It is a safe bet that many students attending Sen. Hillary Clinton's lecture tomorrow night will be on hand not only to hear what the former first lady has to say, but to also catch a sneak peek of a woman who may be the country's next president.
Clinton, a New York Democrat, will deliver the inaugural lecture of the Doherty-Granoff Forum on Women Leaders in Meehan Auditorium tomorrow at 7:45 p.m. She is considered by many political experts, including Professor of Political Science Darrell West, to be the frontrunner for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in 2008.
"She has all the ingredients of a successful candidate," said West, who is also director of the Taubman Center for Public Policy, a co-sponsor of the lecture.
West said Clinton was chosen to be the inaugural speaker of the forum because of her vast expertise relating to its subject matter.
"It's a forum on female leadership, and there's no better person to deliver the inaugural address than Hillary Clinton," he said. "She's shown and demonstrated a track record of leadership. She's a smart and articulate person. I think there will be a tremendous amount of interest in what she has to say."
Born in 1947, Clinton is a graduate of Wellesley College and Yale Law School, where she met her eventual husband, former President Bill Clinton. She was elected to the U.S. Senate in November 2000, becoming the only First Lady to ever win elected office in American history. She currently serves on the Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee; the Environment and Public Works Committee; the Special Committee on Aging; and the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Though she has yet to officially declare her interest in the presidency, Clinton has already raised $20 million that could be used for a run at the White House - far more than any other potential Democratic contender. Though the money is officially pegged for this year's Senate re-election campaign, Clinton is expected to be easily re-elected and can roll over the unspent dollars for a presidential bid. Political experts believe that by the end of 2007, she could raise at least $100 million - what Federal Election Commission Chairman Michael Toner said he considered to be the minimum "entry fee ... to be considered a serious candidate" in a March 12 Washington Post article.
The Doherty-Granoff Forum on Women Leaders, co-sponsored by the Taubman Center and Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women, was founded this year by Michael Granoff and Ellen Granoff '83. Michael Granoff said he and his wife created the forum because they believe females are "the single largest untapped group of leaders" in the country, and the forum could serve to "train the next generation" of women leaders.
"If you think about the future, the purpose of places like Brown is to incubate leaders," Granoff said. "It's what the founders of places like Brown were thinking of."
