CLINTON’S CHEERLEADERSmarieclaire.com.au 265and do her mimicry”.
(Hillary once sent
herself up in a skit
based on Forrest Gump, imitating Tom
Hanks’s movie character while donning
a variety of wigs – a dig at the media’s
obsession with her hair.)
When, in 1992, Bill was elected
president and they moved into the
White House, she immediately ruffled
feathers by commandeering a second
office – not just one in the east wing, as
was tradition for a first lady, but another
in the fabled West Wing where she
surrounded herself with a tight-knit
group of female staff, collectively known
as “Hillaryland”.
Unusually for a first lady, she was
also appointed to a high official post –
head of a committee to overhaul thenational healthcare system. On top of
that, Hillary evoked the wrath of the
media when she arranged to close off the
corridor that gave reporters access to
the West Wing. She was redefining the
role of the first lady, but her admittance
into the White House’s powerful inner
circle drew hatred and suspicion.
“She was seen as a Lady Macbeth, a
manipulative spouse getting too close to
power,” says Gil Troy, a presidential
historian and author of Hillary Rodham
Clinton: Polarizing First Lady.
A series of scandals during Bill’s
eight-year presidency didn’t help,
including Travelgate, an investigation
into Hillary’s role in the sacking of
several White House
travel staff to allegedly
make way for several
Clinton buddies.
Then there was
Whitewater, involving
a suspect property
venture the couple
were linked to during
the 1970s. (The recent
Emailgate, concerning
Hillary’s use of ahomework by fax. (Hillary was always
careful not to give Chelsea a sense of
entitlement, once making her and her
friends get on their hands and knees to
pick up popcorn after they had watched
a film in the White House cinema.)
Hillary’s faults were considered to
be many: she lacked the glamour of a
governor’s wife, and her decision to keep
her surname after marriage smacked
too much of feminism for Arkansas
traditionalists. Despite Bill’s assurance
that she needn’t change it, she decided
to make the gesture for his benefit and
revamped herself as Hillary Rodham
Clinton; Bill was governor again by 1982.
But whatever concessions she made,
it never seemed enough. In 1992, a
spin doctor, worried that her aloofness
would damage Bill’s presidential
campaign, suggested
“joint appearances
with friends where
Hillary could laugh
From right: actress and
producer of Girls, Lena
Dunham; fashion icon
Diane von Furstenberg
with Chelsea; Katy
Perry endorses Hillary
at a campaign rally.
STANDING BY
HER MAN
Above: dating
Bill in the early
1970s. Left: the
incoming First
Lady gives the
President-elect
a hug in 1992.
Above right:
watching on in
1998 as Bill
denies having an
affair with
Whitehouse intern
Monica Lewinsky.Above: Bill’s sex scandal
with Gennifer Flowers
broke in 1992. Left: his
subsequent affair with
Monica Lewinsky was
labelled “sordid” by Time.Life stories