No. There was an article in The New York Times called “The Real Hillary Factor” which made the argument that we now have a name for the ambivalent feelings people have about accomplished women (laughs). Of course I was very gratified to have it named after me (laughs again). I don’t know what to think about it. When Bill was first elected governor there were not many [female] spouses who had their own professions and their own interests. So I feel like I have lived through this once before. Actually, I thought the arguments were behind us. In many areas of our lives, superficially at least, that is the case. But the presidential election is a whole different arena in which a lot of these issues are being played out for the first time all at once. I became a little more understanding of why I was serving as a focal point when I hardly recognized myself. I have been struck by the intensity of the support for me in the last months, and I view that more symbolically than personally. I feel like there is this great national conversation going on of which I am a part, but it is not so much about me personally but about all the changes going on in the country-about women and our roles, the choices we make in our lives.
The campaign has taught me some things that I’m glad to have learned. Because, you know, I’ve never had this experience before. It’s kind of like learning on the job. And it was important for me to understand the different intensity of scrutiny and how even the smallest thing becomes some kind of a clue or an issue, whether it be a headband or something else. I have learned to be more careful in what I say because I really don’t mind having people disagree with me so long as they are disagreeing with what I really believe or say. But I sure don’t want to be misunderstood and then disagreed with. So I have learned the sound bites journalists look for. I have learned the necessity to be as clear in how I communicate as possible.
No. I said to myself, “Something is not coming across here” (laughs). So I need to think hard about why people could have an impression of me so at variance with what my friends and I believed to be the case. I just think it was the fact that there was no context. I mean, no one knew anything about Bill or me. Usually people run for president several times and they run over longer periods of time. Everything we did was telescoped into such a short period that I realized people were drawing impressions of me based on little snippets, because that was all they had. They just had a sound bite or a fact. They didn’t have any greater context in which it should be put. I was stunned when I found out in the spring that people thought Bill and I didn’t have children.
No. A lot of things have happened that I never would have expected. It’s been different. When Bill first decided he was going to do it, I always assumed it would be hard. But I didn’t know what that meant. You just can’t imagine it. It’s been a whole different kind of experience and I have learned as I have gone. I am not someone who sits around and thinks through what is going to happen-what the expectations are. I have never found that very helpful because it usually doesn’t turn out to be that way anyway (laughs).
I think that is absolutely true. You’ve got to understand, Bill and I were raised not to talk about what happened in your life. That was bad form. It was unnecessary. Your actions should speak louder than your words and every day you should try to be better than what you did the day before. And in running for office, as he did at a time that is so confused about what is or is not relevant to picking a president, and to be caught in that confusion, has been very bewildering to him. He is a student of history, a student of the human heart and the human mind. Things are never what they seem. All this celebrity-personality journalism that substitutes for analysis today has been very surprising to him. It’s been tough making that adjustment.
