As a college student during an era marked by passionate student protests against the Vietnam War and for civil rights, Hillary Rodham was hardly a bomb-thrower, even as she showed the zeal of an emerging political junkie, says an article in today’s New York Times.

The story recounts how the political identity of Ms. Clinton, now a senator from New York and a Democratic candidate for president, began to take shape during her junior and senior years at Wellesley College, where she was president of the student government.

During the “supercharged” year of 1968, the Times reports, Ms. Clinton helped to organize a student strike. But in her speeches she emphasized that change is most often a product of discussion in a decision-making process.

The article remarks on her handwriting, noting that the way she kept her words “neatly contained between tight margins” served as a metaphor for her leadership style:

“She took care to stay within the lines, even when they were moving so far and fast in 1968. While student leaders at some campuses went to the barricades, Ms. Rodham was attending teach-ins, leading panel discussions and joining steering committees.”