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Empty heart of Hillary
Evening Standard (U.K.) ^ | 06/23/03 | Barbara Amiel

Posted on 06/23/2003 12:25:02 PM PDT by Pokey78

The Hillary Clinton phenomenon is a mystery to me. She bounds from calamity to scandal only to emerge ever stronger. Elected Senator for New York State in 2000, she is now mooted as a presidential candidate. Her memoir, Living History, with its emphasis on her years in the White House, will be heavily promoted when she arrives here in Britain next week.

In fact, it is not a book at all but her business plan for gaining the highest office in the contemporary world. For those of us who find her speeches and writing disingenuous and full of cant, the book's unstated agenda makes her career trajectory doubly depressing.

It is as if we are living in the wrong world when a country as great as America can produce someone with so limited a mental landscape and yet - given Mrs Clinton's career record - entitled to some genuine expectation of landing that top job.

Her book is set in " Hillaryland", a place full of loyal, wonderful people - five pages of whom she thanks. It is the ambience here that enables her to want both to "wring the neck" of her adulterous husband and dedicate her book to him. When her life gets tough, Hillary Clinton has "healing times". She also "sobs" a lot.

She is surrounded by " wonderful, loyal staff and friends." She wants to "relieve the anguish of working people" and treat "her adversaries in life and politics with decency".

Wherever she looks there is a problem; when she tackles it, her message "resonates" and quite often "becomes a manifesto for women all over the world".

Mrs Clinton did not get an $8 million advance, however, to write only of high-minded matters. Her publishers expected her to give a bit on what really went on between her and her philandering husband as they careened through the Gennifer Flowers, Paula Jones and Monica Lewinsky affairs - Kathleen Willey doesn't even rate a mention. Soapopera aficionados might also have hoped for a few more names of Clinton conquests.

As one of his close acquaintances who had wilted through the sexually frugal years of the Reagan and Bush Sr presidencies predicted happily to me after Clinton's election: "There's going to be a lot of pussy in Washington again."

Hillary's response to questions about her husband's infidelity shows the reticence of a vestal virgin. Such issues, she tells us, are in a "zone of privacy". The one interesting point she could make is never discussed: namely, that people have known from the first days of arranged marriages that continued sexual attraction and fidelity should not be the exclusive plank on which a marriage is built; that the Clintons developed some sort of arrangement or understanding as early as the 1970s that has allowed this partnership to function very well.

Given that Clinton's alleged womanising had been headline news for months, it is impossible to swallow Hillary's version that she knew nothing of these matters, she believed them to be the lies of his political enemies.

Hillary's great talent is to turn all to her advantage. It is not her fault that she has a husband who so publicly breaks his marriage vows but few people could make that into political capital, even in an age that so loves victims and survivors.

Everything, from her unearthly ability to make money in the fiendishly difficult commodities market to the nearly two-year-long inexplicable disappearance of her documents subpoenaed in the so-called "Travelgate" affair to her utter mishandling of health-care reform - the one official job she held under the Clinton presidency - seems only to have catapulted her ahead.

In America (unlike Europe), Bill Clinton has become a faded, almost pathetic figure. His wife seems to have drained the aura and power from him. How does she do it?

One can see that she is one of those interesting human beings who are more attractive when older than younger. This is not simply due to the advice of couturiers, fashion editors and dermatologists, though I dare say it has a lot to do with their skill and her ambitions.

The Hillary Clinton who ran for Senator had her hair blown dry every day without fail. Once elected she stopped that double-quick and reverted, rather winningly, to her frowsy look.

Napoleon used to say, when choosing a general for promotion, "Is he lucky?" Hillary is. It was "luck" that she ran against a helpless, inexperienced candidate in NY after Mayor Giuliani had to pull out of the race due to cancer.

People are swayed and impressed by a lucky person's success, though in assessing actual ability, luck and success may not be the best indicators.

On television or at a podium, Mrs Clinton is a winner. She can amass dozens of information points and link them together persuasively.

She cannot explain or justify her ideas a millimetre below that façade of surface knowledge, but she is rarely if ever asked to do so. Her notions are a mixture of half-digested, semi-socialist nonsense leavened with goody-goodness. Women need more rights. Children need more love - and legislation.

After spending time in South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Eritrea, Hillary writes that "No issue is more critical in Africa than stopping the ongoing conflicts - tribal, religious and national."

Few people writing about so unhappy a continent would dare pen quite so pedestrian a conclusion.

IN the end, one wonders what sort of a life does Hillary really have? She has been a fine mother but her daughter is now of age. She and her husband appear to pretty much go their own ways. In person, the attractive, animated face of this woman with the splendid laugh has a pair of dead calculating eyes.

One almost hopes that they conceal a clever Machiavellian mind, that behind this book and its author is a shrewd political operator and that underneath the political clichés there is a much more interesting person.

Surely, one thinks, in the privacy of her bedroom or talking to her closest friends, there is something more to her than she ever reveals? Can it be that one can achieve so much with nothing much more in her head than this?

One almost longs for a malevolent intelligence, but having said that, you turn the page and get the sinking feeling that maybe there just isn't anything else.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: New York
KEYWORDS: livinghistory
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To: Pokey78
How do you spell sociopath?

H-I-L-L-A-R-Y

21 posted on 06/23/2003 1:45:05 PM PDT by lonestar (Don't mess with Texans)
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To: Lorianne
What's in her heart is off limits for speculation

Welcome to earth. When did u get here? Anyone with an IQ higher than icewater has been given information showing the evil that permeates her very existance.

You are a perfect example of women voting for a woman without looking at her agenda. Alas, poor victim Hitlery. woe, she is such a champion of the masses.NOT

22 posted on 06/23/2003 2:26:34 PM PDT by zip
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To: cinFLA
$he achieved nothing.......$he was given everything by our elite media...You forgot the $100k $he was given in the cattles futures trading...You forgot the $$ $he was given in Whitewater and Madison S&L failure.

yeah....Vince Foster was really loyal too, He'll vote 'RAT in till 2020 @ least...as will Buddy 'Dog' Clinton and Socks 'Cat' Clinton. Her Shrillness achieved power because of +900 Purlioned FBI files and DNC's liberal media shills dare not ask any REAL QUESTIONS...about Mena, Chelsea's dad and Chinagate...or any other "(insert name here)"gate...there were so many scandals...$hrillary/Bill are so corrupt...it really boggles the mind...

23 posted on 06/23/2003 2:27:28 PM PDT by skinkinthegrass (Just because you're paranoid,doesn't mean they aren't out to get you. :)
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To: americanSoul
Excellent post. Thank you for stating it so concisely.
24 posted on 06/23/2003 2:29:00 PM PDT by zip
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To: zip
Where did I say I'd vote for her? It seems you're ability to jump to conclusions about others has no bounds.

For the record, I advoated looking at her agenda and public record. I made a different point about proclomations about what is or is not in Hillary's heart.

You missed the point completely and are just raving now.
25 posted on 06/23/2003 2:33:37 PM PDT by Lorianne
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To: Pokey78
She has been a fine mother...

This is bullcrap speculation.

Young Chel-see is shacked up and the only pics we've seen of the princess shows her passed out drunk in the backseat of a car.

Unfortunately her commie hillbilly parents can't waste all their money and she'll end up a wealthy heiress someday.

26 posted on 06/23/2003 2:35:59 PM PDT by JesseHousman
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To: Lorianne
What's in her heart is off limits for speculation.

I completely disagree.

I am able to observe Hillary Rodham Clinton and listen to what she has said over the years. I have a perception of what's in her heart from her words and deeds, and this perception is not flattering.

One most certainly is able to evaluate a person in part based on "what's in their heart". After all, anybody can mouth pretty sentiments (or what they imagine is a "good thing" to say or believe). It's what they do and how they treat others that tells the story.

27 posted on 06/23/2003 2:37:11 PM PDT by cyncooper
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To: americanSoul
"Some posters are somewhat cavalier in their attitude toward Her Heinous. This is a big mistake"

That point cannot be re-iterated enough.There is a reason WHY she had "Wellesley College Permanently Seal Her College Thesis".That is because her college thesis is all about Saul Alinsky and his effect on her.His book Rules For Radicals came out 2 years after she wrote her 75 page thesis which you still aren't allowed to read.

He begins his book "Rules for Radicals" with an unusual tribute: "From all our legends, mythology, and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins – or which is which), the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom – Lucifer."

Here are a few RULES that Marxist Saul Alinsky taught The Hildebeast:
"Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. It is almost impossible to counterattack ridicule. Also, it infuriates the opposition, who then react to your advantage."

"Wherever possible, go outside the experience of the enemy. Here you want to cause confusion, fear and retreat."

"The threat is generally more terrifying than the thing itself."(Note:Unless your name is Hillary Rotten.)
"In a fight almost anything goes. It almost reaches the point where you stop to apologize if a chance blow lands above the belt."

"Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it and polarize it."
"One of the criteria for picking the target is the target's vulnerability ... the other important point in the choosing of a target is that it must be a personification, not something general and abstract."

"The enemy properly goaded and guided in his reaction will be your major strength."

Isn't this the type of person who deserves to wield Power?<====dripping sarcasm

28 posted on 06/23/2003 2:45:26 PM PDT by Pagey (Hillary Rotten is a Smug, Holier - Than - Thou Socialist)
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To: Lorianne
"I don't believe anyone knows what is in another's heart. That level of arrogant presumptiousness does not make a compelling case against Mrs. Clinton. The only thing available for legitimate critique are her public actions, her advocacy.

What's in her heart is off limits for speculation."

Would your defense of Hitlery's heart have any thing to do with her being a comrade feminist like yourself?
29 posted on 06/23/2003 2:59:18 PM PDT by Search4Truth (When a man lies, he murders part of the world.)
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To: Lorianne
For the record, I advoated looking at her agenda and public record. I made a different point about proclomations about what is or is not in Hillary's heart.

You missed the point completely and are just raving now.

I DID NOT miss the point. You cannot say you advocated looking at her agenda and public record then say you don't know what is in her gizzard (she doesn't have a heart). THAT IS MY POINT.

30 posted on 06/23/2003 3:00:37 PM PDT by zip
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To: Pagey
'Rules for Radicals' is a fascinating book; Hillary Clinton apparently learned a lot from it.

Everytime I hear someone scoff at the idea of Hillary Clinton (who will probably return to 'Rodham'), actually being elected president, I shudder. If she does NOT run for president, we'll all be blessed. If she does, I am terrified that she might be able to win. All it will take are 3-4 of the major states with all of the electoral votes. Then heaven help us all.

Apparently Barbara Amiel (author of this article)is one Britisher with a brain in her head!
31 posted on 06/23/2003 3:03:53 PM PDT by Maria S
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To: sweetliberty
Ping!
See post #28
32 posted on 06/23/2003 3:34:13 PM PDT by ntnychik
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To: Pokey78
She cannot explain or justify her ideas a millimetre below that façade of surface knowledge, but she is rarely if ever asked to do so.

Hillary! is the product of an adoring liberal media. Without carefully scripted appearances with Barbara Walters, Diane Sawyer and other liberal toadies she would be nothing.

Somehow, she needs to be drawn into situations where she must respond spontaneously and be forced to actually answer hard questions. I suspect her thin veneer would quickly wear through.

33 posted on 06/23/2003 3:34:25 PM PDT by Senator_Blutarski
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To: Pokey78
To save us and the world from this evil person - when is our Justice Department or this administration going to conduct some long overdue investigations of the demonic duo??? WHY are they being protected????

There is enough unbiased media sources available to spread the news and bypass the liberal media -so what is stopping them?

34 posted on 06/23/2003 3:37:13 PM PDT by LADY J
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To: LADY J
Should have said are enough instead of is enough. Sorry.
35 posted on 06/23/2003 3:40:18 PM PDT by LADY J
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To: Lorianne
Lorianne, nothing is off limits. And why should it be? because the great Lorianne says so?
This turd of a woman is garbbage and everything she touches is either garbbage or contrived.
She is a scam artist of the grand style. She runs from a real interview and cozies up to lackies like Larry King who won't ask either a dificult or embarassing question.
She stands for socialism and personal wealth gratification and POWER.
Dumbasses like you that defend her, her husband and their ever pathetic lives are what? silly ignorant weman?
36 posted on 06/23/2003 3:42:25 PM PDT by Joe Boucher
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To: Faith
The Clintons continue to degrade and embarass the United States world-wide, but I say STAY IN THE SPOTLIGHT, BILL AND HILLARY,....FOREVER!!

Why? These lawyer scum are destroying the democrats. It will be a sad day for the Republicans if the 'rats ever wise up and oust these two criminals from their rigid control of the democrat party.

37 posted on 06/23/2003 3:53:31 PM PDT by friendly
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To: Joe Boucher
nevermind.
You obviously can't read.
38 posted on 06/23/2003 3:59:22 PM PDT by Lorianne
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To: IncPen
'After spending time in South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Eritrea, Hillary writes that "No issue is more critical in Africa than stopping the ongoing conflicts - tribal, religious and national." Few people writing about so unhappy a continent would dare pen quite so pedestrian a conclusion.' God, that is good writing.
39 posted on 06/23/2003 4:59:07 PM PDT by BartMan1
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To: Joe Boucher
nevermind.
You obviously can't read.

(Post #38.) Just wondering who's typing your posts for you. lol

By being "put down" by lorianne, you've joined the ranks of the real Americans now. Congratulations. zip

40 posted on 06/23/2003 5:38:06 PM PDT by zip
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