What Was Hillary Thinking?

Hillary Clinton, in her Web announcement of a presidential exploratory committee (it's all the rage to do it that way), said she wanted to start a conversation with the American people. Fair enough. So she trekked off to chilly Iowa and started shaking hands, meeting with folks in town halls, answering unscripted questions--always a very tricky business for a new presidential candidate. Buy, hey, Hillary isn't new to this business: She's an accomplished senator and a former first lady. And, of course, she learned politics at the heels of the master: husband Bill. So, lo and behold, Hillary gets a relatively innocuous question about how she would handle evil and bad foreign leaders. It was a softball, lobbed in a way that would have allowed the candidate to talk about how a woman can be tough, yada yada. Instead, Hillary said this: " ... and in the gentleman's words we face a lot of evil men, you know, like Osama bin Laden. And what in my background equips me to deal with evil and bad men?" There was a long pause, as the audience laughed. She let it go on, with all the good timing of a standup comedian. She seemed, at the very least, playfully ambiguous, and the audience knew it. After the pause, she launched into a more serious explanation of what she would do. "I believe a lot in my background and a lot in my public life, you know, shows the character and the toughness that is required to be president." Well, well, that was the predictable answer. But her first answer--that was interesting. In a way, Hillary was answering a question that no one asked--and it was about Bill. Most political strategists I spoke with say it's clear she was referring to Bill. "I assume she was referring to Bill Clinton," former Howard Dean campaign adviser Joe Trippi told me. "I think a lot of people in the audience assumed that, too. But she did it in a playful way and it worked, I think." Indeed, when it comes to presidential campaigns--and this one in particular--you have to assume that nothing is unplanned. And if this was part of a plan, it was a way to start dealing with the inevitable questions about her marriage--early, with humor, and some real attitude. Hillary was really trying. And when asked about the exchange later by reporters, she tried to make light of it again: "You know, I get a little funny and now I'm being psychoanalyzed," she said. But she tensed up when a reporter asked her the direct question: Were you talking about Bill? She became dismissive, and cold as ice."Oh, come on," she said. "Well, I don't think anybody in there thought that." Really?
By Gloria Borger