Moonsigns  |  Band Guide  |  Blogs  |  In Pictures  |  Adult
Boston  |  Portland  |  Providence
 
Flashbacks  |  Letters  |  Media -- Dont Quote Me  |  News Features  |  Talking Politics  |  The Editorial Page  |  This Just In

Empty pantsuit

There's a reason why two new biographies of Hillary Clinton elicit such yawns
By STEVEN STARK  |  June 22, 2007

INISDE_HILBUTTON
I have a terrible confession to make: I couldn’t get through either of the two new biographical tomes about Hillary Clinton.

I really did try. And I’m sure it’s all good stuff if you’re into hearing the same old stories about the Vince Foster suicide, the commodities trade, the health-care debacle, and so on, torturously replayed for pages on end.

But I, for one, just can’t take it anymore.

The reaction of one Hillary spokesperson (she has many) to the two books was, “Is it possible to be quoted yawning?” And he’s right, albeit for the wrong reasons.

Part of the problem with these new biographies is that they were scripted by investigative reporters: Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta Jr. (New York Times), authors of Hillary Clinton: Her Way, and the legendary Carl Bernstein (Washington Post), who wrote A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton. These journalists are trained, so to speak, to lose the forest for the trees. That makes for good reporting, but lousy biography.

The main problem, however, is the subject itself. To continue the cliché metaphor, with Hillary, there is no forest. Or, as Gertrude Stein once said of Oakland, “there’s no there there.”

The press’s assumption about Hillary has always been that she’s the power behind the throne: the smart, savvy one at Yale Law School, who got better grades but postponed her own political career for the benefit of her husband. David Brock wrote an earlier biography, The Education of Hillary Rodham, that advanced this thesis, making the claim that Hillary, not Bill, was the leading light of the twosome.

There’s only one problem with this theory: there isn’t evidence to support it. Love him or hate him, Bill is a  political phenomenon.

Hillary’s real claim to fame is that she married a political star. And, because of that, any biography that tells the truth about her essentially amounts to hundreds of pages relaying, well, not that much of anything. You can’t write a good life story about a rather boring and unlikable personage who’s never done enough to merit a lengthy biography in her own right, even if she is married to someone as interesting as Bill.

It’s true that, according to the Hillary myth, Hillary’s classmates were wowed by her at Wellesley and that she gave what they considered to be a stirring graduation address when she left. But giving a great graduation address is not a qualification for the presidency. And, even if it were, it would have to be a lot better speech than Hillary’s, which, to be kind, has not stood the test of time as well as, say, the Gettysburg Address.

 

Hillary Clinton: Her Way | by Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta Jr. | Little Brown & Company | 438 pages

A Woman In Charge: The Life Of Hillary Rodham Clinton | by Carl Bernstein | Alfred A. Knopf | 628 pages

“We are, all of us, exploring a world that none of us even understands and attempting to create within that uncertainty,” she said that day. “But there are some things we feel, feelings that our prevailing, acquisitive, and competitive corporate life, including tragically the universities, is not the way of life for us. We’re searching for more immediate, ecstatic, and penetrating modes of living.”

“I Have a Dream,” it’s not.

It’s also true that Hillary was an outstanding student at Yale Law School. But so was everyone else — that’s what Yale Law School attracts. (Okay, I’m bragging; I went there, too.) As with almost everyone else who went to Yale Law, she’s smart and quick on her feet, which is why she does well in debates. Again, that’s not a qualification for the presidency (or if it is, I have about 5000 classmates and alumni I’d like to recommend ahead of her).

Since then, Hillary has been one of Bill’s closest advisers. But if that, too, were a presidential qualification, we could elect Dick Morris or James Carville (no thanks).

Granted, she got elected to the Senate in 2000. But if her name were Hillary Rodham, with no connection to a certain “Bill,” how viable would that campaign have been?

The truth is that whenever Hillary has tried to do something important on her own — and it hasn’t been very often — she’s botched it rather spectacularly. The health-care “debacle” she managed during her husband’s first term was rightly named. And, not only did she get it wrong initially on Iraq — her most important vote in a fairly undistinguished Senate career to date — she refuses, to this day, to apologize for it, thereby confirming the suspicion that she is unpleasantly imperious.

Barack Obama doesn’t exactly have a lengthy résumé, either. But he differs from Hillary in two key ways. First, if you’ve read his book, you know he’s genuinely interesting, with a set of thoughtful and original political ideas, forged in a rather unconventional background. It’s fun to read his autobiography — though it remains to be seen if this intriguing persona translates into presidential material.

1  |  2  |   next >
Related:
  Topics: News Features , Hillary Clinton , Hilary Clinton , Carl Bernstein ,  More more >
  • Share:
  • RSS feed Rss
  • Email this article to a friend Email
  • Print this article Print
Comments
Empty pantsuit
Thanks for being bored by the books. From the excerpts and reviews that I have read, the best thing that the authors have done is to remind us of what we knew anyway. And to add confirmation of these things by numerous insiders. Sometimes, though, for those of us who are retired or have sufficient leisure or interest, the books that give the big picture of a story that has gone on for more than a decade, are useful to put everything together.
By JimSmiling on 06/21/2007 at 12:57:08
Empty pantsuit
Dear Mr. Steve, I think your article was pretty boring. Hillary's grad speech was excellent,thanks for including in your otherwise ho-him article.
By Savvycat1 on 06/24/2007 at 4:18:05

Live from St. Paul: real-time updates at thePhoenix.com/Election2008
More: DNC 2008
ARTICLES BY STEVEN STARK
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   DAWG DAYS  |  September 03, 2008
    The 2008 campaign is turning out to be our first-ever American Idol election
  •   FEELING MINNESOTA  |  August 28, 2008
    If McCain wants to gain on Obama, he needs to achieve these four goals in St. Paul
  •   BY GEORGE, IT'S BARACK!  |  August 20, 2008
    To win over the working class, Obama should study the acceptance speech of George H. W. Bush
  •   BREAKING THE PRESS  |  August 13, 2008
    Democrats need to look past the media's feel-good coverage of Obama and deal with the realities of the campaign
  •   THE REIGN OF SPAIN  |  August 08, 2008
    Never mind the Olympics — the Spanish are the big winners of 2008. Are Obama and McCain aware of this new European powerhouse?

 See all articles by: STEVEN STARK

MOST POPULAR
RSS Feed of for the most popular articles
 Most Viewed   Most Emailed 



Featured Articles in News Features:
Monday, September 08, 2008  |  Sign In  |  Register
 
thePhoenix.com:
Phoenix Media/Communications Group:
TODAY'S FEATURED ADVERTISERS
Copyright © 2008 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group