Who is Hillary Clinton?

The Nation ^ | 6/30/07 | Ehrenreich

[pabianice]

One theory, which functions as a kind of cargo cult among some American liberals, is that behind the bland, smiling, exterior and the thick gauze of platitudes, crouches a fiery liberal feminist, ready, when she has finally amassed enough power--say in her second term as President--to spring forth and save the world.

If Carl Bernstein's exhausting 600-page biography, A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton, accomplishes anything, it should be to euthanize this touching hope. Hillary Rodham Clinton was always a moderate, given to centrist, technocratic. In her lifetime, she has glided effortlessly from one side to another on key issues--the death penalty, for example, or entitlements for poor women and children--all the while maintaining the self-righteousness granted, supposedly, by her Methodist God.

In Bernstein's account the mystery of Hillary is largely explained by her fraught relationship with Bill. She was pretty enough, but an awkward, wonky, young woman; he was a brilliant, ambitious, sexually magnetic stud; and in following him to Arkansas she seemed to have thrown her future as, say, a high-profile Washington public interest lawyer. "My friends and family thought I had lost my mind," Bernstein quotes her as saying. He insists that theirs is, or sometimes was, a deep connection--sexual, intellectual and committed to their joint political "journey."

[pabianice]

In the end, the question of who Hillary is seems almost a bit anthropomorphic. Surely she has loved, laughed and suffered in the usual human ways, but what we are left with is a sleek, well-funded, power-seeking machine encased in a gleaming carapace of self-righteousness. She's already enjoyed considerable power, both as a Senator and a "co-president," and in the ways that counted, she blew it. What Americans need most, after fifteen years of presidential crimes high and low, is to wash their hands of all the sleaze, blood, and other bodily fluids, and find themselves a President who is neither a Clinton nor a Bush.

[MNJohnnie]

I see the Leftist spin machine is out in full force to repackage Hillary as a “technocrat moderate” for the 2008 elections.

There was NOTHING “moderate” about her Hillary health care plan in 1993. That is an real example of Hillary the politician as action that no amount of air brushing by the spin machine can hide from the voters.

[Diogenesis]

"Dad .... You .... Me .... Hillary .... Jeb ...... Chelsea .....
.... right to the installation of the North American Union."

[upchuck]

God protect us.

[Dick Bachert]

"The urge to save humanity is often a false front for the urge to RULE." H.L. Mencken

And BTW, she has quite a voice.

A sample of Hillary’s vocals available here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_zCpQZ-H94

[SmoothTalker]

A she-devil sent to destroy America.

[vetsvette]

“Who is Hillary Clinton?”

She’s the commie with fat legs.

[America needs to wakeup]

"Surely she has loved, laughed and suffered in the usual human ways."

I thought you had to have a soul to experience these emotions?

[litehaus]

bttt

[COUNTrecount]

It took Monica Lewinsky to restore Hillary's upper hand within her marriage and, with it, her self-confidence. Apparently believing her husband's protestations of innocence, she took over the management of his defense within the White House, and, disconcertingly, started exploring the possibility of running for the senate in New York State at the very same moment the already-elected senate was voting on Bill's impeachment. But even in this time of extreme crisis--for her marriage as well as the presidency--she could not resist asserting to a family adviser that "My husband may have his faults, but he has never lied to me." Bernstein, ever the gentleman, comments only that "that statement speaks for itself."

Good article.

[Thebaddog]

Imus got canned for calling Satan one too many times. She has emotions, but don’t look into her eyes.

[hotshu]

Thanks for posting this, for otherwise I would have never had this insight as to what passes for good writing at “The Nation”. The commentary was almost painful to read due to numerous grammatical errors.

Eherenreich’s writing attempts to paint “Her Heinous” as a moderate won’t succeed with any but the far left, but that is after all the readership of “The Nation.”

[Don Corleone]

Hillary Rodham Clinton was always a moderate,

Yup! Taking from you for the Common Good and Nationalized Health care are certain signs of a Moderate in the east coast Liberal Socialist enclave.For them Karl Marx, Stalin and Castro were neophyte socialists.

[Willow25]

Hillary Clinton, is who ever you want her to be..One minute she is a Jew the next she is a Christian..tomorrow she might be a Muslim..Depending on what office she is running for..

[Chode]

LOOK... it's TouristSenator!!!
It shows up in more places than TouristGuy,
only with less style and substance...
she's Vaporware, just an empty crusty.
(Please spread me around like the parasite that i am...)

[YaYa123]

What a fun Saturday read....and in The Nation no less.

So, Barbara Ehrenreich, who is currently an “honorary co-chair of the Democratic Socialists of America, and on the NORML Board of Directors,” doesn’t want Hillary to be president.

Despite this wrist slap scolding, (not scalding, not scathing), article, I bet the farm Ehrenreich, all bonafide socialists, and marijuana legalizers, can’t wait to vote for Hillary.

[ExTexasRedhead]

When will the GOP leadership have the gonads to expose the dirty laundry and skeletons behind Tubba and Bubba??? Everyone whispers about it, but no one has the guts to tell the truth. No one has a longer list of “dead” associates than these two.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

An interesting poll this past week said 52 percent of the US would not vote for her.

[SirJohnBarleycorn]

Hillary Rodham Clinton was always a moderate, given to centrist, technocratic.

This was the real purpose of Bernstein's book. There was nothing new in terms of negative disclosures about Hillary in his book, and it is obvious to those of us who followed the Clinton crimes and scandals closely in the 90s that what Bernstein did include is a whitewashed version of these events.

The liberal strategy a la Bernstein is to themselves define the negative side of Hillary and to spin it in the least damaging way; in particular, to portray her as a victim of Bill, and so to claim the mantle of victimhood which plays so well with liberals.

he was a brilliant, ambitious, sexually magnetic stud

ROFL

When they entered the White House in 1993 on the heels of the Gennifer Flowers scandal, the outwardly forgiving Hillary was at the height of her power, eager to assume the "co-presidency."

Another lie. She was not "forgiving," they were "denying." Bill lied about Gennifer Flowers and the regular drug usage by him she described, and his flacks and thugs were sent out to smear and intimidate her (her neighbor was in fact badly beaten by these thugs). Hillary enabled the denial by going on 60 Minutes and supporting his lies.

Compared to the Bush era White House scandals, the Whitewater land deal was microscopic-- no one died or was tortured--and surely the "vast rightwing conspiracy" played a role in keeping it alive.

In the mind of the left, killing terrorists who are trying to slaughter Americans is a "scandal." And when some unsupervised screw-up puts panties on the head of a terrorist detainee, that is "torture."

I guess Jerry Parks' widow, among others, will be surprised to learn he is still alive somewhere, per Ms. Ehrenreich.

Most of the lies Bernstein documents along the way are, in the scheme of things, inconsequential and well in the past.

As I indicated, this was the impression Bernstein intended to leave, and was a major purpose behind producing this book in the first place.

What Americans need most... find themselves a President who is neither a Clinton nor a Bush.

Ehrenreich has been reading the polls, and noting that Hillary has unprecedently high negatives for a presidential candidate.

[small voice in the wilderness]

She is the scariest, most dangerous kind of creature. She has the ability to mirror the person she is speaking to. Therefore she is all things to all people. Her eyes are NOT a mirror into her own soul, they are a mirror into YOUR soul. And she truly scares the hell out of me.