The following exchange is from Dialogue Group 10, Thread 7.

1. Attitudes About the Hillary Agenda?
Mon, Dec 21, 1998 - 11:28 PM/EST
dianshaw

Being a woman I can not believe that Hillary Clinton didn't suspect all of this. Counseling this young woman! I mean, give me a break! She has been around this man for years. I truly believe she has her own agenda and intends to let it surface when the time is right. Which is kinda scary in its own right. Or is it? Any opinions?

2. Attitudes About the Hillary Agenda?
Mon, Dec 21, 1998 - 11:59 PM/EST
Tiger

I also believe Hillary has plans of her own. There is no way in the world she didn't know about the affairs of her husband. Let me put it this way, if she didn't know, she has got to be the most unobserving wife in the world.

Perhaps she doesn't really care all that much for Bill. He could be the stepping stone that she needs to further her own career in politics.

Hillary Clinton is a part of this impeachment thing whether anyone wants to admit it or not. And being the president's wife, she is subject to discussion in this forum.

5. Hillary the Opportunist
Tue, Dec 22, 1998 - 7:05 PM/EST
topsail

Hillary has ridden her horse all the way to the White House. Ole Bill has taken her exactly where she wanted to go. No doubt she would have preferred that he not screw things up when he got there, but all this may have worked out to her advantage. Public sympathy and all that, instead of being perceived as the driving bitch behind the throne. Remember, that's what everybody thought before she became the object of sympathy as the scorned wife.

Prediction. My bet is that she'll stay with him a year after he leaves office, give or take a month. (A decent interval.) Remember, you heard it here. And then Hillary the candidate...What does she run for? Perhaps the first female President? (gag) One thing's for sure...Bill ain't gonna be the First Husband.

12. Hillary's agenda
Wed, Dec 23, 1998 - 9:54 PM/EST
P G Grasso

A number of posts have referred to "Hillary's agenda" without saying what the writer believes that agenda to be. So two questions: (1) What do you think her agenda includes? (2) Why, exactly, would it be wrong for her to have a political agenda? (I have one, too, though I lack her access.)

13. Grasso's point
Wed, Dec 23, 1998 - 10:31 PM/EST
Jesse

P G Grasso has a good point here. If Hillary has an agenda, I don't see how it makes her cold and calculating. Politically astute, yes.

I'd also like to know what people think her agenda includes.

17. Private life
Thu, Dec 24, 1998 - 10:39 AM/EST
Neil

Lots of speculation here. We don't know what is going on between Hillary and Bill in what is left of their private life. Her private role may be quite different than her public role. She is politicaly savvy and will shape her public role to further that end. She is also a wife and mother and may be dealing with Bill in a personal way out of the spot light. She has certainly risen above all the other players in this sordid drama.

I would like to second P G Grasso's point. What is her "agenda" and how will she advance it? Will she seek office? Or will she use the influence she is building in some more indirect way?

18. On Balance
Thu, Dec 24, 1998 - 6:25 PM/EST
Hosea

If you examine the record, you'll find that Hillary has been less of an activist than Eleanor Roosevelt. And I think Eleanor's activism was essential to the evolution of Civil Rights.

Further, the accounts of Bill and Hillary's relationship indicates that Hillary was smitten with Bill. And Bill had more to gain by using the relationship for political gain than Hillary. Remember, Her father was a respected statesman when they met.

I think that much of this opportunist characterization of Hillary is a reaction to well educated, accomplished woman in a culture that's still not comfortable with them.

19. Reaction to Hillary
Thu, Dec 24, 1998 - 10:58 PM/EST
Jesse

Hosea is right that this opporunist, behind-the-scenes manipulator image of Hillary is the result of a society that isn't comfortable with powerful women doing powerful things. And I think this is why Hillary's activism record is shorter than Eleanor Roosevelt. If Hillary hadn't been silenced after the health care fiasco in 1994, I'm sure her record would rival Mrs. Roosevelts'.

And she is really the only player in the impeachment drama who hasn't gotten down into the muck with everyone else. I hope it pays off for her in the (near) future.

22. Well well well....
Sun, Dec 27, 1998 - 6:43 PM/EST
Suze

I was fascinated with this thread....having been educated at a woman"s school in undergrad, I am very familiar with the societal tones of dismay at powerful women....and I cannot help but think that were the situation reversed, Bill would be touted for the fact that he had good sense and his ability to stay any course ...be it personal or political would have been seen as just shy of visionary...

If Hilary has a political agenda, I would think that survival would be the most important aspect of it....how in the world could anyone stay above the fray in this drama??...and with her experience down the road she, along with Liddy Dole, Christine Todd Whitman and the others we ahve all seen and heard from in the past years, will have input that is needed in politics and any other national arena...

Lest we forget, Eleanor Roosevelt did some of her most far reaching work as the wife of an unfaithful and paralyzed husband....so the analogy is just short of "deja visionary" itself....

I have not always agreed with Hilary Clinton's position on things....but I have respected her obvious desire to be of service to her country and to her fellow human beings... Loving a spouse is a full time and sometimes thankless job....but can be a lot worse if other well meaning people get involved....right??