”, a “a baby killer” and even a “feminazi”. How do you respond to those kinds of accusations?
Sen. Rodham-Marks: Al, to be honest, I try to ignore that sort of mud. You can’t spend time in Washington without it getting thrown around. I’m far from anti-religious - my husband and I have attended church nearly every Sunday since we were married at the Edison Park United Methodist Church in 1983. I’ve always lived by John Wesley’s maxim “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.”
Some people try to claim that their personal religious views - that a woman has no right to make their own medical choices, that gay and lesbian Americans should have fewer rights than they do, that women belong only in the home and not in the workplace or even the people’s house - define Christ’s message and ought to be public policy. But that’s just not the case.
TIME: So you support same-sex marriage?
Sen. Rodham-Marks: I believe, as my church does, that Biblical marriage is between a man and a woman. But our society is governed by the Constitution, which guarantees equal rights. The states should decide what they want to call it, but every American deserves the right to love who they want to love and succeed.
TIME: You have been in politics for a long time. Do you think that Governor Duncan is right, that we don’t need more “Washington career politicians”, like yourself and Vice President Kerry?
Sen. Rodham-Marks: (laughs) I served with Ken. He’s a good man and a patriot. But I’ve known a lot of people like him over my years in public service.
TIME: Can you give us an example?
Sen. Rodham-Marks: Oh, many. Folks like [disgraced former] Governor Clinton in Arkansas. They talk the talk, but whether it’s inexperience or hubris or something else, they don’t have so much luck walking the walk.
TIME: You and Governor Clinton dated, isn’t that true?
Sen. Rodham-Marks: That seems like a million years ago! We did, actually, back when Bill and I were fresh-faced college kids out in D.C. You know how these things go.
TIME: Speaking of college, a centerpiece of your platform is to make college cheaper. How would you do that?
Sen. Rodham-Marks: Well, I’d start by making sure that the federal programs we already have are working properly. Senator McCain has promised to abolish Pell Grants while inviting his buddies on Wall Street to profit off American families. I’d roll back interest rates and double the size of the Pell Grants program. I would also provide 50 billion dollars of new federal funding for states that innovate and keep college costs down, with the goal of letting every student leave college debt-free before the end of my first term.
TIME: John McCain, the Republican front-runner, would likely argue that, in these dangerous times, we need someone tough and experienced to keep us safe.
Sen. Rodham-Marks: I’ve served on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee since I was elected to represent Illinois in 1994, and as my son Daniel could tell you, I’m plenty tough. But we also need to be smart. We need to counter violent extremism abroad while also paying attention to our alliances and our soft power. As President, I would never hesitate to use military force to protect American interests or stand up to tyranny. But as I learned from my social worker colleagues, when it comes to violence, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. If we can help encourage free markets and human rights through international partnerships and diplomacy, we’ll save more lives and spend less American taxpayer money than any military adventure.
TIME: Thank you so much for your time, Senator.
Sen. Rodham-Marks: Thank you, Al, and thank you, Jerry. Please, take some cookies for the road.
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