What Happened: we read Hillary Clinton's book so you don't have to
Hillary Clinton's memoir, What Happened, has gone on sale this week, and it's a 512-page extravaganza of candid revelations (her love of Chardonnay, comfy clothes and a Texan martini) and finger pointing fury (James Comey, Vladimir Putin, Bernie Sanders....).
The book looks back in anguish, disbelief and with dry asides at what went wrong during one of the biggest upsets of recent political history.
While some are pleased the former secretary of state is revisiting events leading up to 8 November, other Democrats would rather save themselves the embarrassment.
“I love Hillary," Minnesota's senator Al Franken recently remarked. "I think she has a right to analyse what happened, but we do have to move on.”
Either way, Clinton provides valuable insight into a turbulent time.
Here, in her own words, are her most poignant musings.
1. Dealing with the pain of losing the presidency
"I couldn’t get the job done, and I’ll have to live with that for the rest of my life."
2. The moment she conceded to Donald Trump
"I congratulated Trump and offered to do anything I could to make sure the transition was smooth [...] It was all perfectly nice and weirdly ordinary, like calling a neighbour to say you can't make it to his barbecue. It was mercifully brief [...] I was numb. It was all so shocking."
3. On Russians hacking her subconscious
There are “moments from the campaign that I wish I could go back and do again. If the Russians could hack my subconscious, they’d find a long list [...] I’ve tried to learn from my mistakes. There are plenty, as you’ll see, and they are mine and mine alone.”
4. Her favourite stress-relief technique
"If you’ve never done alternate nostril breathing, it’s worth a try."
5. On not adapting to the changing political landscape
"It’s fair to say that I didn’t realise how quickly the ground was shifting under our feet."
6. On Bernie Sanders's part in her downfall
"He isn't a Democrat - that's not a smear, that's what he says. He didn't get into the race to make sure a Democrat won the White House, he got in to disrupt the Democratic Party. He was right that Democrats needed to strengthen our focus on working families and that there's always a danger of spending too much time courting donors because of our insane campaign finance system. He also engaged a lot of young people in the political process for the first time, which is extremely important [...] I am proud to be a Democrat and I wish Bernie were, too."
7. On being an unwilling apologist
“I’ve made mistakes, been defensive about them, stubbornly resisted apologising. But so have most men in politics. (In fact, one of them just became president…)”
8. On dealing with Trump during the TV debates
"Do you stay calm, keep smiling, and carry on as if he weren’t repeatedly invading your space? Or do you turn, look him in the eye, and say loudly and clearly, 'Back up, you creep, get away from me, I know you love to intimidate women but you can’t intimidate me, so back up.'”
9. The difference between her and Trump's tactics
"I was running a traditional presidential campaign with carefully thought-out policies and painstakingly built coalitions, while Trump was running a reality TV show that expertly and relentlessly stoked Americans’ anger and resentment."
10. The email scandal, and ex-FBI director James Comey's part in her downfall
"Even if Comey caused just 0.6 per cent of Election Day voters to change their votes, and even if that swing only occurred in the Rust Belt, it would have been enough to shift the Electoral College from me to Trump."
11. On Clinton's staying power
"There were plenty of people hoping that I, too, would just disappear. But here I am."
12. On prejudice against "unruly" women
“The Puritan witch-hunts might be long over, but something fanatical about unruly women still lurks in our national subconscious.”
13. Why she wrote the 512-page memoir
"I had to get this off my chest!"
Profile | Hillary Clinton
