A Reason Not to Vote for Hillary
In the Washington Post, Lois Romano has written a fascinating story about Hillary Clinton's female inner circle, known to itself as "Hillaryland."
Once seen as a tight little sorority, today the group -- happily self-described as "Hillaryland"-- is at the center of a front-running presidential campaign. Never have so many women operated at such a high level in one campaign, working with a discipline and a loyalty and a legendary secrecy rarely seen at this level of American politics.Older and tougher, they have formed a closely knit Praetorian Guard around Clinton that plots strategy, develops message and clamps down on leaks. But their extraordinary protectiveness also contributes to an ongoing perception of insularity around the candidate and the campaign.
I read this with dismay. Most of these women—Ann Lewis, Minyon Moore, Evelyn Lieberman, Mandy Grunwald, Melanne Verveer, and others—served with Hillary in the Clinton White House, and even then they were notorious for a number of things:
their insularity, their fanatical devotion to Hillary Clinton, and their us-against-the-world mentality.
Some of the group, such as Minyon Moore and Cheryl Mills, were highly competent. Others were not.
There is obviously a case to made for earning and rewarding loyalty. But there's also a case for bringing in fresh voices and differing perspectives. The groupthink prevalent in Hillaryland was astonishing; talking to one of its members, you'd think you were talking to a member of a cult, and you kept wanting to urge the person to wake up. They never did, and it sounds like they still haven't.
It was members of Hillaryland, for example, who largely wrote Mrs. Clinton's memoir, a book equally disingenuous and boring. (The best thing about it was its cover, taken from a photo shoot we did for George. Mrs. Clinton had promised to do an exclusive cover; she then reneged on her promise when asked to be on the cover of Talk, whose owner, Harvey Weinstein, subsequently raised money for Mrs. Clinton's 2000 Senate race.)
I can't speak authoritatively on the subject, I hope, but my guess is that being disingenuous and boring at the same time is something not easily achieved.
And yet, this is Hillary Clinton's largest problem: When she opens her mouth, no one believes a word she says.
Except, perhaps, the women of Hillaryland.
