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Part of this may be simple marketing. A one-word name is catchier than the stodgy-sounding seven syllable version. And in the American vernacular, trinomial names are usually reserved for assassins, postmodern novelists or members of the Kennedy clan.

But part of the strategy is clearly to distance herself from her husband. And what better way to do that than to shed the Clinton name like a stained blue dress. Ever since the Lewinsky scandal broke, Hillary has been publicly coquettish about her disdain for Bill. She has made repeated jokes about her firsthand knowledge of the difficulties of marriage.

After her husband's acquittal in the U.S. Senate, newspaper reports buzzed with rumors of a split between the first couple. Even now, it remains unclear what will come of the first couple after they leave Pennsylvania Avenue, with Hillary possibly representing New York in the Senate while Clinton returns to Arkansas to build his presidential library.

But as Herr Clinton's political career begins its long twilight, the upstart Hillary has become a phenomenon in her own right. Her Senate candidacy will be the full employment act for hundreds of journalists from around the world. That one simple word -- Hillary -- will unlock the purses and wallets of thousands of Democratic donors across the country who will undoubtedly fill the newest New Yorker's campaign coffers, just as it will mobilize a fierce counter-attack by Republican activists.

Her foray into electoral politics will ensure that for the first time in recent memory, a race for U.S. Senate will rival the presidential contest as media spectacle. As she strives to make a series of "firsts" in her unprecedented candidacy for U.S. Senate, maybe one name is all she needs.
salon.com | July 8, 1999

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