Hillary Clinton

Hillary Rodham Clinton has come a long way from Park Ridge, the middle class suburb of Chicago where she was born in 1947, and not just in terms of the distance from Illinois to New York, where she has been a senator for the past six years. Her political journey has been substantial too, having grown up under the dominant influence of her father, Hugh Rodham, whom she describes in her autobiography as a "rock-ribbed, up-by-your-bootstraps, conservative Republican and proud of it".

It is one of the more astonishing facts about Clinton that the current frontrunner for the 2008 Democratic nomination began her political life as a supporter of the rightwing Republican and militant anti-Communist Barry Goldwater in his unsuccessful bid for the 1964 presidency. Years later when she became first lady, he thanked her by sending a case of barbecue fixings to the White House.

But the political foment of the 1960s - the assassination of John F Kennedy, Vietnam, the women's rights movement - caught Clinton's imagination and when she entered Yale Law School in 1969 she was already moving beyond her conservative roots. By 1974, aged 26, she had a name as a progressive lawyer and became one of the 44 attorneys to prepare the post-Watergate impeachment case against Richard Nixon.

It was at Yale she met Bill Clinton, moving to his home state of Arkansas where they married in 1975. She set up a legal practice there while he went on to govern the state for 12 years until he turned his attentions to the White House, taking occupation in January 1993. From the start Hillary, with her sharp legal training and her belief in women playing an equal role in public life, had no intention of being the traditional first lady. To mirror Bill's west wing, she set up her own mini cabinet and staff in the east wing of the White House, which came to be known as Hillaryland.

That determination to play her own independent part came to the fore in her leadership of the Clinton administration's attempts to reform the US healthcare system and extend insurance to millions of uncovered Americans. The Republican right and private health care companies robustly opposed the proposals, emphasising the first lady's unelected status to discredit the reforms.

After almost two years battling for the measure the Clintons gave in and dropped it - a defeat that still hangs over her as she fights for her own set of keys to the White House. In her autobiography, An American Story, she admits that she has looked back on the experience and blamed herself "for botching healthcare, coming on too strong and galvanising our opponents".

The bruising experience of the failed attempt at health reform, magnified by Republican attacks on her and her husband's integrity over their Whitewater property dealings and the Monica Lewinsky affair, helped to turn the outspoken, aggressive Hillary Clinton of the early 1990s into the cautious and supremely professional politician of today.

Her campaigning style has been very much in that mould since January, when she announced her 2008 presidential bid with the words "I'm in, and I'm in to win". She has relentlessly ticked boxes, campaigning with military discipline in crucial battleground states such as New Hampshire and Iowa. She has pressed home her advantage in terms of sheer financial muscle - she had $15m in her campaign coffers even before she declared - with fundraising trips to California and numerous glitzy events on her home ground in New York.

The total amount she has raised over the year now stands at a whopping $90m - $10m more than her nearest rival, Barack Obama. She has also relentlessly worked to shore up support from key groups of potential voters. She has pursued the youth vote through the internet and launched a network for leading women supporters. "Our latest national polling of the Democratic presidential primary race shows that Hillary Clinton is doing well among women, younger voters and among those at the lower end of the income scale," said Fritz Wenzel of the pollsters Zogby International. She has also campaigned hard to hang on to her husband's popularity with African-Americans.

Such meticulous attention to detail, combined with overflowing coffers, dedicated staff and the name recognition that comes from being a former First Lady has given her a huge advantage nationally, and she has been consistently ahead in the nationwide polls by 20 points or more. But the very caution and professionalism that she has acquired, in part as a defence mechanism after her experiences as first lady, may make her return to the White House less likely.

Her decision to vote in favour of the Iraq war also continues to haunt her as she struggles to differentiate her support for the US troops from the conduct of the war by the Bush administration. "This is a complicated stance that may take time to explain to primary voters," Wenzel said.

Those weaknesses - her voting record on Iraq and her image as a career politician - have both been exploited by Obama to his advantage in the all important local arenas of Iowa and New Hampshire - the first two states to go to the polls.

Obama has repeatedly emphasised that he did not vote for the invasion - an implicit dig at his fellow senator from New York who did. He also regularly uses euphemisms such as "traditional Washington politics" to convey the message that he represents a fresh start in contrast to Clinton who, the implication goes, epitomises the old guard.

Life and times

Born: October 26 1947 in Chicago, Illinois

Family: Married to William Jefferson Clinton, with one daughter, Chelsea

Education: Graduated from Wellesley College in 1969. Earned a law degree from Yale in 1973

Career: A member of the impeachment inquiry staff advising the house judiciary committee during the Watergate scandal. Joined the Arkansas-based Rose law firm in 1976. Board member of Wal-Mart from 1985 to 1992. In 1992 her husband was elected president and she served as first lady of the United States. In 2000 she was elected as senator for New York state; she was re-elected in 2006

Religion: Methodist

Campaign manager: Patti Solis Doyle, a long-time Clinton adviser

Polling director: Mark Penn

Communications director: Howard Wolfson

Media consultant: Mandy Grunwald

Fundraising campaign chair: Terry McAuliffe

Policy director: Neera Tanden

Website: hillaryclinton.com

Senate website: clinton.senate.gov

MySpace: myspace.com/hillaryclinton