Bill Clinton wanted to run for president in 1988, but didn’t because “he was terrified that one or more of his countless paramours would come forward,” according to a scathing new cover story in Harper’s Magazine urging readers, “Stop Hillary! Vote No to a Clinton Dynasty.”
The liberal monthly savages Hillary, saying that after Bill “found his nerve” fours years later, “an internal campaign memo from March 1992 listed more than 75 potential problems for the candidacy.”
But the issues weren’t only “Bill’s many women,” writes Doug Henwood. “About two-thirds of the sore spots involved both Bill and Hillary, and 18 of them pertained to Hillary’s work at [the law firm] Rose.”
According to Henwood’s in-depth essay on Hillary’s past, she “has a long history of being economical with the truth,” and though “it’s been more than 13 years since the Clintons left the White House, it’s amazing how little there is to say about Hillary’s subsequent career.”
He asks of a potential campaign: “What is the case for Hillary? It boils down to this: She has experience, she’s a woman, and it’s her turn. It’s hard to find any substantive political argument in her favor.”
He adds: “Since leaving the State Department, Hillary has devoted herself to what we can only call…Clinton, Inc. This fund-raising, favor-dispensing machine is key to understanding her joint enterprise with Bill…That means nonstop self-promotion, huge book advances and fat speaking fees.”
Henwood told us he couldn’t find anyone in Clinton’s orbit to speak to him, except ex-friend Dick Morris.
“Most progressives are unwilling to discuss Hillary in anything but the most general, flattering terms,” Henwood found. “Pundits who have written about her in the past dismissed my queries in rude and patronizing ways.”
A Clinton rep did not comment. Harper’s earlier railed against a potential Hillary-Jeb Bush presidential race in a publisher’s note by John R. MacArthur.
It also ruffled feathers in its last issue with a piece titled “PBS Self-Destructs,” which resulted in the network pulling its ads.