Hillary Clinton: The Inside Story, by Judith Warner: on Principles & Values
Bill Clinton:
Worked several jobs to pay for law school
Bill Clinton at Yale was a bit older than the average law student, and bore more responsibilities. Although he was fortunate enough to be chosen for one of Yale’s few law school scholarships, the money was nowhere near enough to cover even the most meage
costs of living. To meet expenses, he was forced to hold as many as three part time jobs at once. In the course of his years at Yale he taught at a small community college, staffed for a city councilman at Hartford, and worked for a lawyer in New Haven.
Source: The Inside Story, by Judith Warner, p. 47
Aug 1, 1999
Bill Clinton:
Betsy Wright: Bill had female ‘fan base’ nationwide
Betsy Wright [Chief of Staff while Clinton was Arkansas Governor and campaign staffer] on Bill Clinton’s female ‘fan base’: “They were on the streets, sidewalks, in choirs, singing at his church. They were in the walls here.
And nationwide! We’d go to a National Governors Association meeting and there’d be women licking his feet. There were always so many women who were throwing themselves at him.”
Source: The Inside Story, by Judith Warner, p.110
Aug 1, 1999
Bill Clinton:
Alcoholic dad may have defined Clinton’s personality
Bill Clinton, as the stepchild of an alcoholic father, came into adulthood with a legacy of family dysfunction that he had almost no choice but to re-enact to a certain degree with Hillary.
It is also axiomatic that adult children of alcoholics will seek affirmation and approval everywhere they can find it. They lack the inner mechanism that naturally allows them to feel good about themselves, and are cruelly harsh in judging themselves.
Source: The Inside Story, by Judith Warner, p.111
Aug 1, 1999
Bill Clinton:
Hillary’s coldness contributed to Bill’s infidelity
Hillary knew Bill too well: his warts and weaknesses alike. She too was disappointed, critical of his first term in office, if not personally of him. It is altogether understandable that, under conditions that would have been so painful to him,
he went beyond his marriage to seek the feeling of unconditional love and approval he so needed-the kind of love that, for people with poor self esteem, a spouse cannot provide.
Source: The Inside Story, by Judith Warner, p.112
Aug 1, 1999
Bill Clinton:
The Star paid Gennifer Flowers for affair story
The Star agreed to pay [Gennifer Flowers] a considerable amount of money for the tapes and her statement that she had been Clinton’s lover for twelve years. The Star shortly after published a rehash of the Nichols suit.In the story,
Flowers claimed she had begun to see Clinton in 1977 and continued an affair with him even after she had moved to Dallas in the early 1980s. She had told friends then about special visits from a ‘Bill’ from Arkansas.
Source: The Inside Story, by Judith Warner, p.178
Aug 1, 1999
Bill Clinton:
Evidence disappeared in Whitewater scandal
Many other questions could not be answered, because Whitewater’s records could not be located. Jim McDougal said that at the Governor’s request they had been delivered to the mansion years earlier.
The Clintons said that many of them had simply disappeared.No evidence of wrongdoing ever emerged. Federal regulators finally took the savings and loan away from McDougal, and a federal grand jury charged him with fraud.
Source: The Inside Story, by Judith Warner, p.184
Aug 1, 1999
Hillary Clinton:
Hillary’s feminism a liability for Bill’s gubernatorial race
Hillary Clinton’s life represents both the triumphs and the sacrifices of women of her generation. In 1978, when Bill Clinton was first elected governor of Arkansas, Hillary was considered somewhat of a handicap.
Her look had changed...she wore no makeup, hid behind thick glasses...she shocked constituents by keeping her maiden name even when their daughter Chelsea was born. She was a contributing factor in his reelection defeat in 1980.
Source: The Inside Story, by Judith Warner, p. 5-6
Aug 1, 1999
Hillary Clinton:
Hillary bred in conservative community
The Rodham family, five strong, well off but not rich, solid in their bonds, fit in well in the neighborhood. It was a conservative community, home of later antiabortion fighters.
At Yale Law School, Hillary’s politicization progressed rapidly. For a short while, she was on the editorial board of the now-defunct Yale Review of Law and Social Action.
Source: The Inside Story, by Judith Warner, p. 12
Aug 1, 1999
Hillary Clinton:
Began college career as a conservative
Hillary arrived at college a Park Ridge Republican with box pleat skirts, Peter Pan blouses , and loafers with knee socks...now the former Goldwater Girl became president of the Young Republicans.
She was an outspoken opponent of big government and high taxes, and though her heart bled for the poor she believed in self reliance and the responsibility of local governments to look after their own.
Source: The Inside Story, by Judith Warner, p. 27
Aug 1, 1999
Hillary Clinton:
1989 speculation: Hillary would run for Arkansas governor
At the apex of her popularity in 1989, there were serious rumors that Hillary herself might run for governor instead of her husband the next year. The Clintons, who have since strongly denied such stories, did little at the time to make them die.The
Arkansas Democrat [newspaper] gave acerbic support to the idea of a Hillary candidacy, reaffirming the rumors as fact: “She wouldn’t be the first strong, capable, brilliant woman to stand aside for a weaker, less capable, less brilliant husband.”
Source: The Inside Story, by Judith Warner, p.153
Aug 1, 1999
Hillary Clinton:
1992 RNC Convention was hate-fest against Hillary
The Republican National Convention of August 1992 was a hate-fest. Homosexuals, liberals, working mothers, all were victims in a right wing rally that, as many in the party agreed afterward, had been permitted to run amuck.
No one took more hits, however, than Hillary Clinton.
Source: The Inside Story, by Judith Warner, p.200
Aug 1, 1999
Bill Clinton:
Attended Yale on a law school scholarship
Bill Clinton at Yale was a long-haired, bearded Rhodes Scholar. Although he had been fortunate enough to be chosen for one of Yale's few law school scholarships, the money was nowhere near enough to cover even the most meager costs of living.
To meet expenses he was forced to hold as many as three part-time jobs at once. In the course of his years at Yale, he taught at a small community college, staffed for a city councilman in Hartford, and worked for a lawyer in downtown New Haven.
Like Hillary, he had clearly not come to law school to prepare for a career on Wall Street. Politics was his destiny.
During his first three months of law school, he worked full-time on a political campaign, only starting to study for his classes after the November election. He then amazed his worried friends by acing all his finals.
Source: The Inside Story, by Judith Warner, p. 47
Aug 1, 1993
Hillary Clinton:
1986: Prepped Bill's race; denied her own political ambition
Hillary Clinton was asked in 1986 if she had any plans of her own for political races any time in the future. She said that she had no personal political ambitions. "I'll let Bill do that. I value being a private person too much," she told the Gazette.
What she didn't say was that Bill Clinton was considering running for president. It was the dream of his lifetime.The preliminary campaign machinery was set in place.
Phone calls were made, advisers considered. Hillary braced herself for what she knew would be a messy race. She braced Chelsea. She was excited. Though. She was going to have a shot at being first lady of the nation.
A press conference was called in Little Rock for July 15, 1987. All indications were that Bill Clinton was about to announce his candidacy for the presidency.
Source: The Inside Story, by Judith Warner, p. 142-3
Aug 1, 1993
Hillary Clinton:
1960s: Rejected as applicant to NASA; women not allowed
Although home, and her parents' gentle nudging, gave Hillary a sense of unlimited possibility, the outside world wasn't quite so encouraging. While she was still in junior high school, she decided she wanted to be an astronaut.
It was the early 1960s and the nation, under President Kennedy's leadership, was thinking moonwards. Hillary wrote to NASA and asked them what she needed to do to start training. She included some mention of her background and academic strengths.
NASA wrote back telling her that girls need not apply. It was, she said, "infuriating." She told the Washington Post: "I later realized that
I couldn't have been an astronaut anyway, because I have such terrible eyesight. That somewhat placated me."
Source: The Inside Story, by Judith Warner, p. 15
Aug 1, 1993
Hillary Clinton:
1992: All marriages have issues; our issues are our business
On Jan. 18, at a campaign rally, when someone had asked her if her marital fidelity should be a campaign issue, she had faced the crowd, Bill by her side, and responded, "In any marriage, there are issues that come up between two people who are married
that I think are their business." The crowd applauded almost half a minute. "From my perspective," she said, "our marriage is a strong marriage. We love each other, support each other, and we had had a lot of strong and important experiences together tha
have meant a lot to us." She was proud of her family, Hillary said, and added in conclusion that she thought that what should matter to New Hampshire residents was how their own families were doing. The barb was met with uproarious applause. Clearly the
public taste for Gary Hart scandals in a recession year was less than the Republicans might have hoped for.On Jan. 26, "I have acknowledged wrongdoing," the governor offered to the camera. "I have acknowledged causing pain to my marriage."
Source: The Inside Story, by Judith Warner, p. 169-70
Aug 1, 1993
Hillary Clinton:
Make a pact not to give in to cynicism or hate
"Life can have some transcendent meaning," Hillary Rodham Clinton said to the graduation class of 1992 in an address following her acceptance of an honorary degree from Hendrix College, a Methodist College in Conway, Arkansas."Make a pact not to give
in to selfishness or cynicism or hate. Cling to the enduring values you have been exposed to. Cling especially to the value that is given to all people and that is premised on their equal worth. Respect and trust individuals of all races, creeds, and
colors. Work toward the achievement of a universal human dignity, not just your own personal security."
It was one of the most stirring speeches she's ever given. It might just as well have been a personal prayer. Delivered as it was in the heart of
the campaign year, uttered, as it were, between the bullets of press and public attack, it was like a statement of faith.
Such statements, such faith, are what carried Hillary Clinton through the 1992 campaign year.
Source: The Inside Story, by Judith Warner, p. 229
Aug 1, 1993
Hillary Clinton:
Empathized with Eleanor Roosevelt: criticized for outspoken
Even before the election, Hillary put a great deal of thought into what being a first lady would mean. On the campaign trail she read books about famous first ladies and compared their experiences, looking for clues. But the lessons of the past were both
enlightening and inadequate. Never before had there been a first lady so uniquely a product of her professional standing. Never before had there been a first lady so uniquely a product of our age.Not surprisingly, she felt her deepest affinity with
Eleanor Roosevelt. While presenting Rosalynn Carter with the Eleanor Roosevelt Living World Award at a reception of the humanitarian group Peace Links, she noted that Roosevelt was energetically attacked by the press for speaking her mind well before
Franklin entered the White House. "So the more times change, the less times change, apparently," she said. She vowed then that she would "make as much commotion as possible about issues that are important to the world.
Source: The Inside Story, by Judith Warner, p. 236
Aug 1, 1993
Hillary Clinton:
First to participate as First Lady in policy decisions
Eleanor Roosevelt was always very modest saying that she never gave Franklin advice, that she as merely traveling and reporting back to him. She said she was his eyes and ears doing what he couldn't do.
She was modest and would write letters to people saying: "I don't want you to think that I influence Franklin in any way."Hillary Clinton will be the first to break down that separation of spheres.
Her power is worldly power, her told are professionalism and experience. She will not even, like Nancy Reagan, who was otherwise considered a major power broker, have to work through the traditional, behind-the-scenes,
quietly manipulative "feminine" route. She will simply participate. That directness, ostensibly a much more honorable route, may prove a problem.
Source: The Inside Story, by Judith Warner, p. 242-3
Aug 1, 1993
Hillary Clinton:
1969: Criticized Senator's speech as lacking relevance
In Hillary's year the chosen speaker was Senator Edward Brooke, a liberal Republican from Massachusetts. Sen. Brooke spoke for his allotted time without incident. And without substance, many of Hillary's classmates believed. After he finished speaking,
Hillary Rodham approached the pulpit. Sen. Brooke's remarks, she said, reflected just the kind of disconnected, irrelevant thinking that had led the country astray for four years. "I find myself in a familiar position, that of reacting, something that
our generation has been doing for quite a while now." For a few minutes Hillary spoke extemporaneously, rebuking Brooke. Then she segued into her prepared remarks. "The challenge now is to practice politics as the art of making what appears to be
impossible, possible. ... We're not interested in social reconstruction; it's human reconstruction," she said. Her speech wandered and wondered, its form and its abstraction striking as opposite a note to Brooke's traditional address as possible.
Source: The Inside Story, by Judith Warner, p. 38-40
Aug 1, 1993
Hillary Clinton:
1970s: Editorial board of Yale Review of Law & Social Action
At Yale Law School, Hillary was on the editorial board of the now defunct Yale Review of Law and Social Action, an alternative legal journal that was dedicated, as its editors stated, "to combine scholarship with reflections and recommendations
based on experience & practice." The journal aimed to provide a forum for activists and community leaders as well as scholars. Its first issue featured a cover photo of national guardsmen in riot gear; its second was devoted largely to the Black Panthers
Source: The Inside Story, by Judith Warner, p. 46
Aug 1, 1993