Scenes From a Tea for Two
At a Washington hotel in the spring of 1992, I had tea with Hillary Clinton. I remember thinking that if it weren't for the tape recorder perched on the table between us, we could be friends. I really identified with her, her passion for the issues, her earnestness about doing good works. I defended her at every turn on "The McLaughlin Group."
The moderator began calling me Eleanor Rodham Clift. Hillary and I would laugh about that, and after the Republican Revolution in 1994, she seemed genuinely concerned that I would pay a price for this sisterly solidarity. She has shown me other kindnesses as well. The day after my husband died following a long battle with cancer, Hillary called me at home. Her first words were, "Oh, Eleanor, oh, oh, oh." We talked about the vagaries of life, and how quickly things can slip away. Bill Clinton had undergone heart surgery the previous fall. He was getting his energy back, she said, but he was impatient. We talked awhile, and she told me when I was ready, I should come have lunch with her in the Senate Dining Room. I didn't make the call, but six weeks later, I heard from her scheduler.
It was the summer of '06 when we got together, just the two of us. There was no tape recorder this time. We joked about the right-wing conspiracy, the one she faced every day, and the one I jousted with on television. We talked about travel, hers and mine, and the challenge of overcoming flat hair, which she has mastered in this campaign. She didn't say so, but it was clear she was running for president. There was a little of the old Hillary, the imperious way she sets out to achieve what she wants, ready to mow down whoever and whatever might intervene. I remember her White House health-care effort, her hubris and naiveté about the ways of Washington. All she would have to do, she declared with a wave of her arm, is to get a bill to the floor of the Senate. She was adamant that no one would dare vote against universal health care with the world watching. She never even got a vote in committee. It would be years before she recognized her failings in dealing with Congress, and even now, listening to her campaign rhetoric, it's the special interests that bear the blame, not her missteps.
I recognize that she's in the fight of her life. But I'm having a hard time with her campaign tactics. When she airily dismisses Barack Obama as someone who just makes a speech, she's insulting all the people who are drawn to him, including many who support her. He's touched something that has restored faith in politics, and that's what the Clintons did when they first burst upon the national scene. I worry I'm too tough on her, that what makes her a viable contender is her ability to play hardball. No one doubts her intelligence and capability to lead the country. The danger signs are more personal, the scars she bears from all the years of being under attack, and her yearning for a zone of privacy that keeps her tightly cocooned and prone to an unhealthy degree of secrecy.
© 2008
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Member Comments
Posted By: justa @ 03/27/2008 9:31:15 PM
Comment: I'm about fed up with this BS...
I've stopped supporting my candidate
and started sending my monthly funds to the McCain camp and will continue to do so until it stops
this cam pain is different it can not be run from the top ... needs more or less incentives from down here
Posted By: Templegee @ 03/13/2008 11:38:53 AM
Comment: Eleanor, you have been my hero on McLaughlin Group for years, as you have stood up for yourself and your opinions with dignity and grace. However, lately I'm hearing and reading a more conflicted attitude from you. And let me say, it is not unlike my own feelings. This election(Democrat primary) has brought up so many of the underlying unresolved feelings that this country as a whole has surpressed for so many decades. I am 63 years old and have worked for 45 of those years. I have born and raised 2 children and remain married to the same man for 38 years. I say this so you can understand that in all these years I as a woman have never prayed for a woman, of any color, to be President. Nor have I prayed for a Man,of any color,to be President. So far, in that regard, I did pray that George W Bush wouldn't have a second term!! Other than that, I have always looked at the issues and policies the candidates put foward and voted for the one I thought was the person that would get the job done. Regardless of party,by the way. Of course, before 2000 I had no idea how the process worked. I just voted in a primary and then in the general election, knowing only the facts about the candidates' policies. Now with 24/7 news and the internet things have changed.
I am appalled that the media has had such a hand in the destruction of the polical process. Not a day goes by without a he said-she said story running for 48 hours, at least, and then the next 48 hrs. are devoted to where is the apology. Along with that nonsence, I am then bombarded with all the opinions of the talking heads and editorials about the he said she said. I believe the average voter is smarter than that and would agree with me and ask the media to stop reporting the election as though they were reporting about Brittney Spears. Please give the campain the dignity it deserves. Report when the candidates discuss the things that are important to the voters to make a educated decision. Maybe then I will be able to vote the way I used to do. This race should not be about race or gender. It should be about the quality of the candidates,their strenghts and weakness. Not their color or sex. Help us here.
Posted By: nigelahmed @ 03/12/2008 12:48:12 PM
Comment: Obama has 8 years @ ILL State senate & 4 Years now @ the US Senate, As elected official for public psition, Hillary has just 8 years @ the US Senate from New York not from Aknsas or Illinois, because she would not be elected from any state except New York??????? So please stop that baseless probaganda of that she has theexceperience, unless you want to add Billy as runing mate.