Wow. What a book. Who knew that Bill Clinton continued his sexual escapades after he left the White House, and it was fear of another Lewinsky-type scandal that kept many loyal Clintonites from supporting Hillary in the Democratic primary. Better to go with Obama, they reasoned. If Hillary got the nomination, and a new scandal hit the papers, Republicans would win the presidency hands down.
Could it really be true that she stayed in the race long after the numbers showed it was impossible for her to win, and she did it because, if she gave up, she would look like a loser to her husband? Meanwhile, we who wanted Obama to win the nomination twisted in the wind, wanting her to drop out, praying she’d see the light, do the math, give up and go home. We worried that she knew something we didn’t know, that some unexpected thing would come out of left field and give it to her. We were in anguish during those months, and Hillary was in love. If that’s what you call love.
Who knew that Elizabeth Edwards was such a vindictive person, a woman who filled rooms of her 28,000 square foot home with unopened boxes of “stuff” she bought off the internet, a woman who publicly disparaged her husband, made it clear he was her intellectual inferior – and that was before the whole, nasty Rielle Hunter thing. Who knew that John Edwards was such a conceited, arrogant, megalomaniac? Both these nominees, Hillary and Edwards, were so flawed, the nation is lucky neither of them won the nomination.
The behind-the-scenes machinations of Obama, Hillary, and Edwards makes for delicious reading, all the more so because the public too often saw only what the candidates and their hired guns wanted us to see.
What I find amazing is that there’s been almost no push-back, no politicians or staffers dissing the authors or disputing their words.
I’m just half-way through the book: McCain and Palin are still to come. I can’t wait.
great blog entry
Wow! Now I know why I shyed away from politics: I didn’t have it in me to be out on the prowl for women in my spare time. Must be a personality trait of successful politicians. Or is that what attracts women to randy politicians? Maybe there’s something to the George-Washington-slept-here jokes.