I was just reading an article in the New York Times about Hillary. Apparently she had written about 30 letters to a high school acquaintance of hers while in college. The letters were written between 1965 and 1969. The acquaintance, John Peavoy, kept all of the letters. I must say from reading the article, that she reminded me of some of the smartest women I went to college with. She has a narcissism that you would expect in any candidate for high office. But over all, they reveal a high level of sophistication and intelligence. They also give an insight into how her mind works. I am going to vote for her in the primaries. I hope she wins the primaries, because she would be our best shot of winning the white house. But regardless of who others here support, I strongly recommend reading the article. Regardless of who you support, she could be nominated, and she could become president. And since these letters reveal an insight into how she ticks and how her minds works, the article is very enlightening.
At the bottom of my diary, I point out something of interest about her personality that we can assemble.
In the ’60s, a Future Candidate Poured Her Heart Out in Letters
"Since Xmas vacation, I’ve gone through three and a half metamorphoses and am beginning to feel as though there is a smorgasbord of personalities spread before me,"..."So far, I’ve used alienated academic, involved pseudo-hippie, educational and social reformer and one-half of withdrawn simplicity."
I am not going to comment on what each statement reveals, but they are enlightening. In my opinion, this statement shows a highly active, rapid-fire mind.
"Sunday was lethargic from the beginning as I wallowed in a morass of general and specific dislike and pity for most people but me especially,"
I don't deny that she is a megalomaniac. But then, any person running for high office, and certainly any person running for president, is a megalomaniac.
"It always seems as though I write you when I’ve been thinking too much again,"
This quote reminds me of me actually.
"Next me," Ms. Rodham says wryly. "Of course, I’m normal, if that is a permissible adjective for a Wellesley girl."
At least she knows the difference between an adjective and a noun, unlike our current boy king.
But there was one other thing I noticed from this article.
Ms. Rodham bemoans "the communication chasm" that has opened within her family. "I feel like I’m losing the top of my head," she complains, describing an argument raging in the next room between — "for a change" — her father and one of her brothers.
"God, I feel so divorced from Park Ridge, parents, home, the entire unreality of middle class America," she says. "This all sounds so predictable, but it’s true."
I was reading an article about Giuliani the other day. I learned something important about how he ticks. His mayoral loss to (the black) Dinkins in 1989, and his four year campaign afterwards for the mayoralship, radicalized him. It turned him into the far right authoritarian he is today.
I think we know enough about Hillary to assemble something important about her mind, and the reason why she may be the first woman president. She grew up a republican. Her family were moderate Rockefeller republicans. In college, she lost her interest in republicanism, and became a democrat. But I think that her relationship with her father here was key in defining her.
It seems as though she didn't have a rocky relationship with her mother. However, she seems to have had a very rocky relationship with her father. I don't know if this was because he represented the "unreality of middle class America" or because he was an old style republican, or if there was another reason. But I think that her rocky relationship with her father may have been a cause in her turning into such a strong woman.
Without this relationship, she may never have wanted the life she has lived. She may never have married a young Rhodes Scholar, planning on running for governor of Arkansas. And she may never have embarked with that Rhodes Scholar on a 30 year plan to remake the democratic party. She may be the first woman with the ego and ability to be a top tier presidential candidate because of her father.