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Richard Cohen's columns have appeared on the op-ed page of The Washington Post since 1984. He joined The Post in 1968 after attending the Columbia ...
Read more about Richard Cohen.
Richard Cohen's columns have appeared on the op-ed page of The Washington Post since 1984. He joined The Post in 1968 after attending the Columbia ...
Read more about Richard Cohen.
Hillary's Loss Makes for An Eerie Silence
Richard Cohen
I have sometimes wondered what would happen if the good reverends of
this Earth got their way and lust -- evil, sinful lust -- vanished
overnight. I fear motels and hotels would close, florists and jewelers
would seek Chapter XI, restaurants would shutter, celebrity magazines
would fold, divorce lawyers would have to defend the innocent and, in
general, the economy would crash. Something like this is going to
happen now that Hillary Clinton is out of the presidential race.
Clinton has been a one-woman industry. By my inexact count, more than 50 books have been published about her, many of them highly critical and some so purple as to be suitable as evidence at their authors' competency hearings. One is called "Why the Clintons Belong in Prison" and another is "Hillary Clinton Nude: Naked Ambition, Hillary Clinton and America's Demise" and yet another is "Hillary's Scheme: Inside the Next Clinton's Ruthless Agenda to Take the White House." My favorite, though, is "The Hillary Clinton Voodoo Kit: Stick It to Her Before She Sticks It to You!" -- both a doll and a book of suggested spells. Given her palpable mendacity and her diabolical powers ("Hillary's Secret War: The Clinton Conspiracy to Muzzle Internet Journalists"), it is either dumb luck or part of her long-range evil plan that she has lost the Democratic nomination. To coin a phrase, time will tell.
In addition to these books about Clinton, there are plenty of others that are just plain critical in an ordinary sort of way. This is not to say that no one has written admiringly or fairly of Clinton, but the big bucks clearly went to those who wrote with a blowtorch. I sometimes imagine the same dozen or so people obsessively buying anti-Hillary books over and over again. Otherwise, you would be hard-pressed to explain why a woman so vile got something like 18 million votes in the Democratic nominating contest.
Books aside, a vast industry of bloggers and conventional old-timey columnists clearly felt compelled to write at least one Clinton column a week, usually in scorn and contempt. Foremost among these was Dick Morris, the political consultant who once worked for Bill Clinton and was pensioned off apparently without a pension. He writes about almost nothing else. What Morris will do now, I can't imagine -- possibly start a "Draft Hillary" movement.
Years from now historians will ponder the attention accorded Hillary Clinton and possibly compare her to Eleanor Roosevelt, another presidential wife who was inordinately admired and inordinately scorned. Maybe some historians will note that both are women and that maybe, just maybe, women come in for a special sort of vituperation -- a kind of contemporary version of burning at the stake.
The same historians might note also that many of Clinton's most persistent critics were women themselves and I myself have heard some of them vow that they would sooner vote for John McCain than Hillary Clinton -- even though they disagree with McCain on almost every imaginable issue, save love of country.
Was it, these historians will wonder, that Clinton did not leave her husband after his interludes with that abiding cliche, a woman half his age? This, after all, is the supposed fear of yet another abiding cliche: women of a certain age. So it is bad practice, as well as awful deterrence, for her to publicly forgive him for doing the unforgivable. I offer this topic for future historians to study since I would not, on a dare, go near it.
As for myself, I too have been critical of Clinton. My columns, of course, were a model of rational thought and cool analysis, and were based entirely on the issues, such as they were. For a number of reasons, I did not think she should be the Democratic nominee, but I often had more problems with her critics than I did with her. Some of them, clearly, needed to be medicated.
Now, though, an eerie silence has settled over the land. With Hillary Clinton out of the race, thousands of computer keyboards have been stilled, dozens of books have been abandoned in mid-chapter and enormously influential bloggers, most of them unknown to me, have vanished from the Web. Some anti-Hillary obsessives (see the latest DSM) must be feeling the sickening vertigo once experienced by Vaughn Meader, whose entire show business career was based on impersonating John F. Kennedy and who, in essence, died when Kennedy did.
It's over, ladies and gentlemen. Hillary Clinton lost. And so did you.
========
Richard Cohen's e-mail address is cohenr@washpost.com
(c) 2008, Washington Post Writers Group
This news arrived on: 06/10/2008
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Posted Comments:
06-11-2008 13:07
Fred wrote:
Colorado
If only! If only Hillary hadn't repeatedly squandered her obvious intelligence in pursuing shady dealings: pork belly trading, Whitewater, events leading to Vince Foster's suicide, refusal to release records, the constant parsing of words and events (read Bosnia plane tarmac 'attacks'), etc., etc., etc.
It would be wonderful to have a competent woman as President (and they do exist), but not this woman and her long-term dishonesty.
Unfortunately, she may rise, yet again, like a phoenix, to dominate the media because Americans love to be entertained with good acting and Ms. Clinton has those skills in spades.
So, not to worry, the people who have made hating Hillary a cottage industry will have further grist for their "extreme" attacks as Ms. Clinton is still a force to be reckoned with in the future.
Of course, Ms. Clinton doesn't have to place herself in the limelight, but she does share the need for limitless power and to be the object of public adulation, much like her husband. Finding an honest job (please, not as a lawyer!) in the private sector may be just the rehabilitation program Ms. Clinton needs to genuinely understand the actual needs of people in this country. . .those who work hard and don't expect the government to take care of their every need.
It would be wonderful to have a competent woman as President (and they do exist), but not this woman and her long-term dishonesty.
Unfortunately, she may rise, yet again, like a phoenix, to dominate the media because Americans love to be entertained with good acting and Ms. Clinton has those skills in spades.
So, not to worry, the people who have made hating Hillary a cottage industry will have further grist for their "extreme" attacks as Ms. Clinton is still a force to be reckoned with in the future.
Of course, Ms. Clinton doesn't have to place herself in the limelight, but she does share the need for limitless power and to be the object of public adulation, much like her husband. Finding an honest job (please, not as a lawyer!) in the private sector may be just the rehabilitation program Ms. Clinton needs to genuinely understand the actual needs of people in this country. . .those who work hard and don't expect the government to take care of their every need.
06-11-2008 11:22
AnneB-IL wrote:
Interesting article - I agree with Abbe. Who do we vote for now? It gets worse and worse each time we have to elect a president. And no wonder! I still don't understand why anyone wants to run and be subjected to the kind of press Hillary got. So instead of someone who at least knows her way around politics we get a greenhorn who hasn't done anything but boy can he give a speech! When did that qualify people to be president? If he gets in, and we have a Democratic majority in Congress, he will bankrupt us and this country! Where are we going to get the money to pay for all his social programs? My taxes are too high now! I'll go back to the economy we had in the Clinton years any day!
06-11-2008 09:18
garylee wrote:
hatefullness
Let's see, Hillary supported civil rights she tried to help the poor and disenfranchised with a health insurance plan and she spent eight years in the white house helping create a government that paid down the national debt and made us feel there was hope for our grand children. oh and also she kept her cool as the media stepped all over her self pride and privacy.Ok she's not perfect maybe some personality problems but she does try to do the right thing as she sees it sometimes rubbing quite a few folks who think women should raise children and stay in the kitchen and keep their mouths shut.People love to have someone to hate. Rush Limbaugh has created a career out of making boogeymen out of people with differing opinion's.The media has won again by demonizing this woman who has fought to give a voice to people who don't normally get to have a say.Even Gandi had his detractor's people who can't stand the thought of someone who should not be seen and heard actually having people listen to them.Well now that Hillary is out of the race we can have a real dustup between men the way politics should be fought and not have to put up with her nonsense.
06-11-2008 08:33
Me wrote:
Unfortunatly the Clintons aren't dead yet I still here that shrill whine she calls a voice. That's good though, I get fresh pictures of her and hubby bill to take to the gun range to put up next to the ones of Bush, Cheney, Palosi, mcCaine, Obama, and thatose other trators to Liberty. Kinda helps us all feel we are doing something good for our country as we take aim and speeze the trigger. Maybe one day the courts will do their job and We the People can shoot the real ones for the treason they have commited against this country.
This country is full of sheep, wake up and smell the roses. She lost because to many were catching on to the cabal she & hubby bill suck upto. The same one as Bush, Chaney, and those peons on Capital Hill. The IMPERIALISTIC Military Industrial Complex.
This country is full of sheep, wake up and smell the roses. She lost because to many were catching on to the cabal she & hubby bill suck upto. The same one as Bush, Chaney, and those peons on Capital Hill. The IMPERIALISTIC Military Industrial Complex.
06-11-2008 06:56
Abbe wrote:
We certainly did. Above all the rumors and above all the shady dealings that may or may not have been criminal, Hillary Clinton was first and foremost an American. As a politician, just like every other politician, she was looking out for herself first and Americans second. I firmly believe that. But what of her opponent? Who is he looking out for after number one? It definitely is NOT America or anything American. I believe the silence is because people like me are terrified now that we have ZERO candidates on the ballot for President and we will be choosing between the lesser of two evils like we have never had to do before.
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