Not that this is worth much, but I wanted to give my personal take on history’s greatest criminal’s (aka — Hillary Clinton) new book.
I pre-ordered the book, and I eagerly looked forward to reading it. There has been time my blood has boiled over these past months like all of us. I recall canvassing for Democrats and remember hearing even Democratic women saying they thought Hillary was really “dishonest.” I pulled out the stops to convince them to vote. Some of them said they would vote for local Democrats and leave President blank (!) I remember them not really having a good reason to think she was dishonest, they just “felt” it! The destruction of Hillary Clinton by the powers that be was almost complete. I encountered fellow Hillary voters at work, but when they saw the book they said, “Oh that is where she won’t take any responsibility for her mistakes.” Needless to say they had not read the book. They just “knew” it.
Hillary has more patience than myself. I would be almost so angry that I probably wouldn’t go out in public for fear of yelling profanity laced rants.
I think Hillary is dead right that Comey cost her the election. The internal polling I was hearing was a huge drop in momentum at that time. People on here said I was a “concern troll,” but Hillary’s people also saw the drop. Comey, that effete egotistical man was “slightly nauseous” at the thought of having affected the election. I am glad Hillary had the same reaction I did when he said that, one of total disgust. The debate on the Comey effect should be over. Clinton provides some proof in her book, but I do wish she would have put more on this with the data that is available. It is pretty convincing and people just don’t want to believe it. Comey’s letter and his press conference were such game changers, and so out of line that I share the loathing she has for him. I think of the Iran deal that is about to be ripped up and possible war and I feel like getting poor Jimmy a Tums!
Matt Lauer is also rightly lambasted. I actually wish she had been harder on him. I remember Jon Chait at “NY Magazine” watching in horror as he spent all this time on her emails in what was supposed to be a foreign policy debate, and thinking the unthinkable...He could win! I think she did go over the email issue well and did explain why it was ultimately a nothingburger. What I will not understand is the way, the regular press treated it. She is right. I would like to see some mea culpas to what happened from the Lauers or the Clizzilas.
Hillary admits that she didn’t have the right tone for last year and blames sexism for part of that. I agree to an extent. Women can not pound the podium or do anything too dramatic or it is seem as you know what. However, I wonder if this is always true. I feel like Kamala Harris would be able to get away with it more? Are there racial and gender tropes involved here? I don’t have the answer.
She also talks about Russia and fake news, but I think we are going to need an independent inquiry to get to the bottom of that, not just Mueller as a prosecutor. I have a feeling she knows more, but it is classified.
My one big criticism is that that I wanted more focus on last year. There was a bit too much auto-biographical stuff in there. It wasn’t bad. It is just that I have read it in other books. I wanted more about 2016. I understand though why she had to do it for readers who were unfamiliar with her life story.
I welcome any comments from other reader’s of the book!