Hillary Clinton book excerpt: Will it change how we see her?
| Washington
Hillary Rodham Clinton has released a short excerpt from her , "Hard Choices," to promote it prior to its June 10 release. The vacation book buying-and-reading season is almost upon us, and publisher Simon & Schuster surely wants as many Americans as possible to think 鈥淐linton book鈥� when they鈥檙e planning their packing for the beach.
In the short selection, Ms. Clinton says there were some decisions she made as secretary of State that she wishes she could go back and reconsider. But she also says she is 鈥減roud of what we accomplished鈥� at State. And, perhaps in an attempt to make her experience more relatable to average Americans, she compares the hard choices of diplomacy with the hard choices that families face in everyday life.
鈥淎ll of us face hard choices in our lives.... Life is about making such choices. Our choices and how we handle them shape the people we become. For leaders and nations, they can mean the difference between war and peace, poverty and prosperity,鈥� she writes.
There鈥檚 little detail in the stuff released Tuesday. The only real tough policy call that Clinton mentions is the decision by President Obama to launch the raid that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden 鈥� a military, not diplomatic, operation.
As Mediaite reports, Simon & Schuster officials say the release of this teaser is preemptive.
鈥淗ow do you keep the jackals in the news media from leaking your book? One way is to leak it yourself,鈥� .
We鈥檇 say the release is not so much to supplant other Clinton stories as to add to them. Lots of other Clinton threads are in the news at the moment. Simon & Schuster wants to make sure as many as possible contain the phrase 鈥渦pcoming memoir.鈥�
For instance, among Democrats there is some angst as to whether Clinton should have some competition in upcoming primaries, if she decides to run. Politico covered this well Monday with a story about how some in the party are 鈥渨ary of Hillary.鈥�
These party figures "are anxious about the spectacle of a Clinton juggernaut, after seeing what happened when she ran a campaign of inevitability last time,鈥� .
Meanwhile, Republican fundraiser and guru Karl Rove is continuing his frontal assault on Clinton鈥檚 qualifications. over the weekend, he said that voters don鈥檛 like 鈥減eople who seem to already have it made鈥� and that Clinton is at risk of seeming 鈥渙ld and stale.鈥�
In this context, the upcoming release of Clinton鈥檚 memoir might be a political help. Journalists may have some stories about her as an actual person to chew on, as opposed to further abstract discussion of her qualities, good or bad.
