December 6, 2014

"Hillary Clinton’s History as First Lady: Powerful, but Not Always Deft."

What's the NYT up to with this article?

44 comments:

traditionalguy said...

There is unrest in the forest. There is trouble in the trees. Beware the ides of a Blood Feud with Obama's Gang.

rehajm said...

Lipstick on a pig? (metaphor)

Phil 314 said...

This will be used by the vast right wing conspiracy.

Michael K said...

I assume that story is about the period before he fired her from the staff as a liar.

For a better picture, read a book that will no doubt be out in a reprint soon, Unlimited Access by Gary Aldrich.

I like the part where Hillary ordered the staff to never look at her when she was walking through the West Wing. What a bitch !

PB said...

Another campaign contribution to the Clintons. Lots of stuff is going to come out about Hillary from the Clinton library and they want to get ahead of it and frame it the way they want.

Unknown said...

"Hilary Clinton's History as Secretary of State, Cutesy but Ineffectual" to follow.

William said...

From the deft to the daft is but a step.

rehajm said...

'Deftly' answering the interview question What are your greatest weaknesses?.

rehajm said...

She will now never have to address them again, as they have been answered.

madAsHell said...

What a puff piece!!

The Godfather said...

"Now carefully controlled at 67, then she was fiery and unpredictable". Carefully controlled, as in "What difference at this point does it make"? As in "Don't let anyone tell you that businesses create jobs"?

I'd be more interested in an article that describes, objectively, her achievements and qualifications for the presidency. Or would that just be a tweet?

Hagar said...

About to switch horses?

SteveR said...

Battleground Prep for HRC2016.

JAORE said...

Perhaps they assessed her viability as a candidate and fear she would lose the general election. Can't have that.

Louis said...

If I needed to interpret the article politically I would think that it is an argument against her in the primary without sabotaging her for the general. Democrats want someone strong and deft, not merely powerful and careful.

JAORE said...

Oh yeah, I like the comment about the inner circle (AKA Hillaryland). Just what we need, another POTUS with a close knit, responsible to none, inner circle.

NCMoss said...

That hit on the head was apparently better than shock therapy. According to the NYT, an out of control egomaniac has been transformed into a disciplined and "deft" champion of the people. The meta-message I guess is that Bill is an integral part of team Hillary.

Hagar said...

It is not so much the lack of "new car smell" as the skunk asleep on the exhaust manifold.

Wilbur said...

Michael K. said "I like the part where Hillary ordered the staff to never look at her when she was walking through the West Wing. What a bitch !"

I figure she was doing them a favor.

I've read about divas, Diana Ross and others, demanding this particular servility from underlings. I could never wrap my head around why, unless it's just to show you can.

mccullough said...

Donna Shalala comes off better than Hillary when it comes to Bill's womanizing. Hillary knows it's true and goes into strategy mode. She's as cold as the grave.

Michael K said...

"She's as cold as the grave."

Good simile. She is really something. Stalin might have feared her, just before he had her shot.

Mark O said...

Daft, but not deft.

Skeptical Voter said...

Well maybe not "deft". But Hillary was always "left" in the White House, having long ago gotten over the "Girls for Goldwater" thing.

And of course we haven't really had time to savor the "We have to empathize with our enemies, it's the 21st century way" thing. I don't think lopping off heads needs to be "empathized" with. Taking Yazidi women and selling them into sex slavery is kind of against the feminist ethic--not to mention Boko Haram specializing in hardly used Nigerian virgins with their "2 for 1" offer. I mean a Muslim man can have 4 wives, and that 2 for 1 special is hard to pass up.

But the "country" Clinton may be able to make up a lot of ground. Hayseed Hillary, that's the ticket! Fresh off the manure pile down at the cattle futures feed lot is a winning campaign theme.

Brando said...

I think the media wants a real race. If Hillary was polling a lot lower, we'd see more puff pieces.

Anonymous said...

Hillary's power: Stands by her philandering husband, lies to the stupid voters about a right-wing conspiracy in return for a slice of her husband's power and her husband's reflected glory.

Zach said...

“The thing he lacks is discipline, both in his personal life and his intellectual or decision-making life, unless he’s rescued by somebody,” observed Alice M. Rivlin, who served as White House budget director. “I think for a good part of his career, he was probably rescued by Hillary by her being a more decisive, more disciplined kind of person who kept things moving.”

This comes up a lot in stories about Bill Clinton -- that Hillary sees herself as the brains of the operation.

The thing it misses is that Bill was always the talent of the operation.

If you keep the discipline and lose the talent, what you get is Hillary! the candidate -- a joyless operation that is somehow both a frontrunner and a hopeless vanity campaign by an old lady with a rich husband.

Anonymous said...

It is beginning to look like Christmas. NYT is just getting started in the POTUS Hillary sweep stakes, before NPR, PBS, and MSNBC.

The Take-Back-The White House Campaign started today officially, 12/5/14.

F said...

It strikes me that the Democrat establishment would like to have a different candidate than Hillary. Just as Republicans in 2008 wanted someone other than McCain, but figured he was "owed" the nomination, Democrats figure it is her turn. So she gets to skip over a lot of the questions about qualifications -- it's her turn. That's what Teddy Kennedy thought, too, and when someone actually had the audacity to ask him why he wanted to be president he froze like a deer in the headlights. Were someone to ask Hillary that question I have no doubt she could come up with a glib (but meaningless) reply along the lines of "women need a voice, a role model, a champion, in the White House". Nothing about the country needing to tack further left or the government needing to take over more of the running of our daily life.

pm317 said...

I think the media learned their lesson not to go after a Democratic president and his wife -- starting with where are Obama's transcripts, medical history,... and on and on. And the GoP even when they ask questions that need answers in this golden age of Obama, are made to look like crazy right wingers.

furious_a said...

Powerful, but not always deft.

Just ask Billy Dale and the White House Travel Office staff.

New Car Smell...not after Bill's been busy in the back seat.

Louis said...

Hillary won't be the nominee, I am fairly sure. I suspect she won't run at all, but if she runs she will lose the primary. And that's that. She doesn't have the heart or soul of the Democratic Party and she knows it. If she bows out gracefully she will earn a place as perhaps something like the head. Maybe an appointment as Secretary of Defense or the Supreme Court.

pm317 said...

Louis, why?! you fit right in this blog. You should comment more.

Fred Drinkwater said...

I agree with Louis. I predicted about a year ago that HC would not be nominated, and nothing that has happened since has changed that opinion. FWIW, in that conversation I offered a cash bet at good odds, but got no takers.

Louis said...

Elizabeth Warren is it. Obama is an effective messenger but it turns out his original message of bipartisan cooperation was too ahead of its time. A message of populism delivered smartly is always on time and in order, though.

hombre said...

Paving the way for Fauxcahontas, who may prove to be at least as shabby as Hillary.

The NYT rocks for new shabby.

Rick.T. said...

Speaking of "rape deniers..."

Michael K said...

"Paving the way for Fauxcahontas, who may prove to be at least as shabby as Hillary."

She is a nasty piece of work but she has a trail of revealing experiences. Obama was a perfect cipher with no history and no trail, at least that anyone could find.

He even said it. Another said, "illusion that can make it easy for others to see in Obama what they want to see. This doesn’t make him deceptive; it simply means that he is an easy hook for others to hang their projections on."

And he was. Fauxcahontas may not be.

The Godfather said...

I agree with most of what F said (12:19 pm), except: "Just as Republicans in 2008 wanted someone other than McCain, but figured he was 'owed' the nomination". I know that's the conventional wisdom (and it might have applied to some extent in 2012), but what better candidate did McCain beat? Everyone figured 2008 was a Democrat year, and there wasn't a very long line of first-class volunteers to be the Republican sacrificial lamb. Romney was my personal second choice (after Giuliani -- I have a fatal attraction to moderate Republicans that I'm trying to overcome). Does anyone think Mitt would have done better against Obama in '08 than he did in '12?

retired said...

You voting for HRC or Warren?

Lnelson said...

Considering the fickle and shallow nature of the media, Elizabeth Warren will be 67 years old as the election approaches, Walker is almost 20 years younger.
OTOH, if he needs Biden hair plugs for the bald spot, at least she doesn't need botox for the cheeks...the facial ones.

Scott said...

Hillary's imperfections make her look almost human.

Anonymous said...

I finally saw a video of her blatherous recent Georgetown address. She looks pretty bad, even for her. I'm not certain she will run. And if she does, I don't think she'll have a lock on the nomination.

Louis said...

First Lady and Senator and Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense is history. First Lady and Senator and ornamental Secretary of State and failed primary candidate is a bad asterisk.

Mike near Seattle said...

Trying to preempt a nastier story someone else is working on. Or might work on.

It'll be interesting to see what'll crawl out of the woodwork the moment Hillary no longer looks inevitable.