Hillary is moving from the East Wing to the Capitol

  • Ellen Goodman / Boston Globe columnist
  • Wednesday, November 8, 2000 9:00pm
  • Opinion

NEW YORK — What a portrait for the history books. Up on the podium of a jammed Grand Hyatt ballroom, the president of United States is holding his daughter’s hand and fighting off tears.

The portrait of a political spouse, he’s standing silent, smiling, while the victorious candidate is running down her thank-yous.

"I know I wouldn’t be here without my family," she says, and then comes the list: "I want to thank my mother and my brothers and I want to thank my husband and my daughter." Tonight the president is just a "husband."

Hillary has won, big time. After years as a performer in a high-wire balancing act, standing behind her man and on her own two feet, she’s made the double-digit leap from first lady to senator, from the East Wing to the Capitol, from political wife to politician.

She’s made a transition unprecedented even for a generation of women composing and recomposing their lives without a plan or even a roadmap. It’s her turn.

Eight years ago, in a ballroom on the other side of this town, I watched Hillary speak to and for a line of women running for the Senate in the so-called Year of the Woman. A New Yorker standing beside me cheered her on and then sighed, "Gee, I wish she were running for the Senate."

Right from the start, folks who admired this political wife wished she were speaking for herself. And right from the start, folks who hated Hillary wished she’d shut up.

A polarizing figure? Even in the two-for-the-price-of-one days, before health care, before Monica, she was — as she has said with unabating wonder — "a Rorschach test" for the messy, complicated changes in women’s lives and ambitions.

Since then, she’s been a lightning rod for the right wing, a sure-fire target for half-a-dozen books, a magnet for fund raising. When Rick Lazio went looking for dollars, he wrote smugly: "It won’t take me six pages to convince you to send me an urgently needed contribution. … It will only take six words: I’m running against Hillary Rodham Clinton."

Now, she’s standing exuberantly before a crowd saying, "You came out and said that issues and ideals matter." But the truth is that in this race, the issues were all Hillary. It was Hillary, her motives and her marriage, that mattered most. When she was running against Rudy Giuliani and when she was running against Rick Lazio, it was really Hillary vs. Hillary.

From the outset, when I thought she was nuts to run, New Yorkers didn’t know whether the first lady was running to get out of the White House or get into it. They argued about whether the Senate race was therapy for a humiliated wife who didn’t want to be seen as a victim, or a celebrity cakewalk for an ambitious outsider.

But gradually New York cynicism became grudging respect and then just plain respect. It wasn’t always a pretty race. Nor was it always high-minded. The debates hinged on "moments" when the moderator asked Hillary why she stayed with Bill, and when Lazio came on the attack. The last weeks were small-minded, nasty squabbles in the state’s ethnic turf wars.

In the end, though, she won this election, as Charles Schumer, the other senator from New York says, "the old-fashioned way, she earned it." Hillary earned credits in Intensive New York. She became a New Yorker one handshake at a time. She became a New Yorker by getting knocked down and picking herself up.

By October she seemed as comfortable in her skin as she was in her black pantsuit. She found her own voice the way she finally found her haircut.

The candidate even won over her toughest critics, the women who couldn’t figure her out because they couldn’t figure out her marriage. As Ann Lewis, a Democratic veteran who worked this campaign, says, "It was 16 months of 16-hour-days. Women began to see her as someone who worked hard to meet her responsibilities. That was the key that opened up the door so she could have a conversation with women voters."

Now, back on the podium this election night Hillary is rattling off statistics. The campaign started, she says, on a sunny July morning and "62 counties, 16 months, three debates, two opponents and six black pantsuits later … here we are."

Hillary Rodham Clinton has been called a lot of names from "rhymes with witch" to carpetbagger. Now she’s called senator. The man standing behind her is leaving office; she’s entering. This first lady gets a second act.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Opinion

toon
Editorial cartoons for Saturday, Feb. 8

A sketechy look at the news of the day.… Continue reading

bar graph, pie chart and diagrams isolated on white, 3d illustration
Editorial: Don’t let state’s budget numbers intimidate you

With budget discussions starting soon, a new website explains the basics of state’s budget crisis.

Comment: Democracy depends on support of local journalism

A state bill provides funding to support local news outlets through a modest tax on tech businesses.

Comment: Love is intoxicating; romance doesn’t have to be

Navigating sobriety while dating, with Valentine’s Day coming up, is possible and fulfilling.

Comment: State attempt at single-payer health care bound to fail

Other states have tried, but balked when confronted with the immense cost to state taxpayers.

Forum: Requiem for a lost heavyweight: Sports Illustrated

SI, with Time and NatGeo, were a holy trinity for me and my dad. Now, it’s a world of AI clickbait.

Forum: Political leaders should leave trash talk to ballplayers

Verbal intimidation is one thing on the basketball court; it shouldn’t have a place in our politics.

The Buzz: Why, no, we have complete trust in Elon Musk

But whatever he and Trump are doing to the country, could they please wish it into the cornfield?

Curtains act as doors for a handful of classrooms at Glenwood Elementary on Monday, Sept. 9, 2024 in Lake Stevens, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Editorial: Schools’ building needs point to election reform

Construction funding requests in Arlington and Lake Stevens show need for a change to bond elections.

FILE- In this Nov. 14, 2017, file photo Jaìme Ceja operates a forklift while loading boxes of Red Delicious apples on to a trailer during his shift in an orchard in Tieton, Wash. Cherry and apple growers in Washington state are worried their exports to China will be hurt by a trade war that escalated on Monday when that country raised import duties on a $3 billion list of products. (Shawn Gust/Yakima Herald-Republic via AP, File)
Editorial: Trade war would harm state’s consumers, jobs

Trump’s threat of tariffs to win non-trade concessions complicates talks, says a state trade advocate.

A press operator grabs a Herald newspaper to check over as the papers roll off the press in March 2022 in Everett. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald file photo)
Editorial: Push back news desert with journalism support

A bill in the state Senate would tax big tech to support a hiring fund for local news outlets.

toon
Editorial cartoons for Friday, Feb. 7

A sketchy look at the news of the day.… Continue reading

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.