3 Takeaways from the Hillary Papers

http://swampland.time.com/2014/02/10/hillary-clinton-papers-diane-blair-2016/

Papers from Hillary Clinton's late friend Diane Blair reveal a very human side of the possible 2016 presidential candidate, but not much new information


After Diane Blair died in 2000, the prominent University of Arkansas political science professor’s papers were archived at the school she had called home for most of her professional life. When the archives were made open to the public in 2010, Hillary Clinton—her best friend and subject of many of her musings—recorded a video honoring Blair’s life and work.

Pages from Blair’s papers were sent to TIME on Monday by the University of Arkansas’s Special Collections Library, after an initial report of their contents on a conservative blog ripped across the web Sunday night. Despite some early interpretations to the contrary, the papers represent a collection of thoughtful reflections and evolving positions on Clinton’s part, rather than a smoking gun of anything damning, or even surprising. But they do offer a colorful look into the thoughts of the former first lady, senator, secretary of state and possible 2016 presidential candidate.

Did Hillary Clinton first privately advocate a single-payer program for health care reform 21 years ago? Apparently she did, but she didn’t believe in it enough to go public with that assertion. Was she annoyed that the Bosnian War distracted from her health care fight? She kvetched to her best friend that she was, but publicly she strongly supported the war effort. Did she intermittently loathe Washington’s social circuit, Congress and the press? Yes, but no one needed Blair’s diaries to show that. “Every human being as lots of thoughts all day long and you’ll never be able to capture all of them,” says Kiki McLean, a longtime Clinton friend. “Like a lot of things in politics people will want to project meaning in those archives that have little to do with the context of the experience at that day and at that time.”


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