Understanding Hillary: Why the Clinton America Sees Isn't the Clinton Colleagues Know

[ehrnst]

"I’ve come to call it “the Gap.” There is the Hillary Clinton I watch on the nightly news and that I read described in the press. She is careful, calculated, cautious. Her speeches can sound like executive summaries from a committee report, the product of too many authors, too many voices, and too much fear of offense."

"And then there is the Hillary Clinton described to me by people who have worked with her, people I admire, people who understand Washington in ways I never will. Their Hillary Clinton is spoken of in superlatives: brilliant, funny, thoughtful, effective. She inspires a rare loyalty in ex-staff, and an unusual protectiveness even among former foes.

"This is the Gap I set out to understand. While reporting this story, I spoke to dozens of people who have worked with Clinton in every stage of her career, going back to her time in the Arkansas Governor’s Mansion. Every single one acknowledged its existence. Many were frustrated and confused by it."

Her explanation for the Gap is simple enough. “There’s a lot of behavioral science that if you attack someone endlessly — even if none of what you say is true — the very fact of attacking that person raises doubts and creates a negative perspective,” she says. “As someone Exhibit A on that — since it has been a long time that I’ve been in that position — I get that.”

http://www.vox.com/a/hillary-clinton-interview/the-gap-listener-leadership-quality

[Demsrule86]

1. Hillary is a good person.

She has been attacked unfairly for years. It makes me sad to see so called progressive join the attack machine...Time to unite and rally behind our nominee.

[PJMcK]

2. Hillary Clinton is tough

She'd have to be solid as a rock given the decades of spurious attacks launched at her and her husband.

Secretary Clinton is right about the behavioral science she mentioned.

[tazkcmo]

4. True Science

And it makes sense w/o the science. Bad mouth a person often enough and loud enough and long enough and it will have an effect. I still would love to "have a beer" with her in spite of this and our policy differences I think she is a fascinating person and am sure she is not the same Peron we see in press conferences and such. I know we would share some laughs as her sense of humor is obvious as well as her intellect which is an excellent combination. Add to that the fact she's as tough as nails.

[ehrnst]

3. It's key that the people who know and work with the candidate endorse the candidate

A politician may do great in front of a crowd, but the people they have worked with know better if they are good presidential material.

That's what endorsements from their peers tell us.

[BlueMTexpat]

6. Exactly! eom

[Arkansas Granny]

9. Yes. I've even seen interviews with Republican Senators who admitted that Hillary was

one of the hardest working Senators that they had worked with.

[Orsino]

5. I found this fascinating.

It acknowledges the biggest problem I have with Clinton, but convincingly paints a piece of it as gendered expectations. Sexism, but not the usual sort that I can easily deny.

[Native]

7. "Card Table Time" - how cool is that?

Laurie Rubiner, who served as Clinton’s legislative director from 2005 to 2008, recalls being asked to block out two hours on the calendar for “card-table time.” Rubiner had just started in Clinton’s office six weeks before, and she had no idea what card-table time was, but when the boss wants something put on the calendar, you do it.

When the appointed day arrived, Clinton had laid out two card tables alongside two huge suitcases. She opened the suitcases, and they were stuffed with newspaper clippings, position papers, random scraps of paper. Seeing the befuddled look on Rubiner’s face, Clinton asked, “Did anyone tell you what we’re doing here?”

It turned out that Clinton, in her travels, stuffed notes from her conversations and her reading into suitcases, and every few months she dumped the stray paper on the floor of her Senate office and picked through it with her staff. The card tables were for categorization: scraps of paper related to the environment went here, crumpled clippings related to military families there. These notes, Rubiner recalls, really did lead to legislation. Clinton took seriously the things she was told, the things she read, the things she saw. She made her team follow up.

[Arkansas Granny]

8. Good article. Thanks for posting.

[oasis]

10. Hillary's the "real deal".