MSM In No Rush to Reveal Hillary Flunked Bar Exam

NewsBusters ^ | Mark Finkelstein

[governsleastgovernsbest]

If George W. Bush had gone to law school and later flunked the bar exam, you can imagine that fact would have become a virtual part of his name in the MSM, as in "George Bush, who failed the bar exam, today criticized a law that . . ."

But it came as news to me when Carl Bernstein mentioned on this morning's "Today" that Hillary flunked the Washington, DC bar exam back in the '70s. OK, I'm not the most knowledegable guy, and the fact of Hillary's failure is not news -- after years of hiding the embarrassment, she revealed it, en passant, in her ghostwritten 2003 "autobiography."

Still, I would have to imagine that Hillary's failure comes as news to a good number of people. How does it jive with Clinton's image as The World's Smartest Woman? And what does it say about the MSM that this fact has not been widely disseminated?

In any case, that revelation was far from the only unflattering thing that Bernstein had to say when speaking with Matt Lauer this morning to promote his new Hillary biography, A Woman in Charge. Let's preface this by mentioning that Bernstein is anything but a conservative hit man. The son of two parents with Communist Party affiliations, as he wrote about in this book, Bernstein is of course best known as Bob Woodward's WaPo Watergate investigation colleague. More recently, Bernstein has called for a Senate investigation of the Bush administration, and in the course of the interview this morning referred to the Bush presidency as a "disaster."

Among Bernstein's other comments today:

• "This is a woman who has led a camouflaged life, and continues to."
• Hillary's childhood was in "an abusive family situation. Her father humiliated and abused her mother. Her mother had a horror of a childhood."
• "Bill Clinton's closest advisers, like Lloyd Bentsen and Donna Shalala, were adamantly opposed" to Hillary becoming head of the healthcare initiative.
• At one point "Today" displayed a graphic with a quotation from the book: "As Hillary has continued to speak from the protective shell of her own making, and packaged herself for the widest possible consumption, she has misrepresented not just facts but often her essential self."
• "I think that she has developed an inauthenticity that is perhaps her greatest political problem. . . Partly because of her self-invented biographical details, she does come off as inauthentic.
• "There's not a sex act mentioned in the book. What is important is Hillary savaging the women that he was with. Forgiving Bill Clinton repeatedly through their married life, but not forgiving the women, which raises a very interesting question about her feminism.
• Bernstein speaks of Hillary's "rather disingenuous explanation of her vote on the war."

All in all, an unflattering portrait of Hillary, sketched by a man with no apparent axe to grind. And keep that flunking factoid in mind next time you hear Hillary condescend to President Bush or others.

Contact Mark, who somehow managed to pass the New York bar exam, at mark@gunhill.net

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Naturally, Free Republic is way ahead of the curve. Mia T disclosed Hillary's flunking of the bar exam here two years ago: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1425564/posts

[governsleastgovernsbest]

World’s Smartest Woman ping to Today show list.

[HamiltonJay]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA....

If you knew every lawyer thet flunked the Bar their first time, you’d have very few laywers practicing today....

This doesn’t sound like conspiracty to me... the fact John Edwards comments about gays was completely overlooked, now that’s proof of bias beyond the pale.

This is a non story.

[sono]

Her Thighness PING

[FormerLib]

I wonder how long it will be before the Left issues a fatwa calling for the beheading of Carl Bernstein?

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Do you agree that if Pres. Bush had gone to law school and flunked the bar exam, the MSM would have made sure that most Americans knew about it, whereas Hillary’s flunking has rarely been mentioned? That is my point here.

[Diogenesis]

[DJ MacWoW]

This is a non story.

I think the point is that it's a nonstory because it's not Bush or another Repub in the medias crosshairs.

[adorno]

f you knew every lawyer thet flunked the Bar their first time, you’d have very few laywers practicing today....

But... as the smartest woman in the world, you wouldn't expect her to flunk the bar exam, or any other test.

[Lx]

Maybe I scanned it too quick but did she ever pass? Wasn’t she on one of the Watergate committees as an assistant attorney?

[HamiltonJay]

I don’t think so, because if they started going after who failed the bar, there’d be a ton of Dem House and Senate members and governors who were/are lawyers who failed it as well.

It is VERY common to fail the barr the first try, I think perhaps some of the dem activists would try to make a big deal about it, until the names of all the dems who also had failed started popping up left right and center.

I really think this is a NON STORY.

You want evidence of bias, it abounds, John Edwards gay comment is a huge example, if that had been ANY republican that said what he said, it would be all over the MSM for weeks.

This flunking of the bar is a non story, not proof of bias.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Bernstein didn’t mention if she ever passed the DC bar exam, but according to her autobiography sh passed the Arkansas bar exam.

[Ozone34]

Also, didn’t AlGore flunk-out/drop-out of both law school and divinity school?

[governsleastgovernsbest]

We’ll have to agree to disagree. Whatever the ramifications for Dems who had also flunked the bar exam, I have no doubt that had Pres. Bush done so the MSM wouldn’t fail to remind us of it at every turn.

[Zakeet]

Hillary Flunked Bar Exam

That was certainly no indication of her outstanding legal skills. Otherwise, I'm sure
that she wouldn't have been made a partner in the Rose Law Firm as their
appointed expert in S&L regulations and real estate transactions.

[MissMagnolia]

NO WAY ....... this is just another attempt by the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy to smear 'The World's Smartest Woman'. As TWSW, it would be intellectually impossible for her to 'flunk' anything!

( /dripping acid sarcasm)

[maryz]

If you knew every lawyer thet flunked the Bar their first time, you’d have very few laywers practicing today....

I don't think that's nearly as true as it used to be -- i.e., there'd be very few old lawyers!

[napscoordinator]

Actually I am impressed that she let it become public over 4 years ago. Although not a big deal to flunk an exam, people should not be labeling her the smartest woman in the World. Why the conservatives were so slow on this is beyond me. Maybe it is not a big issue. She has plenty of other things that we can use against her. This might look to petty if this is used and backlash against us. We don’t want that!

[Non-Sequitur]

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