What was 'right' for Hillary

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen
• Videos

By

Living History

by Hillary Rodham Clinton

Simon & Schuster $28

562 pages, Illus

A presidential candidate has to have money, name recognition, a power base, an overwhelming ego and a passionate conviction in his (or her) personal ability. Hillary Clinton has all that. If only she would toss one of her unfashionable hats into the ring next year. (Maybe she has.)

She's going to be with us anyway. If she runs she would get the dissection she deserves, not simply suck-up questions from Barbara Walters, Katie Couric and Larry King. She would unite Republicans of all persuasions, bring out a knuckle-baring debate from those hapless Democratic candidates who can't get traction. We would all enjoy it a lot more than a ghost-written, self-serving book that teases with anecdotes of her salad days but leaves us with Walter Mondale's famous question: "Where's the beef?"

No one's buying "Living History" to learn why Hillary Clinton made such a hash of her husband's health-care initiative. Nor do we expect her to dump on her husband. We're all sick of that. We already knew how she wanted to wring his neck. She's got all her lines down pat.

She says she stood by her man because it was "right" for her. I believe her. Everything Hillary does she does because it's "right" for her. Even her ridiculous assertion that the stories about Bill and Monica were the fantasies of a "vast right-wing media conspiracy" was "right" for her. It accomplished exactly what she wanted it to do -- defuse the moment when the "Bill and Monica story" went public.