Why is Washington Post so reluctant to ask hard questions about Hillary Clinton that could well have been raised about her H.S. govt. aspirations -by even her friends- that are still dogging her now? Elizabeth Wurtzel's 1998 analysis of Hillary remains my go-to bible!
I wrote about Hillary the teenager. https://t.co/y7vw6cXMNI— Dan Zak (@MrDanZak) October 17, 2016
The Washington Post
Always running, always prepared: Hillary Clinton as a high school politician
By Dan Zak
October 17 at 11:54 AM
PARK RIDGE, Ill. — Hillary Rodham was 16 when she first ran for president.
It was February 1964, her junior year of high school in this town of steeples and lawns on the rail line to Chicago. She was vice president of her class, and one of five students running to lead the student council for the next academic year. Student rock bands played in support of candidates in the hallways and cafeteria of Maine East High School.
“Stop mudslinging before it starts,” the school newspaper opined. “Keep this election clean!”
No girl had ever held the job before. “The boys would run for president, and the most popular girl would run for secretary,” says classmate Tim Sheldon, who was one of Hillary’s rivals and is now a retired judge in Elgin, Ill. Years later, in her memoir, Hillary recalled a boy telling her she was “really stupid” if she thought a girl could win.
But it was 1964, and she wasn’t even the only girl in the race.
It was February 1964, her junior year of high school in this town of steeples and lawns on the rail line to Chicago. She was vice president of her class, and one of five students running to lead the student council for the next academic year. Student rock bands played in support of candidates in the hallways and cafeteria of Maine East High School.
“Stop mudslinging before it starts,” the school newspaper opined. “Keep this election clean!”
No girl had ever held the job before. “The boys would run for president, and the most popular girl would run for secretary,” says classmate Tim Sheldon, who was one of Hillary’s rivals and is now a retired judge in Elgin, Ill. Years later, in her memoir, Hillary recalled a boy telling her she was “really stupid” if she thought a girl could win.
But it was 1964, and she wasn’t even the only girl in the race.
Read the rest of the article at:
These are probably my two favorite Hillary anecdotes from 1964. https://t.co/y7vw6cXMNI pic.twitter.com/lYI9apCXGl— Dan Zak (@MrDanZak) October 17, 2016
Fave detail that didn't make the story: The theme of Hillary's prom, at the Sheraton O'Hare, was "Medieval Mist." https://t.co/y7vw6cXMNI— Dan Zak (@MrDanZak) October 17, 2016
Hillary wrote about being called "stupid" 4 running 4 h.s. prez. One of her rivals was female, tho, & I called her: https://t.co/y7vw6cXMNI— Dan Zak (@MrDanZak) October 17, 2016
Here is that mock interview with future Hillary in her high-school newspaper in 1965. Author unknown. Forensic sketch not bad! pic.twitter.com/5kIRKj0ODM— Dan Zak (@MrDanZak) October 17, 2016
Here's that very grown-up, narc-y quote from 17-yr-old Hillary, re: vandalism. Also, her co-chair was a Calif. delegate at the DNC in July! pic.twitter.com/r0pRahg1mC— Dan Zak (@MrDanZak) October 17, 2016
https://www.washingtonpost.
Certainly light years ahead of the conveyor-belt of sycophantic utterings about Hillary from media pals and protectors that have circulated in the news stream for the past twenty years, leaving younger voters grasping for something that's real and meaningful.
I can assure you, once she was introduced and began filling the air with clever and inventive analysis and some occasional zingers, she positively sizzled in every way.
The logical counter-point to this kind of gauzy and whimsical reporting-by-yearbook or scrapbook that the washington post has specialized in its Style section the last few decades is how real and modern -and menacing!- the Tracey Flick character portrayed by Reese Witherspoon was in the film adaption of "Election."
https://en.
https://en.
That character didn't just plot and scheme, she practically leaped out of the screen, oozing sanctimonious personal ambition and a sense of entitlement!
Even after all this time and all the self-evident examples both good and bad of who Hillary Clinton really is and what she believes in, the Washington Post, rather curiously in these types of breezy profile pieces that regular Post readers like me have come to expect at predictable times in an election news cycle, still seems reluctant to ask a hard-but-fair question about her and the premise of her current candidacy:
Why are the logical questions that could have well been fairly raised about Hillary's candidacy in High School, by even her friends and supporters -her lack of charisma, authenticity and a consistent inability to make even people who plan to vote for her feel comfortable with her, and around her- still dogging her now?
Why are the logical questions that could have well been fairly raised about Hillary's candidacy in High School, by even her friends and supporters -her lack of charisma, authenticity and a consistent inability to make even people who plan to vote for her feel comfortable with her, and around her- still dogging her now?
Especially since it's been clear for so long that she intended to run?
Why, given her unique and unchallenged access to the sorts of resources and people that nobody else in the country can match, has she NOT done enough to actually change that dynamic, even a little bit, except for occasionally changing her political consultants?
It's a mystery.
In the opinion of not only myself but many other people I know and respect who have a much-closer observation point, she actually seems to have regressed, and is doing retail politics even more poorly now than when she ran for re-election to the U.S. Senate in 2006, in what was her second personal campaign.
That answer is surely not contained in any of her own books, nor in this article.
It might be time for me to again re-read the amazing 1998 book by Elizabeth Wurtzel,
Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women, a book, below, which I believe has the single best analysis and dissection of Hillary Clinton and her persona that I've ever read.
Certainly light years ahead of the conveyor-belt of sycophantic utterings about Hillary from media pals and protectors that have circulated in the news stream for the past twenty years, leaving younger voters grasping for something that's real and meaningful.
I actually attended Elizabeth Wurtzel's book reading/discussion of Bitch on June 27, 1998 at the then-extant Olsson's Books at Metro Center, in Washington, D.C.
I arrived at the event early because I was very motivated and knew in advance:
a.) It would be fascinating because Wurtzel was so damn interesting herself, and articulate and intelligent that very few Beltway media types ever actually area once you get to know them. (I speak from experience on that.) Wurtzel always seemed to be speaking in full and convincing phrases in interviews in ways that seemed intoxicating to me, almost like she was reading well-rehearsed lines filled with bite, but which comes natural to some people who are very sure of themselves and the facts.
b.) Even by DC's usual literary standards, I knew it was sure to be packed because of the large amount of buzz and controversy about her and the book that had preceded her, and no doubt as well by her publisher for choosing to use a fetching photo of her -the cover?- to promote the event in the DC CityPaper.
Trust me, I was not alone in thinking even before she ever walked into the room that Elizabeth Wurtzel had ample intelligence, good looks and breezy, knowing attitude to spare and to slay any dragons that dared appear at the bookstore. I was not wrong.
I can assure you, once she was introduced and began filling the air with clever and inventive analysis and some occasional zingers, she positively sizzled in every way.
There were many more men in that bookstore personally energized and turned-on by her and what she was saying than you can possibly imagine now in reading my words here.
For myself, I kept thinking that Wurtzel, someone who clearly was using to people projecting onto them all sorts of their own imagery (or baggage) was more like a contemporary version of a combination of Lauren Bacall in her first film, 1944's To Have and Have Not, below, plus Katharine Hepburn in the 1942 film, Woman of the Year.
Pretty good company!
Lauren Bacall on cover of LIFE, October 16, 1944: "New Movie Find." Part of promo campaign 4 "To Have And Have Not' pic.twitter.com/Dcnnb9TUnG— HallandaleBeachBlog (@hbbtruth) August 13, 2014
Karen Lehrman's April 19, 1998 review of Bitch in the New York Times:
I Am Woman, Hear Me Whine
Elizabeth Wurtzel celebrates women who are a pain in the neck.
http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/04/19/reviews/980419.19lehrmat.html
Elizabeth Wurtzel celebrates women who are a pain in the neck.
http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/04/19/reviews/980419.19lehrmat.html
I'll re-read Elizabeth Wurtzel's chapter on Hillary Clinton and report back here soon!
But to give you a taste, watch Elizabeth Wurtzel discuss her book on C-SPAN on June 27, 1998 https://www.c-span.org/video/?105509-1/bitch-praise-difficult-women
But to give you a taste, watch Elizabeth Wurtzel discuss her book on C-SPAN on June 27, 1998 https://www.c-span.org/video/?105509-1/bitch-praise-difficult-women
A gentle reminder for you newcomers to the blog or any by-now-angry Hillary acolytes: I was a vocal supporter of Bill Clinton for President in 1991, long BEFORE he ever announced for the presidency. As my friends and family can tell you, I even planned on running as Clinton delegate to the 1992 DNC before the Virginia Democratic Party HQ down in Richmond even knew what it was doing, so could only tell me to "hold tight" until I heard back from them when I asked what the procedures were.
I was also a member of the DLC when I was living and working in Washington, even to the point of often hauling soda and various snacks around Capitol Hill for our occasional meetings from Oklahoma Congressman Dave McCurdy's office when he was in charge.
And did I mention that my best friend is from Hope, Arkansas, birthplace as well of... well, you know who.
Just saying...
