Much of this excellent biography of Hillary Rodham Clinton reads like a Marlovian tragi-comedy. It is Christopher Marlowe's black comedy The Jew of Malta that keeps coming to mind when reading the excruciating twists and turns of Hillary Clinton’s career, as told here by veteran journalist Carl Bernstein.
Hillary Clinton is constantly finding herself wading through implacable enemies, scandals, self-created policy disasters, suicides, betrayals, unscrupulous hate campaigns, a hostile media. And on and on and on.
Hillary herself comes across as a mixture of Homeric warrior and Biblical victim. It’s hard not to feel sorry for her as she cops criticism for such seemingly innocuous things as keeping her own maiden name when she married Bill (that she would eventually change under pressure). On the other hand, her bloody-minded tactics can be shocking. It’s interesting to note that it was she who enlisted the appalling spin merchant Dick Morris to help resurrect Bill’s career on two occasions. Bill Clinton himself didn’t want to be seen working with Dick Morris.
Heavy Duty Paradoxes in Hillary Clinton’s Career
There are plenty of heavy-duty paradoxes in Hillary Clinton’s career. She actively campaigned against the Vietnam War, then as a Senator voted to give George W. Bush the power to go to war in Iraq. She worked on an impeachment committee to take down Richard Nixon, then would have to fight the forces that tried to impeach her own husband. When her husband Bill came to office, she claimed an almost de-facto presidency and promised the most open and transparent of governments, yet would become highly secretive and ‘Jesuitical’ with the truth – that is, fond of splitting hairs.
She frankly talks about ‘demonising’ her enemies as a way of dispatching them, then goes on new age retreats, channels Eleanor Roosevelt and writes a feel good book called It Takes a Village. Hillary Clinton is a complex woman, to say the least.
A First Class Biography of a Complicated Character
Author Carl Bernstein, who co-authored with Bob Woodward the breakthrough All The President’s Men, has written a first class biography here. He conducted some 200 interviews, and it shows in the stunning detail. It has the compelling quality of over-the-fence gossip, mixed with Bernstein’s many years as a Washington bureau chief and correspondent. Bernstein writes in a sophisticated and articulate prose reminiscent of the urbane Gore Vidal.
The only caveat to this high praise is that the bulk of A Woman in Charge is really a double biography of both Hillary and Bill Clinton: their marriage, their intellectual and political partnership, their youthful dreams of transforming America for the better, and the reality of the outcome. Indeed, when Bill’s presidency comes to an end, Bernstein sums up Hillary’s six or so years in the Senate in a mere couple of pages.
It seems clear that she wouldn’t have gotten this type of biographical attention without her husband. In short, a large part of the book is a history of the Clinton administration, its triumphs and its tragedies.
And what of Hillary Clinton herself? Obviously she’s a tough and very resilient woman, of considerable character and strength. Intellectually sharp, but perhaps suffering tunnel vision. (Her husband seemed to be the more ‘creative’ thinker, while Hillary the more ‘rational’ and ‘masculine’.)
A Woman in Charge provides a gripping read of one of today’s most fascinating and complex political characters.
Woman in Charge – The Life of Hillary Rodham is published by Knopf (2007). ISBN-13: 978-0375407666
Chris Saliba - Chris Saliba is a freelance writer. Read more of his workplace articles at chrissalibafreelancewriter.blogspot.com
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