March 23, 2005

The Problem with Hillary ... Biographies

CAN THE MOST HUMILIATED WIFE in American history really rise to the Presidency? In this therapeutic age, why the hell not? After all, there's nothing of the hindu in Hillary and, therefore, no sign she's about to climb on top of the Democrat's funeral pyre in a

selfless and loyal act of suttee . There's nothing either selfless or loyal about her. What we are dealing with here is ambition raised to obsession; a pursuit of a goal that brooks no limit; just the sort of focus needed to be elected to high office. Hillary is the once-and-future poster child for "coming a long way, baby," and "having it all." But at least, for now, her professional life is simple since she's reduced her "To-Do" list to one item. And, if we are to believe the most recent biography, that single item has been on the list for 40 years.

But are we to believe the latest Tale-o-Hillary? The dependably flatulent Dick Morris has warned against the book claiming that it will only "embolden her." To what? Standing by her disgraced man as the world's most cuckolded wife? Running for the Senate in a state she never lived in? Stalking the Presidency with a fervor that would get her jailed if it was directed against David Letterman?

PEGGY NOONAN has read the Klein biography of Hillary Clinton so you don't have to. Having written a Hillary book herself she looks to the core of the problem with these Hillary hit jobs.

The real problem with Hillary biographies is that the picture they paint, if it is true, is difficult for a normal person to believe. No one could be that bad. No one who has risen so high in American politics could possibly be that bad. To believe is to go to a dark place.

And the charges seem so at odds--so utterly at odds--with the nice, smiling woman who calls abortion a tragedy and enjoys speaking of how much she prays. This is the problem all Hillary biographers have: It's too grim to believe. To believe that her story as presented by the books so far is true is to believe that she has clung to a premeditated plan for 40 years, that she is ruthless in the pursuit both of her own ambitions and of a deep and intractable leftist political agenda. And that she found her equal in a partner sufficiently hardhearted to stick with the plan, and the secrecy, and the weirdness. It's too over the top. It seems hard to believe, not because it isn't true but because it isn't likely, usual, expected.

What's the solution to "The Hillary Perplex?" As the world's first consulting detective, Sherlock Holmes, once observed, "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

Posted by Vanderleun at March 23, 2005 7:29 AM
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i'm not sherlock, so how's about you tell me what the solution to hillary is ?

Posted by: cjm at June 23, 2005 8:18 PM