The Extreme Makeover of Hillary (Rodham) Clinton, by Bay Buchanan (published May 14, 2007)


(Click for Amazon book review)

BOOK REVIEW by OnTheIssues.org:

Bay Buchanan does not like Hillary Clinton. Bay Buchanan is Pat Buchanan's sister, and his campaign manager for his presidential campaign -- so she bases her criticisms on valid opposition research. We try here to omit the gratuitous Hillary-bashing, because that's not part of our website. But we do report on the valid analyses of how Hillary's voting record differs from her public statements, or how Hillary's positions change over time.

Bay Buchanan makes several important (and apparently valid) criticisms that Hillary's voting record is considerably more liberal than her public statements -- for example, on abortion and gay marriage. Buchanan also makes several (apparently valid) criticisms that Hillary's position has changed as she prepared for a presidential run -- for example, from anti-illegal immigrant to pro-comprehensive immigration reform. It appears to us, however, that Hillary's positions as "revealed" here will merely make her liberal supporters happier with her liberal positions, and/or make her potential moderate supporters happier with her willingness to moderate her position to accomplish compromise legislation. In other words, Buchanan's research is valid, but her criticisms don't result in a reason for reduced support for Hillary.

We omitted the most vicious anti-Hillary diatribes in our excerpts of this book -- but there are plenty of 'em, so we'll illustrate a couple of the worst ones to give our readers a flavor for Bay Buchanan's true attitude:

• Chapter 8 is entitled "The Stepford Candidate" (a reference to "The Stepford Wives," in which women are replaced by obedient robots). Bay Buchanan posits that Hillary's most extreme makeover occurred as she ran for Senate -- but it's not much different than describing any candidate with "campaign discipline" of sticking to the issues of the day.

• One photo essay shows Hillary with four different outfits and hairstyles, to which Ms. Buchanan adds four captions: "a) I'm serious. b) I'm nice. c) I'm Lady Di. d) I'm smart." Poking fun at women politician's appearance is an old sport in politics, but one which is usually reserved for chauvinistic males competing against women they want to belittle. One might expect more from Ms. Buchanan, who has undoubtedly been similarly belittled for her appearance. Evidently Ms. Buchanan places her opposing conservatism over her common gender with Hillary.

• Another photo essay encapsulates well the anti-Hillary flavor of the book: An unflattering photo of Hillary reading The Iraq Study Group Report is captioned, "Hillary plots her changing course on Iraq." One might question how Ms. Buchanan discerned Hillary's inner conspiratorial thoughts.

• The title of Chapter 9, "Unfit to Serve," perhaps indicates Ms. Buchanan's goal for this book. That's a reference to the book "Unfit for Command," the Swift Boat Veteran's attack book on John Kerry in 2004, which was widely credited with destroying Kerry's campaign. Presumably Ms. Buchanan wants her book to serve a similar role in 2008. I don't think it will succeed in that role, but it will certainly provide fodder for Hillary's attackers. Bay Buchanan is good at what she does -- right-wing politics -- but if this is the worst the right-wing can dig up, Hillary is indeed doing very well.

-- Jesse Gordon, jesse@OnTheIssues.org, May 2007

Click here for 12 full quotes from Hillary Clinton in the book Extreme Makeover, by Bay Buchanan. OR click on an issue category below for a subset.

Abortion    Abortion is a sad, tragic choice to many women.

Civil Rights    2004:defended traditional marriage; 2006:voted for same-sex.

Families & Children    Hillary's "village" criticized as Big Government.

Foreign Policy    Supported Palestine in 1998, before Bill officially did.

Immigration    Opposes illegal immigration, but doesn't vote to follow up.

Principles & Values    Reaches out to conservatives but voting record is liberal.    Prefers role as knowledgeable expert to role of visionary.    Family myth: named after Everest's Sir Edmund Hillary.    At her core, Hillary is an idealistic activist.    Critics call it "extreme makeover" but admit its success.    Replay of "2 for price of 1" has big pluses & big minuses.

War & Peace    Bush misused authorization for war.

Click for quotations from other sources by:
• Hillary Clinton