If 1993 brought a generational change to the White House with the election of Bill Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton demonstrated a new role for the first lady.
Confident and poised, the First Lady, the President made clear, was going to be one of his principal advisers.
Equally at home in corporate board rooms or with Big Bird on the children's television show "Sesame Street," Mrs. Clinton was chosen by her husband to head up his commission on health care reform.
The president said, "she's better at organizing and leading people from a complex beginning to a certain end than anybody I've ever worked with in my life." Members of Congress were impressed.
Late in the year when the president's health reform proposal was being unveiled, a CNN poll showed that 40 percent of Americans believed Mrs. Clinton was smarter than her husband.
At the end of the year, Mrs. Clinton was in the limelight again, this time defending her husband against charges by two former Arkansas state troopers that Clinton had used his security detail while governor to arrange extramarital affairs.
Mrs. Clinton called the charges "outrageous, terrible stories." Asked if she stood behind her husband, she said, "absolutely."
