The Hillary Effect

by Taylor Marsh

Spanning nearly two decades of American politics, The Hillary Effect is the provocative and insightful story of the first viable female presidential candidate in history to win a primary and do so in spite of her campaign team’s mistakes. It addresses the galvanizing impact that her loss represented for both women and men, in and out of Washington. And it revolves around media coverage that treated her differently as First Lady, senator and then presidential candidate - not only because she was a woman, but because she was Hillary Clinton.

Candidly written by veteran political analyst Taylor Marsh, it is the view from a recovering partisan, someone who the Washington Post called a “die hard Clintonite” in their profile of her in 2008.

The Hillary Effect began when Hillary, as First Lady, dared to challenge China’s treatment of women. A countless number of women have and will benefit from her presidential loss, the most famous being Sarah Palin (the Tea Party queen of 2010 and first female on a national Republican presidential ticket), who weaves throughout this story as the anti-Hillary. The Hillary Effect also sees Michele Bachman as a player, as the first Republican female to win a straw poll, primary or caucus.

The male leads in this stunning tale are Bill Clinton and President Barack Obama (someone who turned out to be very different from candidate Obama), with David Plouffe and Mark Penn making appearances. The story includes a host of media personalities and their outlets, but also new media and progressive voices, and famous names like Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, Sally Quinn, the late Tim Russert, Richard Wolffe, Laura Ingraham, Liz Cheney, Peggy Noonan, Maureen Dowd, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and even Bill O’Reilly, who offered Hillary the best interview she would do during the 2008 season.  

All of this is seen through the economic and political crises of today, health care, women’s individual freedoms being challenged by the right, Afghanistan, women’s rise around the world, the debt ceiling debate, tax cuts for the wealthy, Occupy Wall Street and an American public disenchanted with both Republicans and Democrats. 

287 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 2011

About the author

Taylor Marsh is a thriller author who tinkers beyond the veil. She has excelled across multiple entertainment platforms over 25 years. COSMIC TATTOO: A Twisted, Mind-Bending Psychological Thriller is out!

"I explore the mind, murder, and how one woman lassos power through her instincts and the mysterious. Thrillers for the Aquarian Age." - Taylor Marsh

Taylor’s 2019 thriller MAY BE FATAL was called one of the “Buzziest Books of February” by New In Books, broke through and hit Amazon’s top 100 paid in three categories. She unwinds the shadow side and psychic phenomenon in thrillers for the Aquarian Age.

Taylor’s thrillers can be found near Natalie Barelli… Miranda Rijks… Willow Rose... She explores women characters in unsafe spaces.

Two published non-fiction books… Marsh was on Broadway -- after the B.F.A., commercials, and Miss America pageant thing -- and before she was Relationship Consultant for LA WEEKLY. She was profiled in The Washington Post and The New Republic. Op-eds: HuffPost, The Hill, U.S. News & World Report. Interviews: NY Times, LA Times, NY Daily News, BBC, CNN, MSNBC, Al Jazeera, C-SPAN's Washington Journal. www.taylormarsh.com

Reviews

[Upstate Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a sumptuous feast. It is well written and researched.
It is a very prescient book, a helpful lens through which to
view the issues of the day such as "equal pay for equal work",
sex harassment and discrimination in the work place and
reproductive choice.

[Laurany_newdealdem · Rating 5 out of 5]

Already a seasoned political analyst, with "The Hillary Effect" Ms. Marsh establishes herself as one of the best chroniclers of the historic, exciting and unforgetable 2008 historic run for President of the United States. When an African-American man and a woman were the two front runners for the most powerful political office in the world. Ms. Marsh engagingly and poignantly captures all of it in this well-written and documented book: the good; the bad; and, the sometimes ugly directed at then Senator Hillary Clinton by her opponents and the old and new media most of whom were openly rooting for Obama to win.

Few will forget the elation that many felt in 2008 as Senator Clinton and Senator Obama competed for their party's nomination in one of the best contested and high caliber primaries in American history. The longer it went on, the better each became in their quest for the political "holy grail".

Conversely, few will forget the misogyny and sexism that was aggressively let loose at the time and unabashedly out in the open and directed at Clinton (and her supporters) from various and sundry: anonymous haters online and in the media (Chris Matthews and Tim Russert stand out as two of the worst) and regardless of political party. Some of whom seemed to resent Clinton for even running against Obama and continually demanded that she withdraw from the race even though the contest was so close and this had never been asked of a man before (i.e. Ted Kennedy in his contentious primary bid against Jimmy Carter). The double standard (or as Ms. Marsh says of Clinton, the triple standard when applied to her) is alive and robust as ever. Ms. Marsh documents it all with great insight and unremitting honesty as she doesn't shy away from critiquing the mistakes made by Clinton herself and some of the people in her campaign who didn't serve her well as she campaigned to be President.

(And, as misogyny and sexism are equal opportunity offenses with misogynists and sexists equal opportunity offenders, Ms. Marsh takes on these offenses when they were hurled at Sarah Palin by both political parties.)

It will take you back to the roller coaster ride that was the 2008 Democratic Primary with an objective but not dispassionate eye of the first American woman to win a primary. And, in the end, it will delight the many who want to see more women run for political office and win. As Ms. Marsh's book not only chronicles Clinton's tireless attempt to win the Democratic primary for President -and thus shatter one of the last glass ceilings for women with those 18,000,000 cracks (votes) - but as the title indicates the effect that Clinton's run has caused: a tectonic shift in the political plates. She has influenced more women to run for office, local and national, be nominated for all sorts of governmental positions and made it easier for other women to do so as the American public are now very ready for a "Madam President". There's no going back.

The political junkie and the dabbler in politics both will appreciate and treasure this book. It is a very good read.

[Naomi · Rating 1 out of 5]

As I agreed to review this book for the publisher and Netgalley, I did finish this book. Had I not committed to that, I would not have finished the book. This is for several reasons. First, I thought the writing of the book was poor. It was choppy and discombobulated in its' formation and structure which made it come off as amateurish. Second, sexism in politics is a HUGE problem in this country. Rather than the book being a solution to the problem, in many ways it perpetuated the issue in how the author addressed issues, particularly related to Sarah Palin.

If this is a topic which interests the reader of this review, a much better book (which garnered 5 stars from me) is Notes from the Cracked Ceiling: Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and What It Will Take for a Woman to Win by Anne Kornblut.

[Hutch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it!

[Ronn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This author has a problem.