Can You Ever Really Know a Candidate? Look at what he or she does when NOT running for office.
During a campaign, the candidate and supporters craft a product, create a story and then sell it. Every candidate who actually runs for office does this---even if he or she runs as a "counter culture" candidate who refuses to play by the rules. Rugged individualism is also a brand name in the US. In 2008, Obama was widely praised--by his own supporters---for running the "perfect campaign" (actual quote read many times at DU).
So, in order to "know" what you are buying, you have to investigate. Because the carefully crafted narrative may not be the whole story.
Hillary Clinton has been telling a carefully crafted narrative---middle of the road, mom and grandmother, strong on defense, soft hearted on domestic issues, not too liberal, seldom but occasionally conservative. Safe.
However, recalling that Bill Clinton---the very definition of pragmatic politician---praised his wife and his VP for being the two most idealistic people he had known, I decided it might be worth checking to see what Hillary Clinton was up to before she became Clinton's Trilby to his Svengali. And look what I found.
http://www.nysun.com/national/hillary-clintons-radical-summer/66933/
Clinton does not talk about her internship. Perhaps because it is seldom mentioned by the press except in the context of "When will the GOP decide to use this as oppo to portray her as a bra burning radical feminist who liked to hang out with Black Panthers?"
Well, I want to talk about it now. Because back in 1971, "communist" was still a scary word. When a young law student decided to go to work with communists defending anti-war protesters and minority activists, she was not following a trend or attempting to pad her resume---such a political stance was political death in 1971, just witness McGovern's 1972 campaign which was derailed with "Acid, amnesty and abortion."
Hilary's choice in 1971 says a lot about the woman, and I suspect is the real reason that the right wing still distrusts her, even after all those years of her trying to make herself seem non-threatening. To the right wing, Clinton will always be their worst nightmare--a civil rights lawyer who could cost them big in court or in the White House.
You will not catch the Clintons talking about this. But when Bill calls Hillary one of the two most "idealist" people he has ever known, remember what the other one, Al Gore, got up to when he stopped running for office. And then ask yourself what the other might do when she stops running and starts leading.
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