The Case for Hillary Clinton

The Case for Hillary Clinton was written by Susan Estrich and published by the publishing house of William Morrow on October 11, 2005.

Estrich wrote the 288-page book to argue that "In an atmosphere where conservative Hillary-bashing is still as virulent as ever, Estrich demonstrates all the reasons that this principled leader still blows away any other potential contender in the early polls for 2008."

In the introduction to the book, Estrich writes, "Can a woman who has been more vilified, humiliated, put down (and, yes, lied to), more than any of us--can she stand up, fight back, use her own intelligence and power, find her authentic voice, her real style, her center, grow into exactly who she was meant to be, and at the age of sixty -- in her true prime -- shatter the glass and change the world?" For Estrich, the answer to that question in the book is an emphatic "yes".

Notable quotes

• "The right has already played all its heavy guns against Hillary."

• "Several of these people had been in and out of Arkansas in his campaigns, and sometimes they told stories involving Bill Clinton and women...I heard all these stories as the only woman in the room. I laughed at all the appropriate moments, and never objected or expressed shock...People like me knew that her husband cheated on her left and right."

• "In June 1992, after the Gennifer Flowers mess, I once teased him, 'Look, I don't mind defending you, but I wish you had better taste.' 'She used to be better looking,', [Bill Clinton] joked about Flowers."

• "When the makeovers ended and she became the principal instead of the wife, the voters responded and her numbers climbed. Voters are like that. They know."

• "She would turn out to be more conservative and less strident, more Midwestern, more white-bread, than people expected...all we Americans needed to do was what New York voters had done: Move beyond the old caricature and focus on the woman she had become."

Chapter summaries

One: "Imagine"

Topics discussed

Two: "If Not Now, When?"

Topics discussed

• The claim is made that it would matter if the President of the United States was a woman.
• "We would never have to worry about Roe v. Wade again."
• The Geraldine Ferraro campaign in 1984, and Estrich's role in it.
• Claim that after the Ferraro candidacy, there was a "dramatic increase" in the number of women elected to office in America.
• Estrich's role as campaign manager for Michael Dukakis in 1988.
• Estrich says that the feminist movement was stalling out as of 2005. In 2005, 22.5% of state legislators were women.
• As of January 2005, 13 of the 100 largest cities in American had a female mayor.
• Discussion of some lawsuits in the 1970s the led to women having a more equal legal status with men.
• Wisconsin Supreme Court justice Shirley Abrahamson was "horrified" to learn from Estrich that most of Estrich's law school classmates did not pursue legal careers wholeheartedly, and instead invested themselves in marriage and childrearing.
• As of 2005, according to Estrich, social equality has eluded women and except at the lowest level of society, does not exist.
• Women have "become complacent about failure" to achieve equality.
• If Hillary Clinton were to be elected, the movement for women's equality would immediately be galvanized. "It would rock the boat in a way nothing else I can imagine could."
• "Every bigwig from corporate America will look around and say, 'We better have some women on board.'"
• More women will become partners in law firms if Hillary is elected.
• "Bit by bit", if Hillary is elected, "we'll get that old revolution started again."
• Discusses HRC's lifelong support of abortion rights.
• If HRC is elected, women will have a better chance to balance work and life.

Three: "But Can She Win?"

Topics discussed

• HRC clearly meets the "competency bar".
• But, meeting the competency bar also involves having the competency to get the position.
• The poll numbers in New York in five categories show dramatic improvement for HRC in the five years since she became New York's U.S. Senator.
• Sen. John McCain said on "Meet the Press" on February 20, 2005, "I am sure that Senator Clinton would make a good president."
• Republican operative Lee Atwater used to tell Estrich and others that there is a little boat, and on that boat are the people that Americans have decided are competent enough to be president. Dukakis never made it onto the boat.
• In a Fox News poll taken in 2005, 59% of respondents believed that HRC is competent to be president.
• "If you look at the poll numbers in New York, they suggest that the real Hillary Clinton, the person she has become, is nowhere near as polarizing as the old idea of her."
• "Electability...is the sum of all her problems".
• Estrich goes on at some length, in a negative way, about then-Tennessee governor Phil Bredesen, who told the "Times of London" that southern voters were revolting against the idea of an HRC presidency.
• Describes opposition researcher Gene Sperling.
• According to Nick Kristof of the New York Times, "television magnifies her emotional reserve and turns her into a frost queen."
• An HRC candidacy is believed to be a candidacy that will galvanize the GOP base in opposition.
• Elections are won in the middle, and HRC holds her base so strongly that she will never have to throw red meat to it during the campaign. This gives her a big advantage in trying to win the middle.
• "Of all the candidates, she has the fewest secrets, and is likely to make the fewest mistakes."
• Pollster Scott Rasmussen invented a "Hillary Meter" to measure how far off HRC is from the political center.
• In 2005, her polled negatives were at about 40%.
• In 2005, her job approval ratings in New York were in the high 60s and low 70s. Estrich describes these as "stratospheric."
• In October 2000, 44% of New York voters said that HRC was not honest or trustworthy. By 2004, that number had fallen to 30%.

Four: "What's Wrong With Hillary"

Topics discussed

Five: "Can She Lose? The Rock Star and the Rest"

Topics discussed

Six: "It Isn't Just About (Her) Sex"

Topics discussed

Seven: "Moments of Truth"

Topics discussed

See also

• Books about Hillary Clinton

References

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External links

• "The Case for Hillary Clinton" on Amazon

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