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Bill Clinton on How He Met His Wife: ‘I’m Hillary Rodham, Who Are You?’

Bill Clinton on How He Met His Wife: ‘I’m Hillary Rodham, Who Are You?’

Bill Clinton started off his Democratic Convention speech by talking about a girl he met in college — one who turned out to be “the best darn change-maker I have ever known.”

Clinton said that after weeks of staring at the future Hillary Rodham Clinton, she finally stared back. Finally she walked up and said if they were going to stare at each other, they might as well know each other’s names.

“I’m Hillary Rodham,” he remembered her saying. “Who are you?”

“Momentarily, I was speechless,” he said.

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Later, Clinton said, he decided to go with her when she registered for classes, doing his best to impress.

“I thought I was doing pretty well ’til the register looked up and said, ‘Bill what are you doin’ here? You registered this morning.”

They then took a walk to the Yale art museum, and so began one of America’s most successful political marriages.

“We’ve been laughing, talking, walking together ever since,” the 42nd president said. “Through good times and bad, joy and heartbreak.”

He skipped details of the darkest times — like the Monica Lewinsky affair — and instead focused on how she finally agreed to marry him the third time he asked.

“I married my best friend,” Clinton revealed.

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Hillary Clinton made history on Tuesday by becoming the first woman to ever be a major party’s presidential nominee. The former president called her his family’s “designated warrior” and explained how she talked him into staying in politics after a crushing defeat early in his career. He listened and eventually became the first governor of Arkansas to lose and then become elected again.

“This woman has never been satisfied with the status quo on anything. She always wants to move the ball forward. That’s just who she is,” he said.

Bill also praised Michelle Obama, which drew one of the night’s biggest ovations of the night. He described his wife’s journey from first lady to senator to secretary of state.

He compared his portrayal of Hillary to what Donald Trump said last week at the Republican National Convention, when pundits said the GOP nominee’s speech was filled with tales of doom and gloom.

“One is real, the other is made up,” he said. “The real one had done more positive change-making before she was 30 than many public officials do in a lifetime.”

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