They came for Bill but left with Hillary...
San Francisco philanthropist Susie Tompkins Buell says the first time she was in the same room with Hillary Clinton was at a Bay Area fundraiser for Bill Clinton, in the early 1990s. Hillary was there to deliver the introduction for her husband, and Buell was instantly smitten—but not by the candidate. “I remember thinking, She is going to run for president someday—it should be her,” Buell, the founder of Esprit clothing, recalls. “It wasn’t that I was turned off by him, I was just so attracted to her. I could feel her dedication.”

Philanthropist Swanee Hunt, who spends much of the money she inherited from her Texas oilfield magnate father, a conservative, on progressive causes and candidates, has a similar memory. In October 1992, she organized a fundraiser in Denver called “Serious Women, Serious Issues and Serious Money,” aiming to raise a million dollars for Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign. Hillary was one of the key speakers. “I sat there in the audience listening to Hillary talking about the economy, and I thought, Holy Toledo, how can someone stand up there with no notes and sound like the head of the World Bank or Federal Reserve?” Later, Hillary called to thank Hunt for her contribution, Hunt recalls. “I said, ‘Oh, actually it isn’t for him, it’s for you.’”

Judith Hope, who was New York state Democratic chairwoman at the time, first realized Clinton’s potential at a Manhattan women’s leadership luncheon in 1996. “I looked at the women in the room, and I saw that she absolutely captivated them with her intelligence and her humor. She just had it altogether. And I thought to myself, This woman would make a terrific candidate.”

Buell and Hunt went on to become top Hillary Clinton donors, and Hope helped launch and organize her 2000 Senate campaign—her first foray into electoral politics. The three now belong to a small circle—all women, all around her age—who have road-tripped with her and slumber-partied with her, quaffed martinis with her, cried with her and laughed at the sarcastic jokes she never shares in public. They’ve been the recipients of her emailed snippets of poetry and flattered by her keen memory for their ideas and input. And they have been waiting and planning and spending for years to put her in the White House.