How did Hillary come up with the number 35?

For the past couple of months, Hillary Clinton has been saying that she has been enacting change for 35 years. The number has basically been accepted as true, but as Matthew Yglesias quickly points out, it must be somewhat exaggerated. Thirty-five years ago, in 1972, Hillary Clinton was a 3L at law school in Connecticut with Bill. In 1973, Hillary became a staff attorney for the Children’s Defense Fund.  The following year she briefly served on Impeachment Inquiry staff of the judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives. Hillary then moved to Arkansas, where she married Bill in 1975. She was an adjunct briefly at University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. Then she joined the prestigious Rose Law Firm, and became its first female partner in 1979 (the same year that she became First Lady of Arkansas). During her joint tenure at the Rose Law Firm and as First Lady of Arkansas, Hillary Clinton did begin getting involved with worthwhile family and children’s causes. So, at its earliest, she began “enacting change” in 1979–28 years ago. So, where does the number 35 come from?

Joe Biden was elected to the Senate in 1972 (35 years ago), and my guess is that she was afraid that he might begin to capture the mantle of experience. So her campaign took the number from him before he could use it. If her argument is experience, then she must make sure that she’s got the highest number. And that number is 35.