Oh my God, this guy says it is America's fault that Hillary Clinton is a secretive and a liar:
Clinton would arguably never again sound so open, so vulnerable, so searching, so full of hope. Slowly, inexorably over the years, she has grown a harder and harder shell until, like Marley’s ghost, she now wears the chain she’s forged in life, link by link and yard by yard. The effects of that armor plating are obvious. A desire for privacy has congealed into a demand for secrecy. Candor is dangerous; artifice is safe. Full disclosure is for suckers; hunkering down is the only way to win. Above all, too much honesty about yourself brings you only more grief.
The media was mean to Hillary when Bill ran for and won the presidency in 1992. So obviously she had to transform into a Bond villain.
But if the media wrote things that hardened her, what were these horrible stories that caused it?
Her introduction to the national political media came in the white-hot glare of Gennifer Flowers, Whitewater and the history of her husband’s Vietnam draft record, a baptism that friends say left her forever scarred.
“If your first experience with your private life going public was that humiliating and that haunting, you would be camera-shy, too,” says one longtime former Clinton White House aide. “Scared of what happens when stuff about your personal life—whether it’s family, medical or sexual, is scrutinized.”
Oh! Her husband maneuvered to avoid military service during war but couldn't avoid having an affair; and the Clintons were involved in a shady business deal relying on the kindness of wealthy backers.
No mention of when Hillary displayed an almost magical skill in investment opportunities that put Trump's grandest claims of business skills to shame.
And let's review the White House Travel Office scandal (do read it all--tip to Instapundit):
So—that was the Clintons’ first big Washington scandal. It showed what has now become the Clinton Scandal Ritual: lie, deny, revise, claim not to remember specifics, stall for time. When it passes, call the story “old news” full of questions that have already been answered. “As I’ve repeatedly said . . .”
More scandals would follow. They all showed poor judgment on the part of the president, and usually Mrs. Clinton. They all included a startling willingness—and ability—to dissemble.
People watched and got a poor impression.
The point is it didn’t start the past few years, it started almost a quarter-century ago. You have to wonder, what are the chances it will change?
Rather than blame the media for writing about that stuff (and Americans for believing it), isn't the blame on her and her husband for doing that stuff?
And that transformation of Hillary from an open, caring, idealist took place rather rapidly don't you think, given that in 1996 Safire could already note that she is a "congenital liar:"
Americans of all political persuasions are coming to the sad realization that our First Lady -- a woman of undoubted talents who was a role model for many in her generation -- is a congenital liar.
Drip by drip, like Whitewater torture, the case is being made that she is compelled to mislead, and to ensnare her subordinates and friends in a web of deceit.
For a woman who staffed the Watergate Committee, Hillary Clinton seems to have not drawn the lessons that crimes, lying, and cover-ups are bad as much as she used the investigation of the Nixon administration as an after-action review to make sure she wouldn't make the same mistakes.
Lord, I hate this election.
I despise Donald Trump. I always have. The thought of voting for him revolts me.
But Hillary Clinton is truly deplorable. And irredeemable. I simply cannot vote for her under any circumstances.
Say? If the media made Hillary Clinton secretive and a liar, what outside force made her corrupt against her will, too?
Nothing stops the machine from raking in cash (tip to the Instapundit Borg).
I eagerly await the next Politico piece.
