Strengthening Constitutional Self-Government

No Left Turns

Clinton’s Memoir/Campaign Missive

Among the many reviews of Hillary Clinton’s Living History, I wanted to call attention to one last Sunday by WA Post Book World editor Jonathan Yardley. The telling line is where he says

predictably, her book is as much campaign document as memoir, designed not merely for the eyes of historians but for those of voters in New York who presumably will be asked to send her back to Washington three years hence and, perhaps, for those of voters around the country who may well be asked to elevate her to the presidency in 2008 or 2012.

Yardley’s no conservative, which shows in his discussion of the Starr report, but his good sense shines through to understand what Clinton’s and Blumenthal’s books are about: the future of either Clinton’s political prospects, plain and simple. Here’s his closer:

But between the first inauguration and the pardons lay eight years of bumbling, dissembling, concupiscence and amorality. That the American people not merely tolerated this but gave Clinton the benefit of just about every doubt is a sign, perhaps, of their capacity for forgiveness, but it is a sign of moral obtuseness as well. These are matters with which Clinton’s defenders must contend, but from the two books at hand you’d never know they existed.

Needless to say, every statement and action by Sen. Clinton will be, as Yardley puts it, "carefully calibrated to present an image." Unless Nancy Pelosi makes some serious headway politically in the next few years (i.e., getting into the Senate or the gubernatorial chair), my prediction is that the 2008 Democratic nomination is Hillary’s for the taking. Sorry: Men need not apply after next year’s Democratic convention.

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