Hillary Rodham Clinton

I figured that before whatever happens this time with the US Presidential election, it was time for me to do some reading about what happened last time.

Hillary Rodham Clinton tells her side of that story here, as well as speaking on a number of other related subjects, including a couple of engaging and surprisingly affecting chapters on the difficulties and inspirations of being a woman in politics.

She pulls absolutely no punches when it comes to calling out Donald Trump on his corruption, show more abuses, and lies -- especially in the Afterword to the 2018 edition I have -- but she comes across here, by and large, as a measured, reasonable, thoughtful person, someone who was and is desperately interested in issues of policy and the practical business of governing and who was deeply frustrated by how those things ended up being completely ignored in the multimedia mess that was the 2016 election.

I'll be absolutely honest here. While I don't have a major problem with her, I've also never been a huge fan of Hillary Clinton. Personally, I'd pick Elizabeth Warren as my top choice for the first female US President. But I never doubted Clinton's competence or her dedication, and reading her thoughts in this book has only reinforced that impression. I cannot help thinking now about that so-close alternate timeline in which it would have been her hand on the rudder to guide us through our current crises, and it's a thought that generates a very real sense of grief. Reading here about all the plans and preparations she had made for her presidency, about the speech she had intended to make if she won and the things she had hoped to accomplish, and contrasting all of that with what we actually got... It's just heartbreaking. There is simply no other word for it.

Clinton herself makes a point of finding notes of hope and optimism in the midst of it all, but sitting here reading this in September of 2020, I'm honestly finding it hard to feel anything other than depressed. show less

Instead of thinking about this book as a question (What Happened?), think of it as a declarative statement (What Happened.). Clinton early and often shoulders responsibility for losing the Presidential Election of 2016, and she shares her personal glimpse of the campaign and the many complexities involved.

Clinton has been much criticized for her account of Bernie Sanders, but to be honest, he's much less in this book than Twitter, CNN, and the late-night hosts would have you believe, and show more she is far more excoriating of Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, and white nationalists. She in fact spends way more time on Putin than just about anything else--except for the emails.

Clinton owns up to those several times, and she points out that she was neither the first nor the last elected official to use a private email server (calling Mike Pence). She explains the media coverage, as well as the negative press, which shows she was well aware of public perception of her, and how difficult it was to combat.

But this book is far more than election post-mortem. It's a smart examination of policy and ideology, and it points to values that Democrats share and must emphasize in the elections to come (particularly women's reproductive rights, police-community relations, and union-building in Rust Belt states).

This is not going to be a fun or comfortable book for a lot of people, but it was an important read. The chapter on Russia's role in the election should be required reading for everyone. show less

Unerwartet hat der neue amerikanische Präsident Williams seine schärfste Kritikerin zu seiner Außenministerin gemacht. Ellen Adams hat schnell verstanden, weshalb, indem sie für den Posten ihr Medienimperium aufgibt und an seiner Seite arbeitet, kann er sie besser kontrollieren und geschickt Fallen stellen, um sie öffentlich zu demütigen. Als eine Serie von Bombenanschlägen Europa erschüttert, sind sie jedoch gezwungen, zusammenzuarbeiten, denn im Auswärtigen Amt ging zuvor eine show more Warnung ein. Ausgerechnet aus dem Iran, dem verhassten Erzfeind. Schnell erkennen Williams und Adams, dass die Bedrohung vielleicht nicht unbedingt aus dem Mittleren Osten kommt, auch wenn dort mit Bashir Shah ein gewiefter Physiker sitzt, der im Verdacht steht, eine Atombombe zu bauen und meistbietend an Schurkenstaaten oder Terrororganisationen zu verhökern. Die Zeit läuft ihnen davon und das bei einer diffusen Bedrohungslage, bei der die Grenzen zwischen Freund und Feind fließend sind.

Ebenso wie ihr Mann, der bereits zwei Politthriller auf den Markt geworfen hat, hat sich die ehemalige Außenministerin Hillary Rodham Clinton nach Ende der politischen Karriere jener der Literatur verschrieben. Dazu hat sie sich mit Louise Penny eine routinierte und erfolgreiche Autorin gesucht, mit der die Geschichte für meinen Geschmack überzeugend umgesetzt wurde. Es ist ein klassischer Thriller im Politikmilieu, der mit der Angst vor einer unbekannten Gefahr spielt und die bekannten Akteure des politischen Spiels einbindet. Dass damit auch der Mythos des einsamen amerikanischen Helden, der sich und seine Familie hinter die Interessen des Landes stellt, bedient wird, war zu erwarten und sehe ich nicht als Makel, denn die Handlung ist spannungsgeladen, wird mit hohem Tempo erzählt und schließlich schlüssig gelöst.

Ellen Adams zeichnet sich durch einen scharfen Verstand und schnelle Auffassungsgabe auf. Indem man ihren Mann zum Opfer des gesuchten Atombombenbauers macht und auch ihr Sohn bereits in den Händen islamistischer Terroristen war, hat sie auch ganz persönliche Motive, sich den Agitatoren der Krisenregion entgegenzustellen. Als Figur sicherlich in mancher Hinsicht überzeichnet – die ganze Familie einzubinden, derart hoch zu pokern und geschickt die Herrscher in ihrem Sinne zu manipulieren – andererseits sind das die meisten Helden in diesem Genre und bekanntermaßen ist auch ein James Bond halbtot in der Lage, alleine die Welt zu retten.

Die Handlung integriert geschickt die politischen Verschiebungen der letzten Jahre und wirkt dadurch glaubwürdig und durchaus real vorstellbar. Dass in geheimen Laboren Atombomben oder auch andere Waffen, egal ob atomar, biologisch oder chemisch, hergestellt werden könnten, um Rache an der westlichen Welt zu nehmen, dürfte niemand ernsthaft in Zweifel ziehen.

Der Thriller wurde vielfach harsch kritisiert. Die Argumente sind durchaus nachvollziehbar, die Abrechnung mit dem ehemaligen Präsidenten – Parallelen zu realen Personen sind vermutlich rein zufällig - erfolgt nicht gerade subtil, letztlich ist er es sogar, der entscheidend zu dem Chaos und der Bedrohung beigetragen hat. Ich fand die Seitenhiebe oftmals köstlich und amüsant, da passte jedes Wort.

General Whitehead seufzte. „Bashir Shah ist wieder auf freiem Fuß? Das ist in der Tat ein Problem.“
„Und zwar ein größeres, als Sie glauben. Angeblich haben wir dafür unseren Segen gegeben.“
„Wir?“
„Die ehemalige Regierung.“
„Das ist unmöglich. Wer wäre denn dumm genug... Ach. Vergessen Sie, dass ich gefragt haben“

Die Außenministerin ist die überragende Figur und damit wohl eher von Wunschtraum Clintons. Aber mal ehrlich: wer greift nicht auch zu Literatur, um das zu durchleben, was man im echten Leben nicht hat oder nicht ist? Warum sollte ihr es dann nicht auch als Autorin gestattet sein, die Figur, die gewisse Ähnlichkeit zu ihr aufweist, etwas aufzuhübschen? Mich hat’s nicht gestört.

Das Wissen Clintons aus dem inneren Zirkel der Macht gepaart mit Pennys Schreibtalent – eine spannende und gelungene Kombination, die gerne fortgesetzt werden darf. show less

I held off on reading this because the election was still too recent, too painful. And yet, what better way to work through it than by reading Mrs. Clinton's thoughts on her life, her campaign, and yes, on what happened? I've seen reviews that complain that the book was about all these things instead of an examination of what went wrong and I have to scratch my head over that because I'm not sure we can ever really know what happened, not in any granular way. Too much went wrong. Clinton show more takes the blame for the choices she made that proved to be poor ones, she states on several occasions that she was the candidate and the buck stops there.

But she does discuss other factors. Trump's bitter, divisive campaign that embraced the worst America has to offer. Bernie Sanders (In spite of some reviewers saying she lays all the blame on him, that's simply not so. Her criticisms are the same ones I had, and I was a Sanders supporter.), James Comey and those emails, third party candidates, Russian interference; they all contributed to her loss. In the end, Clinton seems to believe that the email kerfuffle so close to the election was the single biggest factor. She rightly blames Comey for poor judgment. But there is no single answer and to her credit, she never tries to offer one.

But beyond that, the reader is given a peek at who Hillary Clinton really is. Daughter, wife, mother, grandmother, these are rolls she cherishes even more than her political career. We hear about her parents, her mother in particular, who shaped her early years, her husband who supported her in everything she chose to do. (Let's get this out of the way right now: She admits her marriage was in crisis at one point. They worked through it, which is what adults do if they can. And she says several times that she has never regretted marrying the man who is her best friend. There aren't any salacious details here, just a woman talking about who she is, and how she got here.)

We get a glimpse into the campaign including a bit of second-guessing, inevitable in a losing campaign. And she talks about coming to terms with the fact that there are people who simply do not like her. I get that. If all I had to go on was the collection of speeches and commentary she's made, I might feel the same because she often comes across as stiff and reserved. Her diction is precise and the combination makes her seem a little school-marm-y. But I know her work, I know her reputation, and I like her very much. After the election I was sad for what we lost. After reading this book, I'm sad all over. She would have been a good, even a great president.

I suspect a great many people are going to be reading this through glasses colored by their political beliefs, which is to be expected, but I would hope that if they've gone to the trouble of reading what she has to say, that they will try to do it without preconceptions of how they will react. Read with an open mind as you'd read anything. That's the only way to get the value of any book.

I'm grateful to a friend for having gifted the book to me. He was not a Clinton supporter, but wanted to read it, and knew I did as well. His response was heartening. show less