Many of you know my favorite column of all time is Michael Kinsley’s “Triumph of the Dorks.” No one knows, until today, that is, that my second favorite column of all time is David Brooks’ magnificent “Kerry’s Cast of Thousands.” It is a wonderful skewering of Kerry’s campaign and lack of convictions.
There’s a great line in there: “[T]he seasons did turn and the conventions did come and go. Kerry’s speeches were shortened, and parts of his life were edited out of his story (adulthood, for example). And yet there was still wailing in the House of Kerry for the message was still unhoned.”
The editing out a part of Kerry’s life is an interesting juxtapose on the question of the day: “What happened to Rodham?” As part of her effort to maintain her own identity and to say something about womanhood too I imagine, Hillary always went by “Hillary Rodham Clinton.” It is still the title atop her official Senate website.
Yet go to HillaryClinton.com and you’ll find no mention of the word Rodham, other than as her father’s last name. Her Senate office continues to use it, but scour anything official from her campaign – I bet you find Rodham as a middle name “edited out of her story.” I wonder if that means the message is “unhoned.”
Last 5 posts by Daniel- Tom Barrett's Savings Plan - June 8th, 2010
- C.J. Abrahamson on J. Stevens - April 11th, 2010
- Why always Bill Bablitch? - March 24th, 2010
- Suhr on Nixon on Health Care - February 23rd, 2010
- Did the USCCB Foresee Dead People? - February 8th, 2010
I sense Hillary Clinton deleted the Rodham from her campaign website name due to marketing data from some focus group. Hillary Clinton is always calculating including editing out her middle name.
Are you absolutely sure that Brian didn’t write this post and it was accidentally attributed to Daniel?
Speaking of attribution, pick your poison: http://news.google.com/news?hl.....amp;tab=wn
Daniel – you also won’t find “Clinton” on the site often.
Ummmm… How about because it is easier. Not everything is a conspiracy, oh wait the right believes everything with the Clintons is a conspiracy. My bet is she had her maiden name killed in the park behind some bushes and made to look like a suicide.
I thought the campaign was trying to dump ‘Clinton’ from the campaign and just do ‘Hillary 08′ implying that she’s ordained to win because she’s a woman. Not everything is a conspiracy John… just a political game.
It’s wrong to say she always went by “Hillary Rodham Clinton:â€
Born Hillary Diane Rodham.
In the beginning it was Hillary Rodham of Arkansas.
After moving to the White House, first it was Mrs. William J. Clinton.
Later it became Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Then it was Hillary Clinton.
More recently, it’s been Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Earlier in the presidential campaign, she wanted to be known to supporters simply as Hillary.
It all seems a little too Prince-like for me