There’s an old joke that every memoir produced in Washington could be called “If Only They’d Listened to Me.”
Hillary Clinton’s book is the exception to the rule. It proves that people did listen to her, and voted accordingly.
I have to admit that I’m rather surprised by the passages that have been leaked. Given the Clintons’ mammoth staff, disciplined press shop and months to hone the message, this book is a massive self-inflicted wound.
t will not persuade a single soul that Hillary was wronged, but will likely convince many supporters that the woman is utterly deranged. I would not be surprised if Trump’s approval rating goes up as people realize just how nutty the alternative was.
For me, the most striking passage is the one where an old woman brings her adult daughter to Hillary to obtain “absolution” for her failure to vote. Hillary refused to do so.
What a bitter, hateful thing to do! Who would advertise doing this? Does she expect this show of implacable anger to make her seem more “authentic?” It doesn’t, it makes her seem petty and vindictive – and someone who must be kept as far away from the levers of power as possible.
Now let us imagine for a moment that this hot-tempered harpy had somehow gained control of the White House. Would she nuke Russia in a fit of anger? Who among her obsequious courtiers would dare defy her wishes?
The general rule in autobiographies is that you try to make yourself seem more likeable than you actually are, peppering the story with tales of generosity and good deeds.
Hillary’s screed does the exact opposite. She seems to go out of her way to live up to every Republican caricature, even to the point of embracing the utterly depraved and hateful Cersei Lannister from “Game of Thrones” as someone she can identify with.
Seriously? In a show full of empowered women, she went with the politically-calculating, bloody-minded, incestuous control freak who owed her power to a political marriage of convenience?
What. The. Hell.
All people experience adversity and disappointment. The question is not if it will happen, but how we react to it.
Hillary’s decision to put out this primal scream shows her true self, the one she promised to reveal. In that, she was (for once) completely honest.
It is, however, one of the ugliest personalities I’ve ever seen.
This isn’t so much a memoir as a political suicide note printed in hardcover.
Comments