But if her circumstances made her a natural choice for the board, her often liberal beliefs did not and she struggled to change the rigid, conservative culture at Wal-Mart, achieving modest results.

Early in her tenure, she pressed for information about the number of women in Wal-Mart's management, worrying aloud that the company's hiring practices might be discriminatory.

The data she received would have been troubling: by 1985, there was not a single woman among the company's top 42 officers, according to "In Sam We Trust," the 1998 book about Wal-Mart by Bob Ortega.

John E. Tate, who served as a director with Mrs. Clinton from 1988 to 1992, recalled that by her third board meeting Mrs. Clinton had announced "that you can expect me to push on issues for women. You know that. I have a reputation of trying to improve the status of women generally, and I will do it here."

Mr. Walton appeared relieved to have a woman on the board to deflect criticism, telling shareholders during the annual meeting in 1987 that the company had a "strong-willed young lady on the board now who has already told the board it should do more to ensure the advancement of women."

Still, the board's discussions did not translate into significant progress. By the late 1990s, after Mrs. Clinton had left the board, Wal-Mart had added a second female director, but the number of women in senior management remained paltry, according to company records. (Today, 23 percent of Wal-Mart's top 300 corporate officers are women, but the company is fighting a class-action lawsuit claiming sex discrimination filed on behalf of 1.6 million current and former female employees.)

Mrs. Clinton had greater success on environmental issues. At her request, Mr. Walton set up the environmental advisory group, which sent a series of recommendations to the company's board.

When it came time to pick members, Mrs. Clinton, who led the advisory group, reached out to at least two colleagues from the McGovern presidential campaign -- Mr. Mauro and Roy Spence, who headed an advertising firm in Texas that did extensive work for Wal-Mart.

Under her watch, the advisory group drew up elaborate plans. Consumers would bring in used motor oil and batteries for recycling. Suppliers would reduce the size of their packaging. And Wal-Mart would build stores with energy-saving features.

Wal-Mart executives put much of the program into place. In 1993, for example, they opened an experimental "eco-store" in Kansas, with skylights and wooden beams from forests that had not been clear cut.

One executive derided it as "Hillary's store" because it was more expensive to build than the average Wal-Mart, but several of its features, like the skylights that cut energy bills by reducing the need for artificial lighting, were widely copied across the industry.

"We were on the leading edge of something that is being mandated now," said Bill Fields, the head of merchandise at Wal-Mart in the early 1990s who worked closely with Mrs. Clinton on the environmental project.

For Wal-Mart, the largest employer in Arkansas, Mrs. Clinton's presence had obvious advantages: on matters big and small, the company had the ear of the governor's wife.

For Mrs. Clinton, being a director at Wal-Mart gave her access to several of the state's most powerful business executives. In the early 1980s, for example, Mr. Walton was instrumental in building support for a corporate tax program, pushed by Mrs. Clinton, that financed a major education overhaul in Arkansas, a signal achievement of her husband's governorship.

Though she was passionate about issues like gender and sustainability, Mrs. Clinton largely sat on the sidelines when it came to Wal-Mart and unions, board members said. Since its founding in 1962, Wal-Mart has fought unionization efforts at its stores and warehouses, employing hard-nosed tactics -- like allegedly firing union supporters and spying on employees -- that have become the subject of legal complaints against the company.

A special team at Wal-Mart handled those activities, but Mr. Walton was vocal in his opposition to unions. Indeed, he appointed the lawyer who oversaw the company's union monitoring, Mr. Tate, to the board, where he served with Mrs. Clinton.

During their meetings and private conversations, Mrs. Clinton never voiced objections to Wal-Mart's stance on unions, said Mr. Tate and John A. Cooper, another board member.

"She was not an outspoken person on labor, because I think she was smart enough to know that if she favored labor, she was the only one," Mr. Tate said. "It would only lessen her own position on the board if she took that position."

But we remain a very hypocritical country in how we regard women as leaders. We give lip service, but all those red blooded american men feel uncomfortable at the mere thought of a woman in power.

It may be a reality for you, but certainly not Hillary as POTUS.

And how qualified to you have to be to blow up 100,000's of people and decimate millions of acres of land.

Being loyal puts her in a very good position for 2016.  Being loyal is simply in her personal self-interest right now.  

Who could challenge her 2016?  Warner?--he has zero personality......

Clinton/Crist v.  Huntsman/Ryan?  Would that not be a Donnybrook?  Crist gets Hillary Florida--if there were any doubt.  

But, closer to home, in 2012 it will be Obama/Biden v. Romney/Palin.  Palin will run kinda/sorta run for President in the Primary but be too lazy to really make a long term race of it, and Romney will need to placate the rabid right...Palin already told a reporter she would take a VP slot with Romney.