Hillary Clinton: running to win - but on her own terms
Fantastic Guardian article... please read at the link
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/14/hillary-clinton-arkansas-friends
On Thanksgiving Day in 1996, when Hillary Clinton was in the White House, she had a long conversation with her best friend, soulmate and confidante, Diane Blair. The two women had forged a relationship in the 1970s when they were both teaching in Fayetteville in Arkansas – Bill’s home state – and would remain close until Blair’s death from cancer in 2000.
With the blunt honesty of a trusted friend, Blair raised with Clinton one of the most vexed problems that has bedevilled her years of public service: her toxic dealings with the press. Couldn’t she avoid a lot of grief, Blair suggested, by developing friendlier relations – even fake ones – with media figures? And shouldn’t she stop changing her hair so often?
Blair clearly touched a nerve, provoking a defiant riposte from the first lady. In today’s context, at the end of a week in which Hillary Clinton has yet again found herself face-to-face with a sceptical press demanding answers about her use of a private email address while working as America’s top diplomat, her robust words almost two decades ago sound uncannily prescient.
“I’m a proud woman,” Clinton began. “I’m not stupid; I know I should do more to suck up to the press. I know it confuses people when I change my hairdos. I know I have to compromise.”
But then Clinton’s tone suddenly shifted. “But I’m just not going to,” she said. “I’m a complex person and they’re just going to have to live with that. I’m used to winning, and I intend to win on my own terms.”
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