Hillary's Turn: Inside Her Improbable, Victorious Senate Campaign

by Michael Tomasky

It was without precedent. In July 1999 Hillary Rodham Clinton hit the campaign trail -- the only sitting first lady in the history of the United States ever to seek public office. In her quest to become a New York senator, the nation's most polarizing woman would have to hold her own in the hurly-burly world of New York politics. In this irreverent, probing, and keenly insightful book, political columnist Michael Tomasky exposes the fascinating inner workings of that race. Hillary, he reveals, was neither a gladiatorial tigress nor the unreconstructed flower child conservatives so deeply feared. Constitutionally unable to embrace what Tomasky calls "the politics of personal narrative" and to bare her soul before the voters, she instead presented herself in a tradition of nineteenth-century women reformers religiously bent on problem solving. But would that play in a media capital that savored scandal and demanded that politicians parade their personalities? For Hillary, disaster would always be one step away. Reporters turned out in record numbers to record her every misstep -- from the time she forgot to leave a tip for a waitress at a New York diner to her kissing Suha Arafat. And those were the sympathetic ones. The New York Post, a Murdoch property known for trumpeting its conservative sympathies, did its best to inflame the leagues of Hillary-haters nationwide. Primed for a duel of titans with the irascible Rudy Giuliani, Hillary watched the mayor withdraw from the race amid a flurry of tabloid revelations, to be replaced by hyperambitious young congressman Rick Lazio. And all the while a devastating series of polls and focus groups revealed that many women -- from disenchanted Baby Boomers to suburbanites -- loathed her. (Asked what she would do if she were Hillary Clinton, one test subject said she'd "put a bullet to my head or start drinking.") Here then is the witty, barbed month-by-month chronicle of how Hillary made the transition from "cosseted first lady to flesh-and-blood candidate": the surreal crises; the angry rifts among advisers over her image; the hovering presence of a scandal-plagued husband and president. And finally, here is a brilliant and lasting analysis of the vast and thorny world of statewide politics, with portraits of New York politicians of all stripes -- from Al Sharpton to George Pataki -- who sought to reshape the race for their own purposes. Filled with trenchant observations about liberalism and its antagonists, this is a rollicking tale of hardball politics in the nation's fiercest arena. It is also an illuminating portrait of that most guarded of candidates, now New York's first woman senator, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Genres: Politics

320 pages, Hardcover

First published February 15, 2001

About the author

Michael John Tomasky is an American columnist, commentator, journalist and author.

Reviews

[Brett · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining and gossipy telling of the story of Hillary Clinton's decision to run for the Senate in New York in 2000, her campaign, and eventual victory. It is very light on public policy discussion or probing questions about the race, but is a fun read with lots of insider quotes, and horse-race, blow-by-blow account of the two years or so that Clinton waged her campaign, as well as the proto-campaign of Rudy Giuliani and her ultimate opponent Rick Lazio.

Tomasky is an interesting writer for this assignment. His previous book, Left for Dead, was an accounting of the various ways he believes the left was out of touch with Americans and needed to get more in line with conservative approaches and generally moderate in favor of public opinion. Clinton then would seem to be an appealing choice for him to cover, given her risk averse campaigns and mostly moderate proposals. Still, he is certainly willing to criticize her campaign for its perceived disorganization at the outset and inability to find a resonant message. What is clear from the book is that the Clinton campaign greatly benefitted from Giuliani's lack of commitment to the race and self-sabotaging behavior (plus cancer diagnosis), that ultimately led him to drop out of the race for the Republican nomination.

It's strange to think that if Giuliani had run, the race may have been a real nail-biter. He may well have been a Senator on 9/11, instead of being thrust into the limelight as NYC Mayor, eventual failed Presidential candidate, and his ultimate humiliation as a Trump stooge with hair dye running down his face.

The race becomes a lot less dramatic without a high profile challenge to Clinton. Tomasky does try to make Lazio look as though he may have a puncher's chance in the race, but it's hard to make a gripping book out of a Senate race that ultimately gets decided by a lopsided margin.

I was in college back when this race happened, so this book was a fun trip down Memory Lane. Certainly I had not remembered most of the details from the race. It's hardly essential reading though.