Clinton learns from public pain, private crisis

At perhaps her lowest point in her husband's first term, Hillary fends off charges about everything from commodities trading to Whitewater in an unprecedented live press conference.

Her performance offsets months of negative publicity.  Soon Hillary is focusing on two lifelong passions: women's and children's rights. 

Chelsea is a frequent companion.

Gail Sheehy: She began making trips around the world and finding ways that she could empower women. In Beijing, she came out on the stage in front of the entire Chinese communist leadership, planted her feet, and took them to task for killing girl babies."

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.): That breaks my heart; from children who have been abused, whose parents have abandoned them, who have terrible illnesses. Either themselves or their families and they're not getting treated.

Soon, she has a book out and its universal theme becomes an unexpected hit:

The bestseller nets over $700,000 for charity and a Grammy for Hillary’s audio version

Sen. Clinton: I'm amazed, I didn't even know Grammy’s were given to tone deaf singers like me.

But, not everyone is buying it.

Former Senator Bob Dole, R-Kan.: I am here to tell you it does not take a village to raise a child, it takes a family to raise a child.

Sen. Clinton: It takes a family, it takes teachers, it takes clergy, it takes a village.

November, 1996: At the White House Bill and Hillary bask in the glow of the re-election that many had thought impossible. It's their ultimate comeback.  Lost in the crowd, a young woman in a black beret, whom the world won't know about for another year.

For now, the Clintons seem as happy as they've ever been. Here, celebrating Hillary’s 50th birthday in 1997.  But skeptics call this beach scene a publicity stunt, designed to inoculate Clinton for his upcoming deposition in the Paula Jones case, but the Clintons deny it.

Maraniss: When the Lewinsky story first broke there was incredible confusion and dismay inside the White House. Nobody knew how to defend this. You know there had been so many stories about Clinton and women in the past. Who do you believe?  Do we really have to believe him again? Is this the one that would bring him down. And there was enormous despair there.

Former President Bill Clinton: I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky.

Everyone's wondering, "What will Hillary say?"  Her TODAY show appearance will become the talk of the nation.

Matt Lauer, NBC News: He has described to the American people what this relationship was not in his words.

Sen. Clinton: That's right.

Lauer: Has he described to you what it was?

Sen. Clinton: Yes, and we'll find that out as time goes by, Matt. But I think the important thing now is to stand as firmly as I can and say that you know the president has denied these allegations on all counts. Unequivocally and we'll see how this plays out.

As the crisis intensifies, Hillary perseveres.

Sen. Clinton: It's hard to think about what’s going on in Washington and sometimes it even gives you a headache, doesn't it?

George Stephanopoulos: I think she masks her vulnerability and her hurt with a kind of brittle, hard exterior. She's almost the exact opposite of the President who has quite a soft empathetic exterior, but he's got a very tough, tough core.

But eventually, her husband tells Hillary, Chelsea, and the nation the truth.

Former President Bill Clinton: I misled the American people.

Maraniss: When they took that long walk to the helicopter and flew up to Martha's Vineyard I'm sure it must have been the iciest few days imaginable between them, and they'd had many icy days before. But once again she realized that she could not leave him. That she had to stay with him. If she left him, she would be leaving herself.

Sara Ehrman: I asked her how she was and she said “I'd like to stay in bed and pull the covers over my head and have a nervous breakdown but I really don't have time right now. I'll defer to it later.” And she marched on.

Maraniss: Hillary, in her whole life, had never wanted to play the victim. She's always wanted to seem like the strong woman. And this just threw her off completely.

Ehrman: It's strength and it's a kind of defiance that nobody or nothing is going to shake her from what she thinks her life is.

Through it all, Hillary emerges as a powerful political voice. She rallies congressional Democrats to surprise gains in the off-year election.

But impeachment can't be stopped. Her husband is only the second president in American history to be called to trial.

Maraniss: It's one of the great cycles of the dramatic story of Hillary and Bill Clinton. Twenty-five years earlier, she'd been the one at the lowest levels of the last impeachment.

Ehrman: It was a very sad day actually. But they held onto each other and they kept each other going and I thought that was very much in keeping with their relationships with each other. They have been there for each other in bad times always.

When the year-long trauma ends, the public Hillary benefits. Her dignity, stamina and strength send her approval ratings soaring.

Maraniss: Hillary Clinton, the wronged woman, suddenly became more popular. Regular women all over the country could identify with her for the first time because they'd been wronged as well. And imagine that for her, something that she never wanted. She was liked for the reason that she never wanted to be liked.

Betsy Griffith: I believe Hillary fell in love with Bill Clinton at Yale and I believe he fell in love with her because she's so smart. I think they found qualities in each other to admire that remain the qualities that they admire.

Ehrman: I believe she believes in God and I have to be honest with you I don’t know a lot of people who have faith in God the way Hillary does. I think that got her through a lot, faith in God, anger, anger at injustice, at being demonized, victimized.

Griffith: Hilary is a principled person and I think she also understands for better or worse there aren't a lot of people who respect that part of marriage vows and I think she does.

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