Hillary Rodham Clinton Discusses the Political Influences in her Life

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NBC News Transcripts

ANCHORS: ANN CURRY; KATIE COURIC

ANN CURRY, co-host: More now of Katie's interview with Senator Hillary Clinton. As we've been reporting, the former first lady's book, "Living History," hits book stores today. Well, Katie asked Mrs. Clinton about the evolution of her political beliefs as she grew up in Illinois.

KATIE COURIC, co-host: This book, obviously, starts from when you were quite a little girl...

Senator HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON: Right.

COURIC: ...growing up in--in Chicago. And you write that you grew up between "The push and tug of my parents' values, and my own political beliefs reflect both." You also talk about two people outside the family who had a powerful influence on your thinking, the Reverend Don Jones and your ninth grade history teacher, Paul Carlson.

Sen. CLINTON: Right.

COURIC: Can you tell me briefly what you gleaned from all those people and how they helped shape who you are today politically?

Sen. CLINTON: Well, you know, Katie, when I was writing this, I had the chance to think back to the kind of childhood I had, which was secure and safe and in a neighborhood where families looked out for each other's children and where we went to great schools and had wonderful parks. And I really did grow up between my parents' different views of the world, my father was very conservative, a rock-rib Republican, a small businessman, but he believed in self-reliance, he taught me to just be as--everything I could be. And my mother, who had a much more difficult childhood, really deprived and neglected, just poured her love and attention into me and my brothers. And she was a closet Democrat in a very Republican community.

My youth minister really opened my eyes to the rest of the world. Here we were in a very sheltered suburban upbringing, he took us into the inner city to meet with young African-American and Hispanic kids in church basements.

And then my ninth grade social studies teacher was a real conservative and he helped me understand the values of people that he revered, like Douglas MacArthur, for example. So I had a wonderful exposure to a full range of experience and political beliefs and values that I--I don't know I would have gotten if I hadn't had the parents I had, the teachers, the ministers that I had when I was growing up.

COURIC: At Wellesley, you were a Goldwater girl.

Sen. CLINTON: I was.

COURIC: All the way down to the cowgirl outfit, you write.

Sen. CLINTON: I did. I was a Goldwater girl.

COURIC: And you were elected president of the Young Republicans. But then you found yourself leaning in another direction, I guess as a result of your participation in the mock election debates, partially.

Sen. CLINTON: That's right. Well, in the 1964 election, I certainly was a Goldwater girl. That was, you know, my father's candidate, that's what I believed. And I had a very smart senior high school government teacher who took me aside and said 'I want you to play the role of Lyndon Johnson in the mock election debate.' And he went to about the only girl who considered herself a Democrat in our school and said 'And I want you to play the role of Senator Goldwater.'

I was really upset at first, because I was such a Goldwater fan, but it forced me to have to look at and read things that would not otherwise have come my way, so that what--by the time I got to college, I really had to start thinking about what I believed, you know, not my father's or my mother's or my teacher's or anyone else's beliefs. And as a result, I concluded that, you know, I--I was more independent than I had originally thought I was, and I began to look more closely at political ideas and evolve my own convictions and values.

CURRY: And tomorrow, Senator Clinton tells Katie all about the White House years. Now here's Matt.