VIRTUALLY HILLARY
Jeffrey, Terence P.
2 0 T H E A M E R I C A N S P E C T A T O R A P R I L 2 0 0 7 N THE YEARS SINCE AL GORE invented the Internet, politicians have made ever more ambitious use...
...So, what does Hillary Clinton's website reveal about her self-perceived liabilities...
...In some ways, she positioned herselfasevenmorehawkishthanPresidentBush...
...IsupposeIcouldhavestayedhome,bakedcookiesandhad teas," she said, "but what I decided was to fulfill my profession,whichIenteredbeforemyhusbandwasin public life...
...John McCain, who in his 2000campaignalienatedChristianconservativevot-ers whose support may prove indispensable in 2008, has posted a video in which he dutifully discusses his devotion to a "Higher Being...
...More than a year later, upon returning from a trip toAfghanistanandIraq,Hillarycompoundedherproblems by appearing on television opposite one of the mosttenaciousinterviewersintheoldmedia...
...Her aides were tugging on her to leave, to join her husband and the voters, safely behind the flimsy rope line that forms the barrierbetweencandidateandpress,"wroteWashington Post reporters Dan Balz and Edward Walsh...
...Despite her later explanations, those few seconds T E R E N C EP .J E F F R E Y A P R I L 2 0 0 7 T H E A M E R I C A N S P E C T A T O R 2 3"I suppose I could have stayed home, baked cookies and had teas...
...She is using it for a personality transplant...
...But when the smoke clearedfromRussert'sshock-and-awecampaignoffollow-up questions, the BDA indicated that Hillary the Hawk was still standing...
...And Virtual Hillary made Candidate Clinton's firstmajorpolicystatement.ItdeclaredhernewantiwarpositiononIraq...
...IregretthewaythePresident used the authority...
...It was a lapse that an experienced politician like her husband would not have allowed himself...
...Here is where the two great worries of Mrs...
...ItwasNBC'sMeetthePressonDecember7,2003-adaythatmaysomedayliveininfamyamongHillary's partisans...
...But Howard, you speak for her," said Matthews...
...you're basically saying what Hillary's thinking...
...Clinton's first three major campaign events--all warm and friendly web-based "conversations...
...That the administration is intent upon some kindofexitstrategy,somekindoftransitionbeforeour elections,"Hillarysaidonthetape...
...And she feared a leader of the other party might be seeking a premature exit strategy because of theupcomingpresidentialelection...
...Doyoubelievethepresidentistyinghispolicyin Iraq to his own re-election...
...This time Hillary's answer was 232 words...
...But I did hear on thegroundthatthereisconcernaboutthatandIknow otherobservers,peoplewhohavebeenthereinthelast several weeks, have had the same kinds of conversations,pickedupthesamesortofsignals...
...But she stood and talked...
...Now, as Hillary runs for the presidency herself, having twice been elected to the Senate, it remains to be seen whether her experience in the intervening years has leant her some measure of her husband's easy-goingdemeanoraswellasabettersenseofwhat is proportionate in the give and take of a national campaign...
...Clinton'scampaignconvergedwithintheconvenientconfinesoftheonemediaoutletshetotallycontrols.One of those worries is that over the long haul of a traditional presidential campaign--full of hands-on retail politicsandinterviewswithknowledgeablereporters whoaskunrestrictedfollow-upquestions--shemight notbeabletomaintaintheamiable,even-keeledtemperament Americans expect from their president...
...Doyounowregretyourvotegivingthepresident theauthoritytogotowarinIraq...
...VirtuallyV campaign, though, I'm beginning a conversation-with you, with America...
...If George Bush doesn't end this war before he leaves office," said Virtual Hillary, "when I'm president, I will...
...Clinton...
...She is not running a negative campaign...
...Why...
...Hillary cited a briefing she had received in Baghdadthatcomparedatimelineoftheprogressthathad been made there with a timeline of the progress that had been made in postwar Germany...
...I've heard that from everybody," she said...
...Terence P. Jeffrey, former editor of Human Events and campaign adviser to Pat Buchanan, is a nationally syndicated columnist.V I R T U A L L YH I L L A R Y 2 4 T H E A M E R I C A N S P E C T A T O R A P R I L 2 0 0 7...
...On HillaryClinton.com, Hillary's campaign can scriptnotonlyherwords,buthertone.Inpre-recordedpresentations,ifshedoesn'tgetitright,theycanrerecordit.Eveninthethree"live"chatsshehashosted onherwebsite,anaidehasreadherselectedquestions from people identified only by first name and place of residence...
...She had even secured a seat on the Armed Services Committee...
...Wereyoumisledorweretheintelligenceagenciesjust plainwrong...
...She is electable...
...SHE EVEN DECLINED to blame Bush for misleading CongressorthecountryaboutSaddam'sWMDs...
...What are you doing inviting these people in my home...
...You'rethepresidentrightnow.Wouldyoucommit more U.S...
...Finally, she said: "Whether you agreed or not that weshouldbeinIraq,youknow,failureisnotanoption...
...I think we'reinforaverydifficulttime.Andweneedtomake sure we've got the troops there in whatever numbers are needed to do it...
...This is all compounded by the fact that the Virtual Hillary on your computer screen is constantly inviting you to participate in the "conversation" you are supposed to believe is taking place there...
...seemed to come straight from the heart and to drip with mockery of people whose choice differed from hers...
...Finally, she proposed an exit strategy unambiguously pegged to the coming presidential election...
...I believe in presidential authority todealwiththreats.IwishthattheCongresshadbeen, youknow,moresupportiveofmyhusbandwhenhedid whathehadtodoinBosniaandKosovoandelsewhere...
...Wolfson was not as slick as Virtual Hillary, but he was attempting to perform essentially the same function--while actually having to parry questions from a liveintervieweronlivetelevision.Thatfunctionisprotecting Mrs...
...Well, HillaryClinton.com is loaded with video presentations of a kinder-and-gentler-seeming lady makingrelentlesslywarmandfriendlystatements.It is like a bad ride at Disney World...
...asked Russert...
...She invoked Senators John McCain and Jack Reed as experts who "believe we need more troops...
...Saddam'sregimewasgone.CoalitionforcesoccupiedIraqfromBasratotheSyrianborder.Noweapons ofmassdestructionhadbeenfound...
...Itwasn'tamemberofthevastright-wingconspiracy who first incited Hillary to reveal a nasty streak on thenationalstage.ItwasJerryBrown...
...Itwasn'tjustatthecampaignannouncementthat Virtual Hillary stood in for Mrs...
...What's the campaign...
...The other is that her previous positioning as a proIraq War hawk could kill her chances with the antiwar base of her own party, a base with whom Barack Obama has already demonstrated a natural and dynamic connection...
...whomightbeplottingtoleaveIraqprematurely,speeding up the political process there, for his own political purposeshere...
...Exactly," said Wolfson...
...This was intelligence going backintomyhusband'sadministration,goingbackto the first President Bush's administration...
...What I do regretandwhatIthinkhasbeenunfortunateistheway that that process was short-circuited and the military actionwastakenwithoutanyadequateunderstanding or planning about what the aftermath would be...
...troop strengthinIraq.IfBushdidn'tbegin"redeployment" within 90 days, she said, Congress should revoke authorization for the war...
...That,presumably,wouldhaveincludedanumbergreaterthan,say,asurgeof 21,500...
...When you say something...
...Gary Hart, told the Post...
...shetoldEmanuel...
...Every time Bill Clinton gets ahead, the people who are running against him attack him," she said, "and I think that's because the issues of this campaign really will cause changes in this country...
...Russert played Hillary a videotape of something she had said the previous Monday...
...Hillary's mask had dropped...
...But every time the real Hillary ventures onto a sidewalkorintoalivingroominIowaorNewHampshire, and every time she sits down with a live journalist, she will be putting Virtual Hillary at risk...
...I was outraged by it," Lee Hart, wife of former Sen...
...They are trying to destroy us...
...ThisconversationwithTimRussertin2003may help explain why Mrs...
...LET'SSTARTWITHTHEWAR:InOctober2002,Hillary votedtoauthorizetheuseofforceinIraq,giving ananti-SaddamspeechontheSenatefloorbased onintelligencedevelopedbythenCIADirectorGeorge Tenet,amanappointedbyherhusband...
...I hope not, Tim," said Hillary...
...HostTimRussertaskedHillaryhistypicallytough questions, honing in on her vote for the war and continuing support for it...
...Let's talk...
...Injustfiveseconds' worth of sarcasm, in which she said that instead of being a lawyer she could have stayed home to bake cookiesandhaveteas,HillaryClintonleftanimpression that may be very hard to remove," he said...
...Ithinkthatithastobesaidthatourintelligence waswrong,anditwasn'tjustourcurrentintelligence, though, Tim," she said...
...Is that different than her...
...TheanswerisunclearbecausesheinstantlyturnedhercontemptonatargetotherthanBrown...
...So I have no second-guessing about giving the president authority...
...2 0 T H E A M E R I C A N S P E C T A T O R A P R I L 2 0 0 7 N THE YEARS SINCE AL GORE invented the Internet, politicians have made ever more ambitious use of theWorldWideWeb,butnoonemoreambitiously than Hillary Clinton...
...And I do," conceded Wolfson...
...Sitting in an understated living room, the image says: "I'm not just starting a IAt HillaryClinton.com, she is sweet, loving, reasonable--and in a bubble...
...There were reports that Hillary had subsequent Nixonian moments...
...asked Matthews...
...The elitist liberal feministlawyerwasslappingstay-at-homewivesand mothers...
...While common wisdom holds that the web is a revolutionary instrument that gives regular citizens thepowertostudy,andeveninvestigate,high-placed politicians,thepoliticiansthemselvesseeitasaninstrumentfordoingtheopposite:promotingtheirlatestplatitudesandevasionsfreefromface-to-facechallengeby adversarialreportersandwell-informedvoters...
...As voters reviewed such a scene on YouTube.com--not on HillaryClinton.com--Barack ObamaorJohnEdwardscouldsailrightpasthertothe nomination...
...Sometimes I'm going to speak, and sometimes she's going to speak," he said...
...She had entered the Senate determinedtodeveloptheresumeandpersonaneeded to successfully apply to voters for the job of First Female Commander in Chief...
...That's your job," said Matthews...
...Russerttriedagain:"Butifothercountriessayno, theyjustdon'thavethetroops,wouldyou,asthepresident,sendmoreAmericanstoIraqandAfghanistan...
...On National Public Radio, commentator James FallowssizedupHillary'slapse...
...This,Brownargued,pointedtoanotherClintonethics problem,whichtheClintonsbitterlydenied...
...asked Matthews...
...I'm saying what the campaign is thinking...
...It wasn't just cultural conservatives who recoiled...
...What does that mean...
...Thesepeopleareourenemies...
...fromJeaninNewJersey...
...Had Hillary actually convinced herself that Governor Moonbeam feared that her husband would govern too progressively...
...After cohosting a million-dollar fundraiser for Barack Obama, Geffen told Dowd a number of derogatory things about the Clintons...
...After more than 150 words, Hillary finally said: "WhenitcomestoIraq,Isupporttheadministration's requesttoNATOthattheybecomeinvolvedinIraq...
...Hillary was sometimes opaque, and sometimes she filibustered...
...Where are they...
...They were liberal Democrats saddled with the liberal Democrat's burden of appearing too weak on national security to be trusted as commander in chief, a burden made heavier by 9/11...
...Go away and come back the next day, or the next week, and she is still there, still talking--sweetly...
...When Russert asked her if she now regretted her vote to give Bush the authority to go to war, she said shedidnot,gaveBushcreditforfollowingthroughon what the White House said he would do when she voted for the war resolution, and--fairly enough-criticizedtheadministrationfornotadequatelyplanning for the aftermath of the invasion...
...LikeformerVermontGov.HowardDean'sscream the night he lost the Iowa caucuses, one unscripted anduntimelynastymomentfromHillarycoulddoom her campaign...
...Before10A.M.onthedayDowd'scolumnran,Clinton campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson issued a statement falsely calling Geffen the Obama campaign finance chairman, demanding that Obama return the money Geffen raised for him, and accusing Obama of embracing the very slash-and-burn politics Obama had been decrying...
...And we need to make sure we've got the troops there in whatever numbers are needed to do it...
...Virtual Hillary's brief campaign-announcement video set the tone...
...Let's start a dialogue about your ideas and mine...
...Campaigning in Chicago the next day, Hillary broke loose from her leash...
...They included: "What's your favorite movie...
...Thiswasnotherargumentforleaving.Itwasher argument for staying...
...Clinton from the public perception that sheisinfactthenastypersonDavidGeffensaidsheis...
...They included: "Everybody in politics lies, but they do it with such ease, it's troubling...
...At the time, it must have seemed like a safe vote...
...Clinton may not have internalized the lessons that seem to guide her website performances...
...Because," says Virtual Hillary, "the conversation in Washington has been just a little onesided, don't you think...
...What matters for Hillary politically is that this imagehassunksomerootsintothepublicconsciousness,rootshercampaignhasmadeitastrategicpriority to pry loose...
...And, in fact, in the immediate aftermath of that vote, he did exactly what I would have expected and what the White House told me they would do: going to the UN, getting a Security Council resolution, going back in with inspections...
...asked Russert...
...ThenshetalkedaboutanIraqiwomanwhohated A P R I L 2 0 0 7 T H E A M E R I C A N S P E C T A T O R 2 1BY TERENCE P. JEFFREY Hillary Hillar Saddam, and Iraqi women who now fear terrorists, former regime members, and criminals...
...WestillhavetroopsinBosniaandKosovo.We stillhavetroopsinSouthKorea.Ifwe'regoingtoundertake these kinds of very difficult missions, we should levelwithpeopleaboutcostandtime...
...One-sided?EverypersoninAmericawhoclicked intothe"conversation"onHillaryClinton.comcould simultaneously stand up and unplug his computers and Virtual Hillary would go right on reading her script, exuding unperturbed warmth, friendliness, andsincereconcernforyourviewsandwhatyouhave to say...
...And: The Clinton "machine is going to be very unpleasant and unattractive and effective"--which turned out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy...
...VirtualHillaryhasjusttherighttemperamentto bepresident.SheisassmoothasJohnEdwardsandas calm as Barack Obama--and, predictably, will always be that way...
...Well, the highest priority is to stabilize Iraq and provide security...
...She's running a positive campaign," said Wolfson...
...I think that is the biggest put-down of women who choose not to work...
...Voting against invading Iraq might have destroyed one of her key goals for serving in the Senate: She was there to become Hillary the Hawk...
...Russert asked...
...Hillary also made clear that Americans should brace themselves for an occupation that could last many years...
...THE CLINTON CAMP'S overreaction to remarks that Hollywood movie producer David Geffen made to New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd in late February is at least a hint that Mrs...
...But Russert wouldn't give up pushing for a yesor-noanswer,andendedupgettingsomethingbetter...
...Instead, she opted for a unilateral pre-recorded statement on her website...
...Hillary Clinton is not running for office, and it may be unfair to scrutinize her words, but life in politics is unfair...
...Wolfson stayed on the attack againstObamaallday,eventuallyendinguponMSBNC's Hardball,whereheunconvincinglytriedtodrawaline between Mrs...
...UNDERPERSISTENTQUESTIONINGbyatoughreporter this is how Hillary presented her war policy just three years ago: She was a leader ready to escalateourtroopstrengthtowhateverwasneeded.She wanted Americans to understand we might be in Iraq for years...
...When you voted in favor of the resolution supporting the President in October of 2002, you cited Saddam's possession of biological, chemical, developing nuclear weapons," said Russert...
...Whatever numbers are needed to do it, she said...
...No,"saidClinton...
...It is clear that thereissomeconcernthattheprocessinIraqforelections is being driven not by the conditions on the ground in Iraq but by the timetable for our own elections...
...For example, Sen...
...Let's chat...
...Thecomment,BalzandEdwardsreported,"causedaidestoshudder...
...In this statement, Virtual Hillary said she had introduced legislation to prevent President Bush from increasing U.S...
...On February 17, she went back to her website to post another pre-recorded statement spelling out her new position on the war...
...JohnKerryandJohnEdwardsweremakingthesame vote based on pretty much the same arguments.Moreover, voting against the war would have carried a greater risk for her than for them...
...ItwasBush,shearguedthatdayonMeetthePress, V I R T U A L L YH I L L A R Y 2 2 T H E A M E R I C A N S P E C T A T O R A P R I L 2 0 0 7 "...I think we're in for a very difficult time...
...For example, John Harris, editor of the Politico, described in the Washington Post in 2005 a scene that took place in 1993 when then-ClintonaideRahmEmanuelinvitedagroupofRepublicans toaWhiteHousedinnertowintheirhelpinpassingthe NorthAmericanFreeTradeAgreement.WhenHillary foundout,Harriswrote,shewas"[n]earlysobbingwith anger...
...T]he most telling comparison was that it took ten years to establishastable,sovereigngovernmentthatwasdemocratic in Germany, and we still have troops in Germany," shesaid...
...Russertasked...
...Can she survive human contact once the bubble bursts...
...Virtual Hillary also did Mrs...
...Brown had accused Bill Clinton of acting like Nixon, hiding behind his wife in a scandal...
...So if the president came forward and said, `We need another 50,000 American troops for Iraq,' you'd look at that favorably...
...he asked...
...Clinton did not kick off her 2008 presidential campaign with a return appearance on Meet the Press...
...And that'stheconsequencewe'relivingwithrightnow...
...But Hillary was not only a liberal Democrat, she was a woman...
...let's definitely talk...
...In a debate two days before the 1992 Illinois andMichigan primaries, Brown pointed to a Washington Post article that discussed the business the Rose Law Firm, where Hillary was a partner, received from the state of Arkansas, where Bill Clinton was governor...
...There is a virtual person there who serves as your host and who keeps sayingthesamethingsoverandoverandoveragain-sweetly...
...You said that we have to be prepared for a much longer run to accomplish our goals than we've been discussing...
...This was eight months after the invasion of Iraq...
...I would look at it very carefully and I would say, `You know, let's get the job done,'" she said...
...But here it was Hillary who was Nixonian...
...A presidential candidate crafting a message he hopes will overcome or cover over liabilities in his public-policy record or personal history can use a website not just as a vanity publication, but as a multimedia conglomerate that broadcasts audio and visual stimuli perfectly tailored to his propaganda needs...
...SenatorClinton'scampaign,"saidWolfson...
...Clinton and the hardball tactics of her campaign...
...When Virtual Hillary speaks, no reporters ask follow-up questions...
...So, let's talk...
...troops...
Vol. 40 • April 2007 • No. 3
