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Hillary Clinton - First Impressions
By Bill | August 6, 2007 | Email This Post
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Current Job: Senator from New York
Presidential history: This is her first Presidential run for herself; obviously she has a long history of White House experience.
Book (if you’re running for President, they make you write a book): It Takes a Village is her most famous effort; also Living History, an autobiography from a few years back.
Interesting facts I remember:
- Graduate of Wellesley College; her senior thesis was later effectively buried by the college at the request of the White House for fear that its contents (an analysis of of a controversial activist) might be used to cast the First Lady in an unfair light.
- Following Wellesley, Hillary took a degree from Yale law school and had a successful career as an attorney in Arkansas.
- Hillary lead an effort to tackle the health care problem during her time in the White House; I don’t remember what her task force came up with, but I do remember that the results weren’t received particularly well.
- During her time in the White House, she was involved in a number of scandals (Whitewater, Travelgate, etc.) that I didn’t follow to any extent (and still can’t say what they were about.)
- When she ran for the Senate seat from New York, Hillary was accused of being little more than a carpetbagger; I watched her on the Letterman show where she humorously (and successfully) attempted to defuse the criticism by answering a slate of New York related questions (such as identifying the state bird, etc.)
- Frequently changes names, from Hillary Clinton to Hillary Rodham Clinton and back again (and back again) … even “Mrs. Bill Clinton” for a while, as First Lady of Arkansas.
Issues I think Hillary cares about:
- Health Care - an outgrowth of her earlier work
- Balancing the Budget
- Education
- Ending the Iraq War
Things I like about Hillary:
Hillary is smart and capable… those of her opponents that succumb to the temptation to dismiss her with a cute soundbite or disparaging remark related to her sex do so very much at their own peril. I think, if elected, she would surprise everyone with the ability she would have in office… although they may not like what she would do with that skill, depending on their politics.
Things I don’t like about Hillary:
This one’s tough. At this point, I honestly don’t know enough about Ms. Clinton’s positions to be able to intelligently offer criticism. There has been so much partisan smoke over the years that I have a hard time separating who she is from who people say she is - a critical distinction. The problem is exacerbated by what I perceive as a tendency by Hillary herself to play down the more liberal aspects of her political personality that she (probably rightly) views as unpalatable to large sections of the country. They all to that, of course, but Hillary is particularly transparent about it, perhaps because we know so much more about her than we do the others.
One fundamental problem she has to overcome is that I don’t like her - for reasons I can’t quite determine - and sympathy matters in elections. I wonder how many of my fellow Americans feel the same way.
Still… Hillary, you have an honest shot with me. Do your best.
(The First Impressions post for each candidate is where they’re starting out with me. What I know, or at least think I know about them, basically any starting impressions I’ve formed that they have to live up to or overcome. Sometimes it’s pretty sparse. Sometimes it may be outright incorrect. No fact checking has taken place on First Impressions posts.)
Topics: Democrats, First Impressions, Hillary Clinton |