Hillary Clinton and the art of smart punches

It takes a village to run the world, and Hillary knows how to do it. These are the main lessons from Hillary Clinton’s new memoir, Hard Choices. The book traces the finality of her presidential campaign bid in 2008 and her four years as secretary of state. Her analysis of this period provides insights into current international conflicts from Russia to China, the lingering controversy of Benghazi, and encourages the reader to look ever closer for insights into Clinton’s potential pursuit of the Presidency.

To read the subtext of this book, two observations may be helpful. I have met and respect Secretary Clinton. She is a rare politician, both a heavyweight and approachable. At a book signing for then Senator Clinton’s last book, Living History (2003), in Washington, DC, the store was closing when I arrived. Clinton was sitting on a small stage: it was just the two of us, and her security detail. She asked me what I did for work; I told her I was a lobbyist for gays in the military. She said, ‘Well I’m going to come around and shake your hand’. She walked around the table to speak to me. ‘That’s very important work,’ she said. This is illustrative not simply that she is friendly, but also that she didn’t have to be. The law to repeal her husband’s policy of ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ would not be amended for another seven years. Yet she was making a pointed peace offering.