HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_024982.jpg

25

for examples, she has to pause before recalling a very public moment:
a spring day in 2009 when the weather was so good that the president
suggested they go outside, where they were photographed chatting at
a picnic table on the South Lawn. “It was exactly what I could have
hoped for. It was spontaneous and heartfelt, and we had a good time,”
she says. Her second example is a full hug she and the president
shared in the Situation Room after the health-care bill finally passed.
She accepted the post, in November of 2008, only after President-
Elect Obama—in an inspired move over the objections of many on
his campaign staff—twisted not just her arm, she informed friends,
but her fingers, toes, and every other bone in her body. The president,
for his part, is proud of himself for choosing her. He knows that she
represents the United States better than anyone but him and is—to
the surprise of many Obama veterans—refreshingly low-maintenance.
When budget season arrived this year and the departments all faced
drastic cuts, Hillary used a Cabinet meeting to offer tips on how to
avoid making cuts that would affect vulnerable people—children, the
elderly—and look bad politically. (She recalled that Newt Gingrich’s
effort to slash the school-lunch program, which put Gingrich on the
defensive, was the real turning point in the 1995 budget debate.)
Several second-tier Cabinet members thought it one of the most
useful White House meetings they had ever attended.
I’ve interviewed Hillary numerous times since she was First Lady of
Arkansas, and it’s usually frustrating. She’s terrific off the record:
blunt, ironic, and incisive about people, including her husband. When
she cuts to the nub of something and laughs infectiously, you can see
why her friends consider her such good company. On the record is
tougher, especially when she’s in a job where a single misplaced
word can turn into an international incident. It’s not that she doesn’t
trust at least some reporters; otherwise she wouldn’t risk private
candor. But the distrust for the news media as a species—the sense of

HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_024982