Chapter One
Imagine
Imagine the moment when a news anchor will say, “Based on all our
projections, we can now say that the United States of America has elected
its first woman president …”
If you’re old enough, think back to how you felt in 1984, when you heard
that Walter Mondale had picked Geraldine Ferraro to be his running mate.
Remember what it was like when she stood up to accept the nomination, and
for a moment there were no limits to what was possible. Sally Ride was
flying into space; Gerry Ferraro was running for vice president. All of a
sudden it seemed true after all: Women could do anything.
Now, multiply that feeling by a thousand, and imagine how it will feel
when a woman stands up to accept the Democratic presidential nomination – the
first woman to be nominated for the presidency by either party.
And then multiply that by a thousand, and think of election night 2008.
Imagine yourself turning to your daughter, or your mother or sister, or
your niece or grandmother or granddaughter, and saying:
If she can do this, then the world really has changed.
And across the globe, in every language women speak, as the pictures
travel and the word spreads, as those voices are heard, billions of girls
and women will turn to each other and say the same thing, and the world
will never be the same.
This is an argument for that night.
It is an argument for how we can get there.
For what all of us have to do to make it happen.
The following people are not real. (Although any resemblance to real
people is entirely intentional.)
BERT: It’s suicide. She’ll win two states.
BARBARA: I hope Judith is paying you a fortune, Susan.
BERT: Maybe we should invite her for dinner?
BARBARA: After all those makeovers …
BERT: You want to imagine something? Imagine the Supreme Court with
nothing but conservatives for the next fifty years, because we gambled
wrong …
BARBARA: Bert says it ‘s okay to make him a character as long as you
don’t tell people you’ve convinced him, because you haven’t. And make
sure you don’t use our real names.
Remember Harry and Louise, the doubting-Thomas couple from those ads
attacking Hillary Clinton’s health care plan? Bert and Barbara are my
Harry and Louise. If they were real, they might be my best friends.
You can’t win, Bill Clinton said the other day, talking just to people who
agree with you. You have to meet the arguments of people who start out on
the other side.
That’s music to the ears of a law professor.
When you’re talking about Hillary, it’s easy to find people to argue with.
Most Democrats I know, even the ones who like her, are up in the air about
Hillary. I’ve never been attacked like I have since I started telling
people what I was writing about – and I live where it is very, very blue.
Bert and Barbara are actually more positive about Hillary than some other
people I know. My friend Maureen thinks Hillary is about two years old,
developmentally. Two is not a charming age. Two still has pieces missing.
People are drawn to her, she says, but they’re uncomfortable with her
because they sense that there’s literally something missing. Bill fills in
the pieces. That’s what keeps them together. That’s why, whatever I write,
Maureen is certain that people won’t like it. There will be something
missing.
My friend Neil thinks she is cold at the core. A phony. But he’s impressed
by her New York numbers. Maybe she can pull the same thing off, he
reasons, if she can figure out what worked before Dick Morris beats her to
it and finds a way to counterpunch. Neil thinks Dick is smart, but that he
can’t get over the fact that Hillary outsmarted him; and Dick’s cross
because he lost to a two-year-old, playing the same game over and over.
I think Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, soon-to-be second-term senator
from New York, centrist Democrat, strong on security, tough, moderate,
family values, middle-aged, qualified, managed by Bill Clinton, is the
next president of the United States….
I have it in my head to try to convince my friends that I’m right and
they’re wrong.
Is Hillary running?
Yes.
Has she told me so? No, of course not. Ann Lewis, her chief political
aide, will say only that “We’re focused on the Senate campaign now.” Of
course, it’s a necessary political ruse. Nobody’s trying to convince us
that Hillary’s New York constituents are flocking to vacation in Minnesota
and Wisconsin and Ohio, three states she has visited recently. Nobody
really believes it’s essential to have a state chair in Georgia when
you’re running for Senate in New York. She has the best possible guy in
her California chair, and he told me only recently that he was vitally
interested in the New York Senate race. Hillary made headlines in May by
inviting her Iowa supporters to her Washington home for a fundraiser, an
innovative step to take in a New York race.
In politics, there are steps you take when you’re running for Senate, and
steps you take when you’re running for president. When you’re running for
president, you put together a presidential-caliber PAC run by a veteran
presidential-caliber campaign chief like Ann Lewis; you start hiring
national organizers; you amass a bigger war chest than any other senator
who is up for reelection, even before you have an opponent; you put your
people in place in the appropriate think tanks, media groups, state
parties, and consulting firms so everybody is ready to go. All of which
senatorial candidate Hillary Clinton has done.
Since election night 2004, Hillary Clinton has been leading in every poll
for the Democratic nomination. Not only does she have the most money, the
best organization, and the …
(Continues…)
Regan Books
ISBN: 0-06-083988-0
Excerpted from The Case for Hillary Clinton
by Susan Estrich Excerpted by permission.
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