America looked most favourably on Hillary Clinton when she was at her lowest. It was December 1998, and the U.S. House of Representatives had just impeached her husband on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice in relation to his extramarital affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. The impeachment would be just one of many embarrassments for Clinton, who had stood beside her husband and smiled for the cameras while the reporters behind them talked about secret phone conversations and a soiled blue dress.