I was an ardent Hillary Clinton supporter almost from the start of the Democratic primary. But for most of the primary season and for a good part of the campaign, I’ve found it hard to answer one question–if Hillary became the first woman ever to win the White House, how would her administration actually look?
Well, Ezra Klein of Vox decided to find out for himself. Watch the results here.
Klein talked with a number of people who have worked with Hillary dating back to her college days. The consensus was that Hillary is, at bottom, a listener who gets things done. A typical response came from Tom Harkin, who worked with Hillary as First Lady, a fellow Senator, and Secretary of State. Harkin described her as someone who is “interested in listening to people” and wants to get information from “real voters.” That stands in sharp contrast with how her detractors portray her–an automaton in a pantsuit.
She kicked off her 2016 presidential bid in the same manner as she kicked off her first bid for Senate in New York–with a “listening tour” to get a feel for what voters felt was important. For instance, after hearing that voters in New Hampshire were concerned about an opioid epidemic, she came out with a $10 million plan to fight drug addiction.
Klein suspects that Hillary suffers from an inherent bias in the structure of presidential campaigns in favor of “male traits”–such as favoring “talking over listening.” He doesn’t think it’s a coincidence that since campaigning was created by men, it tends to favor candidates “standing in front of a room, speaking confidently.” In contrast, Hillary’s campaigns have been focused on “building deep relationships”–a trait that Klein argues is “crucial to the work of the president.”
This makes a lot of sense, especially in our hyper-polarized environment. You don’t make the compromises that are necessary to get things done without being willing to listen. Plus, in recent years, anyone who has designs of going to the White House has to project the image that they actually care about the issues that are important to them. That quality is best suited to someone who listens.
Klein revealed that when Hillary is out on the trail, she slips notes of her conversations in suitcases. While she was in the Senate, she called in her staffers and had them dump out suitcases full of notes and use them to craft policy ideas. Many of her former staffers recalled that a good number of those ideas actually ended up being signed into law. Having cut my political teeth when her husband was in the White House, I knew Hillary was a super wonk. But until now, I didn’t understand just how deep it went.
Further underlining this, not long after becoming Secretary of State, she took the time to read a number of memos from career diplomats, and then referenced them at her meetings. A number of those diplomats were impressed that a Secretary of State would actually take the time to read their work.
Something tells me that a Hillary White House will look a lot like her Senate office and the State Department looked. And that can only be a good thing.
(featured image courtesy Gage Skidmore, available under a Creative Commons BY-SA license)
