Hillary Clinton: An Appreciation

In case I didn’t make it clear a couple of posts ago, I never bought into the notion that Hillary Clinton is a cold, calculating bitch. Maybe I was inoculated by those years when I was covering the far right and witnessing the most visceral, seething, self-revealing hatred and vituperation directed the way of both Hillary and her husband. But whether it was John Trochmann or Rush Limbaugh or Tucker Carlson or Chris Matthews, my impulse has always been to snort in contempt whenever men (or women) discussed her as though her essential bitchiness were a given.

I mean, how the hell would they really know? I don’t think I’ll be revealing anything new by pointing out that most of the time, people’s public images are bullshit. Fergawdsakes, we’ve just about endured eight years of a president whose public image was sold to us as a regular guy who was like regular people, and he was anything but — more like a rich frat kid on steroids.

What’s Hillary Clinton really like? I don’t pretend to know. I did go to Hillary’s breakout at YearlyKos last year and sat fairly close, in the second row, and I came away deeply impressed. Her mastery of policy, her decisiveness and decency and her personal affability were all on display. Lord knows I felt better going away because, if nothing else, the sheer competence she displayed was a world away from the disastrous presidency we’ve been enduring.

In the end, I settled behind Obama — not out of any deficiency of Hillary’s really, but rather what more he brings to the table. But I never have stopped admiring Hillary, nor have I stopped appreciating what she and her husband have achieved. As Digby says:

I see the Clintons as warrior chiefs against the hardcore conservative movement machine that nearly crippled this country (but which may have just run its course after drifting into decadence and hubris.) But, at the time of the movement’s greatest power and influence, no one took more crap or was more deft at beating them back. I, for one, am grateful to both of them for taking a nearly unbelievable amount of heat from both the media and the Republicans during that era — and surviving.

When she concedes this morning, I hope every one of us remembers that and is grateful for the fighting spirit she brought to this campaign. We will need it into November.

The speech is scheduled for broadcast at 12 pm EDT, 9 am PDT. Be sure to watch.

Related posts:

1. Late Night: Hatin’ on Hillary – Get Over It Already.
2. Liz Cheney Rejects DOMA, Applauds Hillary Clinton
3. Bill Clinton: “I Was Wrong About Gay Marriage”
4. Clinton Talks Positively About Snowe’s Trigger
5. Is Bill Clinton Raising Money for Mike Ross? UPDATED: Yes