Trivia: First Lady of the United States from 1993 through 2001 (the wife of 42nd U.S. President and former Arkansas governor Bill Clinton), Hillary Rodham Clinton served as New York state senator beginning in 2001, then made a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008, but lost to Senator Barack Obama of Illinois after a grueling battle and innumerable public debates. She was Secretary of State under Obama and then made another run for president in 2016, this time securing enough electoral votes to become the presumptive Democratic nominee.The daughter of a drapery manufacturer, Rodham Clinton came of age in Park Ridge, IL, and attended Wellesley College, where she made history as the first student to deliver a commencement address in the history of the said institution. By Clinton's collegiate years, she had evolved into a left-wing spokesperson and an ardent feminist. Progressive causes and beliefs would ultimately shape, mold, and characterize the majority of her political life, marked by a noble but unsuccessful attempt to achieve socialized health care during her husband's eight-year administration; during her bid for the Democratic nomination, she resurrected that issue, and made alleviation for the flagging economy and a withdrawal from the controversial Iraq War central to her campaign.Cinematically, Clinton relegated herself more or less exclusively to participation in nonfiction films -- including news magazine features and documentaries. Projects to which she contributed included the 1999 Lifetime television documentary Intimate Portrait: Jane Alexander, the 2007 documentary Darfur Now, and the same year's documentary 14 Women.

Trivia: A veritable household name during the 2008 presidential election (in which he won the Democratic nomination, roundly defeating Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York), Barack Obama campaigned for the United States Presidency while serving as a Democratic senator in Illinois. The product of a unique and complex ethno-cultural heritage -- he began life in Honolulu as the son of a white Kansan mother and a Kenyan father -- Obama spent various periods of his childhood in Indonesia and Hawaii. As a young man, he attended Columbia University as a political science major, then held a job as a Manhattan financial counselor before growing listless, moving to Chicago, and taking on a job as a community organizer -- a post that witnessed him working strenuously with churches to aid the impoverished in local housing projects. Obama later attended Harvard Law School, where he excelled, and became the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. A successful bid for the Senate followed, culminating with a November 2004 victory. As a presidential candidate, Obama exuded a populist appeal that won him legions of supporters and enabled him to cinch the nomination. Obama beat Arizona senator John McCain in 2008 to become the 44th President of the United States. He was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 2009. Obama defeated former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney in 2012 to secure a second term as president.Cinematically, Obama limited his exposure to participation in documentaries, including the biographical profiles Senator Obama Goes to Africa (2007) and Biography: Barack Obama (2007), and the Darfur genocide-themed muckraking documentary The Devil Came on Horseback (2007). He was the subject of the election year documentary 2016: Obama's America.