HILLARY CLINTON: A DSM IV ANALYSIS
I don't purport to be much of a political pundit.
I registered as a Democrat when I turned 18, but at the time was infinitely more passionate about wide leg pants, learning "liquid" at raves, and was much better at discerning between a good and bad "candy flip" than recognizing a political flip flopper.
Regardless, I've voted in every major election and primary. But hell, I'll be honest—I'm more suited to political bar debates where the panelists are a light beer away from not being able to mouth "Obama" then nit-pick fallacies in the latest headlines, or get my panties in a twist about some
off-hand comment.That said, I couldn't tear away my eyes or keep my fingers shut about August's
Vanity Fair article,
"Hillaryland at War" by Gail Sheehy.
Sheehy, author of
Hillary's Choice and a certified "Hillarologist", covered Bill Clinton's campaign and witnessed first hand the rise and fall of the Clinton Empire part deux on the campaign trail this winter and spring.
Although the article explores the administration's various shake-ups and how detrimental her third place finish in Iowa was to the economic vitality of the campaign (it cost them $25 million), the most poignant was the profile Sheehy paints of the woman who deemed herself the "only candidate with the testicular fortitude to be president." I felt like a fly on the wall of therapist's couch.
Let the Personality Profile begin
SUBJECT HAS A TENDENCY TO FIB. BIG TIME.
It turns out Hillary is a bit of a fib teller.
"One of her signature stories was about a young woman who worked for minimum wage, uninsured, and who got pregnant. She was twice refused treatment at a hospital for problems with her pregnancy because they had demanded $100 up front. Clinton’s voice would hush into a tender sigh. “The next time she went to the hospital, it was in an ambulance … and they couldn’t save the baby’s life.” Gasps would fly up from every seat.
Even though the story turned out to be untrue—the hospital protested that the woman was 35, managed a Pizza Hut, was insured, and hadn’t been turned away—it made people believe Hillary would take care of them (until she had to stop using the story, as she did the tale about landing under sniper fire in Bosnia)"
SUBJECT HAS UNCANNY ABILITY TO DETACH FROM ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS
Upon sitting through news reports of her philandering husband's exploits with Gennifer Flowers in 1992, her response was chilling:
"I watched Hillary flip on the motel-lobby TV only to see Gennifer Flowers mesmerizing a press conference by playing tapes of her steamy sex conversations with Governor Clinton...Hillary had ordered her tearful male assistant to get Bill, who was unconcerned, on the phone... a woman who showed no evidence of emotional wounding, I listened to Hillary vent about Republicans who were now using “paid political character assassination.” After a seething monologue of maybe 30 minutes, she hit upon the strategy she would use all through the White House years, after she had given birth to the “war room.” “What Bill doesn’t understand is, you’ve got to do the same thing: pound the Republican attack machine and run against the press.”
SUBJECT RESPONDS TO THOSE WITH A SENSE OF HUMOR
"But the real flaw in Hillary’s presidential campaign was the lack of any clear lines of authority. Her “team of rivals,” as she thought approvingly of them, assured she would remain in total top-down control. But it is often necessary to tell a candidate what she doesn’t want to hear in a cold, hard, neutral manner. With Hillary, the word among her staff was “I don’t want to get spanked by Mama.”
SUBJECT WEARS MANY MASKS, BUT IS SOFT UNDERNEATH IT ALL
"However, the other strong core of Hillary’s character is the Nurturer-Rescuer. It is what she has done all her life, starting out after law school at modest pay to work for the Children’s Defense Fund advocacy group. Hillary often hid this side of herself in large venues, where she could come across as brilliant but brittle. When she let it shine through, however, it was startlingly effective."
