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Hillary Clinton's New Book Title Has Already Been Used by a Former Secretary of State
The National Journal ^ | Friday, April 18, 2014 | Matt Berman

Posted on 04/18/2014 10:06:49 AM PDT by kristinn

Political-memoir names: so cliche that they're bound to repeat.

Hillary Clinton's upcoming memoir, which is expected to look back at her time as secretary of State, now has a name: Hard Choices. Which is an okay title! She no doubt had to make some tough decisions while at State, and has at least one big decision to make coming up in the next year or so.

But the former Cabinet member and possible future presidential candidate may have been better served by a different title—like, say, Tough Decisions. Because Hard Choices has already been used. By another former secretary of State.

In 1983, Cyrus Vance, who served as secretary of State in the Carter administration from 1977 to 1980, released his memoir about his own years in office: Hard Choices: Critical Years in America's Foreign Policy. The book doesn't appear to be widely read now (if Amazon is any guide), but when it was published, it was praised by Foreign Affairs as a "highly rewarding" read "for the serious observer," and hailed as a "remarkable picture of the diverse problems and strains with which an American secretary of State must cope today." Which sounds, at least in part, like what Clinton is going for with her new book.

Hillary Clinton can be forgiven for the repeat. The basic nature of political-memoir titles is just to be as vague, unoffensive, and bland as possible. The golden rule, best explored in the third-season premiere of HBO's Veep, is to say absolutely nothing while suggesting absolutely everything. It is, in short, a perfectly ridiculous exercise.

So really there should be no surprise that Clinton's book has a very similar-sounding predecessor. The real shock will be if, 20 years from now, this doesn't just happen all the time. There are, after all, only so many cliches to go around.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: cyrusvance; hardchoices; hillary; hillarybook; hillaryclinton; soshillary
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Media makes excuses for Hillary's incompetence as they report on her incompetence.
1 posted on 04/18/2014 10:06:50 AM PDT by kristinn
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To: kristinn

A one page book: “I lied, Benghazi staff died.”


2 posted on 04/18/2014 10:09:01 AM PDT by Huskrrrr
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To: kristinn
I like this one.


3 posted on 04/18/2014 10:12:05 AM PDT by LostInBayport (When there are more people riding in the cart than there are pulling it, the cart stops moving...)
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To: kristinn

How about the title “Stupid Choices”?


4 posted on 04/18/2014 10:12:08 AM PDT by reg45 (Barack 0bama: Implementing class warfare by having no class.)
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To: kristinn

How about “Alcohol-Fueled Stupidity”?


5 posted on 04/18/2014 10:13:10 AM PDT by ZirconEncrustedTweezers (I'm not anti-government, government's anti-me.)
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To: kristinn

The best title would be:

“What difference does it make?”


6 posted on 04/18/2014 10:13:13 AM PDT by SMARTY ("When you blame others, you give up your power to change." Robert Anthony)
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To: kristinn

This book will be about as truthful as her husband’s claim that he never had sex with that woman. The Hillary! faithful will lap it up and declare everything in it is Gospel. It breaks my heart that the Lib educators have so dumbed down the apparent majority. I do worry that America’s best days are behind her.


7 posted on 04/18/2014 10:14:21 AM PDT by originalbuckeye (Moderation in temper is always a virtue; moderation in principle is always a vice. Paine)
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To: kristinn

Hillary’s book having the same title as a book by Carter’s SecState seems very apropos.


8 posted on 04/18/2014 10:14:59 AM PDT by Pan_Yan
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To: kristinn

"Heck, I was gonna use that title for my new book. (It has a fold-out.)"

9 posted on 04/18/2014 10:15:05 AM PDT by Jeff Chandler (Obamacare: You can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs.)
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To: kristinn
She slightly altered the phrase for her POTUS campaign:


10 posted on 04/18/2014 10:15:33 AM PDT by GrandJediMasterYoda (Hitlery: Incarnation of evil.)
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To: kristinn
Hillary Clinton's upcoming memoir, which is expected to look back at her time as secretary of State, now has a name: Hard Choices

My dad used to tell me that "hard choices" were hypnotic and never to fall in love with them because they prevented you from seeing the other options and there are always other options.

11 posted on 04/18/2014 10:15:34 AM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear (Proud Infidel, Gun Nut, Religious Fanatic and Freedom Fiend)
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To: GrandJediMasterYoda
Speaking of which, is this the new Hitlery salute? A Nazi salute but with the fingers tilted down?


12 posted on 04/18/2014 10:16:56 AM PDT by GrandJediMasterYoda (Hitlery: Incarnation of evil.)
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To: kristinn

I recommend she change it to “what difference does it make”

Maybe fr could run a campaign on Amazon feedback renaming it for her?

3


13 posted on 04/18/2014 10:19:24 AM PDT by Triple (Socialism denies people the right to the fruits of their labor, and is as abhorrent as slavery)
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To: kristinn

She should call it “My Struggle”.
No wait that’s taken too.


14 posted on 04/18/2014 10:25:13 AM PDT by thorvaldr
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To: kristinn

the Audacity of Hope...

Hope Arkansas


15 posted on 04/18/2014 10:25:34 AM PDT by MeshugeMikey ( "Never, never, never give up". Winston Churchill)
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To: kristinn
These needs to go viral: Millions of people taking selfies imitating the "Hitlery salute" while making a face


16 posted on 04/18/2014 10:28:39 AM PDT by GrandJediMasterYoda (Hitlery: Incarnation of evil.)
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To: Triple
HE HE HE HE!


17 posted on 04/18/2014 10:28:51 AM PDT by MeshugeMikey ( "Never, never, never give up". Winston Churchill)
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To: kristinn
World's new shortest book:

"WHAT I HAVE ACCOMPLISHED" by Hillary Rodham Hubbell-Clinton.

18 posted on 04/18/2014 10:29:49 AM PDT by clintonh8r (Don't give up! The liberals are buggering and aborting themselves into extinction.)
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To: GrandJediMasterYoda

She has no dignity whatsoever.


19 posted on 04/18/2014 10:31:54 AM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: GrandJediMasterYoda

20 posted on 04/18/2014 10:34:56 AM PDT by CJ Wolf
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