Hillary Clinton has written a memoir of her 2016 campaign called What Happened, and has been appearing on podcasts to promote it.
The interview with Fresh Air's Terry Gross recounts a great anecdote from the 3rd debate, when Hillary was late returning to the rostrum because she had use the restroom. Back on the campaign trail, Trump said he knew what she'd been up to, but would not talk about it, just too disgusting. Astonishing that he thought ridiculing women's toilet functions would please his supporters. Yet the dolt was actually elected; doubtless misogyny is thriving in America.
TG also asks Hillary a probing question. Hillary seems to identify herself with the fate of American democracy, as in not supporting Hillary makes you a sexist, misogynist, Russian dupe. Could that be a bit of a stretch? Hillary says no, and does not entertain any reasons why voters might have turned away from her out of principle.
David Remnick, on the New Yorker's Politics podcast, starts by telling Hillary how incredibly moved he was by her concession speech — a speech mostly devoted to thanking her supporters, and in which she does not take up the urgent task of rallying the opposition.
DR goes on to ask many questions about Wikileaks and the Russians. Hillary is convinced Team Trump colluded with the Russians, because the leaked emails were "weaponized." She does not talk to DR about the content of any of those emails, such as the ones that lead to the resignation of DNC chairwoman Debbie Schultz. DR asks her why Wikileaks' Jullian Assange would want to help Putin, and she says it's because Assange loves macho autocrats. Others describe Assange as an anarchist. Hillary says NSC whistle-blower Edward Snowden has a thing for strong leaders too, and that he intended to hole up in Russia all along. But in a recent interview on the Intercept podcast, Snowden, says inter alia, that Russia is not that strong — perhaps his search for a strongman will lead him elsewhere. Snowden also says it was entirely possible that Russian agents hacked Hillary's emails, that's the kind of thing intelligence agencies do. Snowden would know all about that one.
What Happened has been my BART book for the past two weeks, and now I'm almost halfway through. With a few changes, the first chapters would read like an inspirational story for young adults, about a wholesome girl who bounces back after losing the election for student body president to a piece of sexist pond scum; a defeat due in part to the treachery of her so-called friend Bernie. At first the style seemed jarring — one does not expect a book by an intellectual to describe something as "incredibly great," or to include paragraphs composed short, this-then-that sentences, like a child's essay about a trip to the zoo. But the young adult genre does have its place, and as she said at the end of her concession speech, her campaign could be an inspiration to the girl who will go on to become our first Madam President.
Her writing picks up adult energy when she focuses on sexism and misogyny. It's useful for us guys to remember that her gender was indeed a big factor in her defeat, and she relates some interesting details about the hardships endured by female candidates. For example, the burden of keeping up appearances: she calculates she used 500+ of her precious campaign hours applying makeup and getting her hair done. She also makes a concise statement of her pragmatic liberal creed, how she's concentrated on make actual improvements to real lives. In contrast with grandstanding lefties, who try to one up/out macho each other in displays of ideological purity. And as a Bernie supporter who's been on the left a long time, her indictment certainly describes some moments in my slice of the political spectrum.
