Well, it is a blog, and it is my blog, so I can decide if a blog review of a magazine article is appropriate, and I have decided that, yup, it is!
It is clear that Jonathan Van Meter jumped into this Vogue assignment, not from the Beltway, but from an environment alien to it, which gives his report a kind of authenticity and objectivity of perspective we have rarely seen in text about the Secretary. He is not familiar with any of the players, not even the press corps, so everyone becomes part of his story which comprises her August trip to Africa, a nearly two-week jaunt, and an entire day at the UN General Assembly in New York, but commences at the State Department for planning purposes.
Van Meter takes us through what must have been a harrowing ten-day series of negotiations wherein Barack Obama used every persuasive gene to get Hillary to accept Secretary of State while Hillary used every creative gene to resist. We know how it ended. As Van Meter reports, he pushed the right button. With Hillary, the right button is the patriotic one. Obama found it, and soon Hillary was on what I like to call HillForce One, and before too long, so was Jonathan.
He takes us country to country - the ones we visited here in August - to meetings with heads of state and officials, to encounters with the people, and in Africa, Hillary's encounters with the people tend far more frequently to be love fests (that were not reported here much) than volatile (over-reported back home).
To Hillary, he is Jonathan, and she mothers him (and others traveling with her). Despite all she is dealing with, she takes the time to pay attention to Jonathan, and I get the impression it is not simply because she wants a positive article. I say that because of his recount of the press reaction to Bill Clinton's trip to North Korea to rescue Laura and Euna. They are a unit and furious that Bill is seizing her moment. That kind of loyalty is not for show, and there must be a foundation for it. I submit that she mothers everybody the way she did Jonathan. And they love her for it.
There are so many quotable paragraphs, and so many have already been posted (including here) on the interwebs that when I read the full article, I realized I had read most of it already. This is a tribute to both the writer and the subject. They were a perfect combination, and one of my most treasured articles ever about Hillary Clinton is the result.
A few items that deserve specific notice are the ones that hurt my heart: Hillary going swimming alone in the morning in Cape Verde, and Hillary wondering what people thought of her before they met her when they say she is "prettier in person." Can I tell you how badly I wanted to hug her (at least) and tell her how stunningly dazzling she is?
I am not a journalism professor (so obviously do not know what I am talking about), but if I were, I would give Jonathan's lovely article Ralphie's A++++++++++++++++++++ and so on, all around the room!
You can read the full article here. I (for one) will be buying my own hard copy keepsake.
HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON! NOW HEAR THIS! YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL, STUNNINGLY GORGEOUS - even to those of us who have not been up close and personal. YOU ARE A BABE, HILLARY, HAVE YOU GOT THAT?
