Clinton’s abilities blossomed at Yale

[journalist3072]

Posted on Mon, Jan. 14, 2008

Clinton’s abilities blossomed at Yale

By MATT STEARNS - McClatchy Newspapers

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — All that Hillary Rodham Clinton would become — all that inspires her allies and her enemies alike — emerged during her years roaming the Gothic buildings of Yale Law School.

She helped edit a journal that included cartoon police-pigs and published a self-aggrandizing essay by a Black Panther who had been convicted of murder. Yet she also helped calm a politically inflamed campus.

She nurtured an interest in using the law to aid the needy — especially children — that remains integral to her politics, but which opponents use to pummel her values.

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Several Black Panthers were on trial for murder in New Haven. The campus, opened to New Left demonstrators associated with the trial, became a circus. Downtown business owners, fearing violence, boarded up their windows. A law library was set afire. The shooting deaths of four student demonstrators at Kent State University in Ohio by National Guardsmen further enraged campuses nationwide.

Rodham — sympathetic to the angry left but insistent its grievances could be resolved within the system — moderated a tense campus meeting at which violence seemed to percolate under the surface, as students debated how to respond to Kent State and issues specific to Yale.

Quoting an unnamed student, Kalman wrote: “Hillary did what nowadays would be international summitry — flying back and forth between sides,” maintaining credibility with all, impressing faculty and fellow students, helping to keep New Haven peaceful.


Entire article at: http://www.thestate.com/nation/story/284327.html