BlogWonks

Like many conservatives, I’ve been a frequent consumer of Hillariana over the years. I fondly recall the chapters of The Hillary Trap: Looking for Power in all the Wrong Places, Hell to Pay: The Unfolding Story of Hillary Rodham Clinton, Madame Hillary: The Dark Road to the White House, and Rewriting History. So, with a mix of stimulation and fatigue, I opened Bay Buchanan’s newly released The Extreme Makeover of Hillary (Rodham) Clinton. Undeniably, there are few more topical persons than the junior Senator from New York, but, as works concerning her continue to roll forth, the crucial question regarding the Hill-o-hype is, “what new things does this author have to say?”

Bay Buchanan, the younger sister of Pat Buchanan and former Treasurer of the United States, offers up some unique bulbs of observation amidst a larger garden of perennial wisdom. She updates the earlier tomes with an exploration of Mrs. Clinton’s time in the Senate and provides a central theme that is both compelling and persuasive. Her idee fixe is that character is a monumental aspect of leadership and that Hillary Clinton is a person entirely devoid of it.

The Extreme Makeover illustrates Hillary’s unfamiliarity with the virtue of responsibility, and that she is every bit as prolific and stunning a liar as her husband. Buchanan traces the scandals integral to Mrs. Clinton’s existence and finds one element common with them all: she could have mitigated the damage in practically every instance had she admitted the truth from the outset. This was trued of her venture into cattle futures, the Whitewater fiasco, Travelgate, her collection of FBI records on “perceived enemies,” and the Grand White House Looting scheme of 2001. Yet, self-admission is not something of which Hillary has ever been capable—she would prefer to blame others. The author describes her as a card-carrying member of “the National Association of Victimhood.” It may take several decades to document all the mistruths inherent to a second Clinton administration…and by then, in the words of Christopher Hitchens, they’ll be no one left to lie to.

The evidence on display is damning, but it’s highly unlikely to be read by non-conservatives due to its partisan viewpoint. Furthermore, the author’s tone is odd at times such as when she adopts a quasi-compassionate and condescending tone in regards to her subject. A few sentences were reminiscent of Werner Herzog’s narration in the film Grizzlyman: “I wonder if she regrets trading it all in for fame and power. And as I wonder, I also hope that somewhere in her heart she has a place that’s full of joy.” Some ponderings are best left to Oprah.

Apart from style, The Extreme Makeover succeeds in warning readers of what a Hillary Clinton presidency will look like, and, more precisely, who it will target. A made over person is exactly the Hillary we see lecturing us on CNN and CBS. The real would-be queen is simply not fit for widespread consumption. The junior senator’s personality revolves around a lust for power, a need to control others, and rampant insecurity. Anger and irritability are natural attributes, and but only her family, advisors, and the secret service are allowed to observe them. Mrs. Clinton’s inner core is so volatile and brittle that not even a massive team of handlers and PR specialists have managed to infuse her with charisma or charm.

The outcome of this bizarre makeover is a bionic mask of Lancôme and ritzy apparel cloaking the radical within, but one that ultimately renders her artificial, robotic, heartless, calculating, and inhuman. What better words could describe the buffoonish behavior she paraded in Selma, Alabama when she tried on a southern accent as if it were a new pantsuit from Bloomingdales?

Buchanan notes that Mrs. Clinton’s alterations, even in politics, have been totally cosmetic. Her initial support for the Iraq War is something she regrets. At the moment, she is doing everything possible to repudiate the past and has even sponsored an initiative to rescind the original Iraq resolution. In this way she is a typical leftist who believes that not only humans, but actual events, are infinitely malleable.

Hillary’s conformity is something rarely discussed as it does not seem in keeping with the domineering uberfemale image many of us have of her, yet it is an enduring characteristic and another reason why her presidency would be disastrous. Senator Clinton is highly impressionable and historically has been quick to regurgitate the positions and views of trusted advisers. There seems to be no record of her generating any original ideas on her own.

The suggestibility of her “life history” is readily evident. As a child she absorbed her father’s Republican views, and consolidated them upon reading Barry Goldwater’s The Conscience of a Conservative. She then began the lengthy process of moving left after falling under the spell of a radical preacher. Then she discovered the belief system of Saul Alinsky whose Rules for Radicals Buchanan labels “the gospel according to Hillary.” From there she merged her essence with her husband’s, and, when it became impossible to deny that his worldview was near beer, she embraced the banalities of Michael Lerner’s “politics of meaning.” Next would come Jean Houston, a New Age goof who tantalized her with the notion of channeling famous persons. Now Hillary could quiz Eleanor Roosevelt and Mahatma Gandhi in the hopes of expropriating their opinions as her own.

No quotation better embodies Hillary than Alinsky’s: “power is the very essence, the dynamo of life.” It certainly is when you’re a truly a sick individual. Mrs. Clinton’s sex drive was sublimated long ago, and its energy continues to fuel her lust for power. We are left with a crawling, purposeful cretin hiding her coarseness behind soothing words that strike conservative ears as “my precious, my precious.”

Is Hillary Clinton a Trojan Horse? Frankly, I doubt it. As a charlatan she is rather primitive. It’s hard to imagine her true character remaining hidden over the course of the next year-and-a-half. Her advisors will have to apply so many swats of subterfuge to the palette of her personality that she’ll more resemble a Jackson Pollock canvas than an actual person. Besides, admissions like “We’re going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good” don’t play well before non-Broadway audiences.

Bernard Chapin is a writer living in Chicago. He is the author of Escape from Gangsta Island, and is currently at work on a book concerning women. He can be contacted at veritaseducation@gmail.com.