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4 'Revelations' From The Leaked Hillary Papers

by Jenny Hollander

It was just another weekend for Hillary Clinton. The former Secretary of State, most recently known for being badly Photoshopped into an asteroid by the New York Times Magazine , was apparently endorsed by ex-CIA chief David Petraeus. Then, Clinton was pitted against Rand Paul in an imaginary presidential election three years away. To top it all off, now she has to deal with "The Hillary Papers," published by a former close friend, Diane Blair. So, what are the Hillary Papers?

Well, Blair was a political science professor, and a good friend of Hillary's. She died in 2000, and ten years later, her private writings were made public: Blair's correspondence with Clinton; journal entries; memos about Clinton; interviews, and so on. Though the documents have been public for more than three years, no media outlet reported on them in their entirety until a Sunday feature by conservative website The Washington Free Beacon .

Wanna know what they say? Course you do.

On Monica Lewinsky

OK, we're a little sick of hearing about how the Lewinsky scandal of 1998 — 1998! — will impact Hillary's 2016 presidential run, if it happens. And there's little doubt that the Free Beacon meant to smear Hillary in their feature by revealing that, no, Hillary was not actually OK about her husband cheating on her in such a mortifyingly public way. Apparently, she once referred to Lewinsky as a "narcissistic loony toon."

Weirdly enough, we don't blame her for that one.

It was a lapse, but [Hillary] says to his credit [Bill] tried to break it off, tried to pull away, tried to manage someone who was clearly a ‘narcissistic loony toon’; but it was beyond control.
[Hillary] is not trying to excuse [Bill]; it was a huge personal lapse. And she is not taking responsibility for it. But, she does say this to put his actions in context. Ever since he took office they’ve been going thru personal tragedy ([the death of] Vince [Foster], her dad, his mom) and immediately all the ugly forces started making up hateful things about them, pounding on them.

So, according to Blair's journal entries, Hillary didn't excuse her husband's behavior, but put it in context in a reasonable way and dealt with it — and it clearly worked, since their marriage still stands strong. Good work smearing, Free Beacon.

Scott Morgan/Getty Images News/Getty Images

On Bill's Love Letters

Well, this is pretty lovely. In 1976, a year after they were married, Bill apparently wrote Hillary a love letter. He detailed the books he'd bought for both of them, and attached a photo of himself with a saxophone. ("I thought you might get a kick out of this — I was once even younger.")

Yesterday the recurring shakes came over me again and to rid myself of them I decided to go and buy something for you as much to be doing it as to actually wind up with things.
Although I am Ill and unevenly read there are some books that have made a deep mark on my or simply made me happy or taken me away for a while. At random almost I ran across these yesterday and decided to get them for you... Solitude and Bread and Wine were selected less randomly than others for they are great books, though not so classic in the popular sense as to render their gift a cliche. The others were picked for various reasons bearing on how they seemed to me and how I thought they would touch you.
By the time I could call last night it was too late and I was too spent. Today is Thursday. I will be at the little place downstairs in the union at 11:30. If you aren’t there, I’ll understand. And if you are, I will.

Love the Clintons.

On How Voters See Hillary

Surprise, surprise: according to Arkansas market research in 1992, Hillary was too ruthless for some voters. While people admired that same trait in Bill, they were unsettled by it in Hillary. Wrote the document, entitled "Research On Hillary:"

They also fear that only someone too politically ambitious, too strong, and too ruthless could survive such controversy so well... What voters find slick in Bill Clinton, they find ruthless in Hillary.

That same criticism is still levied at Hillary today, even though it's almost universally agreed that having a president who's a pushover probably wouldn't end well.

Sean Gardner/Getty Images News/Getty Images

Later in the documents, it's revealed that Hillary pushed Bill to be sharper in 1994.

She keeps trying to shape things up, knows what’s wrong, but [Bill] can’t fire people, exert discipline, punish leakers... Never had strategy for Whitewater, troopers, Paula [Jones]. … Inability to organize, make tough choices, drives [Hillary] nuts.

Is the ability to make difficult choices supposed to make us anti-President Hillary?

On Public-Private Contradictions

More breaking news from the Free Beacon: Politicians sometimes offer one opinion to the public, and another to their friends. In Hillary's case, that issue was single-payer healthcare. Apparently, Hillary called it "necessary" to Bill in private, and suggested adding it to Medicare.

But when running for president, Hillary told the New York Times that she'd never seen a need for single-payer healthcare. Later, writes Blair, Hillary regretted her decision to pander for votes.

[Bill’s] tenderly hugging and thanking [Hillary] for sucking up to all thos ego’s nd taking all this shit [sic]... She’s signaling him what a mess health care is, bu also, sweetly, ‘Don’t worry’ [sic].

Other "revelations" in the Hillary Papers include the fact that the former First Lady was more influential on the president's decisions than anyone let on at the time — hell, if you were married to Hillary Clinton, wouldn't you take her seriously? — and that Hillary flip-flopped on some issues, like intervention in Bosnia, over the years.

Spencer Platt/Getty Images News/Getty Images

We'd still take Hillary over Rand Paul, Chris Christie, and all of the other lame-duck nominees put together.

Images: Getty Images