Posted on 07/20/2015 8:56:09 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
There was a brief time this year when it almost seemed like the nation’s biggest newspapers, including the Gray Lady, were going to be giving Hillary Clinton the same level of required scrutiny which should apply to every candidate for elected office. It came when they actually covered the email server story and went into a fair amount of depth on it. Of course, it would have been embarrassing in the extreme to not do so, since everyone else on the planet was talking about it. But all good things must come to an end, as they say, and New York Times reporter Amy Chozick is “balancing” the coverage back out with this hard hitting background piece on the former Secretary of State. The title alone sets the tone in case you had any doubts.
Hillary Clinton Draws Scrappy Determination From a Tough, Combative FatherThe piece is a real tear-jerker which portrays the father as at least a borderline abusive parent (which I suppose they have to do since he was a Republican) while still managing to find the positive side for Clinton since he toughened her up for the hard task of being president. But for all of the silky praise they manage to slide into this thinly disguised Clinton campaign advertisement, there is at least some interesting information about her family. I’ll confess, I don’t recall ever digging into her parents’ biographies very much and the elder Rodham seems like an interesting character.
Mrs. Clinton has made the struggles of her mother, Dorothy Rodham, a central part of her 2016 campaign’s message, and has repeatedly described Mrs. Rodham’s life story to crowds around the country. But her father, whom Mrs. Clinton rarely talks about publicly, exerted an equally powerful, if sometimes bruising, influence on the woman who wants to become the first female president…
If Mrs. Rodham, a homemaker who never attended college but who raised her daughter to be confident and caring, is forming the emotional core of Mrs. Clinton’s 2016 campaign, invoked as the inspiration behind her decades of public service, then Mrs. Clinton’s father quietly represents the candidate’s combative, determined and scrappy side. The inspiration, friends said, that toughened his daughter up to not just withstand but embrace yet another political battle.
“He was such a force in the family, and there’s a lot of him in Hillary,” said Lisa Caputo, a friend and former White House press aide who knew Mr. Rodham. “The discipline, the tenacity, the work ethic, a lot of that’s from him.”
For one thing, Clinton’s dad seems to have been a surprisingly sensible sort considering how far the fruit fell from the tree. He was definitely not a spare the rod type when it came to discipline on the home front and his opinion of Democrats certainly wasn’t too far off base. This was pointed out by Bill Clinton during the eulogy after he passed away.
Mr. Rodham seems to have disagreed with the idea that Bill was “O.K.” and was perhaps still trying to save his daughter from a bad influence even when she was walking down the aisle.When Mr. Clinton eulogized Mr. Rodham, he described him as “tough and gruff” and said he “thought Democrats were one step short of Communism — but that I might be O.K.”
If you can put aside all of the flowery, Go Hillary undertones, it’s actually an interesting piece on the Rodhams if you’re looking for something to read today. But as far as political coverage goes, it’s pure propaganda.At his daughter’s wedding in 1975, Mr. Rodham was hesitant to give the bride away to Mr. Clinton, a penniless Southern Baptist Democrat. “You can step back now, Mr. Rodham,” the minister finally said.
Well, I can’t remember who they were, but I was shocked. They were invited to some of her coffees and remarked at how petite and charming she was. I was shocked to the core.
But you have to grant that she knows how to turn on a smile. Doesn’t fool me, but I’m the skeptical one.
Is she standing on a box?
I don’t disbelieve you. I’d just like to have known of such.
I don’t doubt there are simians among us who would think that she’s likeable. Anybody that gave them a banana regularly would be likeable.
But to see some instance of our ladies here on FR falling prey to this pretend woman is mind boggling in my opinion. Frankly, that revelation rocks my entire world here, and not in a good way.
A dead body most likely.
ping
LOLOLOL!
Come on, NYT!
When Hillary’s growing up, like in the early 1900’s, none of the ‘spare the rod’ thing is ever heard of. And people from that era turned out more decent than nowadays.
As for the NYT writers there, if they can find ANYTHING (like owning slaves or such) attached to the senior Rodham, they would. Then there’ll be this heroic fight between Hillary and her father or something else equally ridiculous.
Hillary and her two brothers grew up
I wasn’t aware she had two brothers. What are they doing these days?
Gynecologist: “Mrs. Clinton, your vagina ... well, it is in wonderful shape. I might go so far as to say, it is spotless!”
Hillary: “I have a girl in twice a week.”
Looks like the Times wants Bernie Sanders...
I was watching Good Morning America today. They had a story on how the order in which you were born into your family might have shaped your destiny. In this story they said “The first born tends to be a follower of the rules”. It was then that they mentioned some people who fit that description. When they threw Hillary into the bunch noted I just broke up laughing. It was such blatant propaganda, a lie of such epic scale it was actually funny to me. It was like describing Hitler as a lover of Jewish people and a timid withdrawn peace loving man.
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