Friday's documents release included memos related to the former president's ill-fated health care reform proposal in 1993 and 1994, a plan that failed to win support in a Congress controlled by Democrats and turned into a rallying cry for Republicans who swept to power in both the Senate and House of Representatives in the 1994 midterm elections. As first lady, Hillary Clinton chaired her husband's healthcare task force, largely meeting in secret to develop a plan to provide universal health insurance coverage.
White House aides expressed initial optimism about her ability to help craft and enact a major overhaul of U.S. healthcare.
"The first lady's months of meetings with the Congress has produced a significant amount of trust and confidence by the members in her ability to help produce a viable health reform legislative product with the president," said an undated and unsigned document, which was cataloged with others from April 1993. The document urged quick action, warning that enthusiasm for health reform "will fade over time."
But the documents also showed the growing concerns among Clinton's fellow Democrats in Congress. Lawmakers, it said, "going to their home districts for the August break are petrified about having difficult health care reform issues/questions thrown at them."
Obama and his fellow Democrats finally passed a major healthcare overhaul in early 2010, with support from the Clintons. Unlike the Clinton-era effort, the reform signed into law by Obama, known as Obamacare, carried a mandate that all Americans must obtain health insurance or pay a fine.
The new documents showed that Mrs. Clinton was doubtful that a health care law with a universal mandate — requiring people to carry health insurance — would be approved. "That is politically and substantively a much harder sell than the one we've got — a much harder sell," she told congressional Democrats in September 1993.
In 2007, when she ran for president, Clinton made the mandate a centerpiece of her "American Health Choices Plan," requiring health coverage while offering federal subsidies to help reduce the cost to purchasers. Obamacare also provides federal subsidies.
By September 1993, Mrs. Clinton acknowledged the obstacles in a meeting with House and Senate Democratic leaders and committee chairs. "I think that, unfortunately, in the glare of the public political process, we may not have as much time as we need for that kind of thoughtful reflection and research," the first lady said, citing "this period of challenge."
The documents also include detailed media strategy memos written as aides tried to soften Mrs. Clinton's image.
Her press secretary, Lisa Caputo, encouraged the Clintons to capitalize on their 20th wedding anniversary as "a wonderful opportunity for Hillary" and also suggested she spend more time doing White House events celebrating first ladies of the past.
Placing Clinton in a historical context "may help to round out her image and make what she is doing seem less extreme or different in the eyes of the media," Caputo wrote in a lengthy August 1995 memo about courting better press coverage as the president looked toward re-election.
Other documents offered a glimpse into the juggling of priorities early in Clinton's first term.
Following the midterm losses, Clinton policy adviser William Galston wrote in January 1995, before the president's State of the Union address, that the public had "not given up on the Clinton presidency." But he warned the annual speech before Congress "may well be our last chance for a very long time to command the attention of the people as a whole. We cannot hold anything back."
The new documents offer only glimmers of Clinton's internal national security deliberations. The most detailed material, contained in files from then-national security speechwriter Paul Orzulak, show top Clinton officials wrestling with how to deal with China's emergence as a world financial power.
Notes from an undated meeting with National Security Adviser Samuel "Sandy" Berger show Berger pushing for China's membership in the World Trade Organization despite concerns about human rights abuses.
A series of emails pertaining to the Sept. 11 Commission's research into Clinton-era handling of al-Qaida attacks were all apparently withheld by Archives officials, citing national security and confidential restrictions.
As for Clinton himself, by the end of his presidency he showed frustration with his proposed farewell speech to the nation. He told aides that he didn't think the drafts included enough of his administration's accomplishments.
"Doesn't anybody care about me?" he asked aides during his final days in office.
