When the two new biographies of Hillary Clinton were poised to come out, some predict the books would cause a stir.
Yet, the reaction has been relatively sedate. Why? Was it because of Ms. Clinton’s excellent staffwork and the way they handled the books? Or were there other reasons?
The Phoenix’s Steven Stark, in a column titled “Empty Pantsuit” thinks he knows why:
I have a terrible confession to make: I couldn’t get through either of the two new biographical tomes about Hillary Clinton.
I really did try. And I’m sure it’s all good stuff if you’re into hearing the same old stories about the Vince Foster suicide, the commodities trade, the health-care debacle, and so on, torturously replayed for pages on end.
But I, for one, just can’t take it anymore.
The reaction of one Hillary spokesperson (she has many) to the two books was, “Is it possible to be quoted yawning?†And he’s right, albeit for the wrong reasons.
Part of the problem with these new biographies is that they were scripted by investigative reporters: Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta Jr. (New York Times), authors of Hillary Clinton: Her Way, and the legendary Carl Bernstein (Washington Post), who wrote A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton. These journalists are trained, so to speak, to lose the forest for the trees. That makes for good reporting, but lousy biography.
The main problem, however, is the subject itself. To continue the cliché metaphor, with Hillary, there is no forest. Or, as Gertrude Stein once said of Oakland, “there’s no there there.â€
The press’s assumption about Hillary has always been that she’s the power behind the throne: the smart, savvy one at Yale Law School, who got better grades but postponed her own political career for the benefit of her husband. David Brock wrote an earlier biography, The Education of Hillary Rodham, that advanced this thesis, making the claim that Hillary, not Bill, was the leading light of the twosome.
There’s only one problem with this theory: there isn’t evidence to support it. Love him or hate him, Bill is a political phenomenon.
Read the rest (and give us YOUR theory).
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.