Clinton, Inc.: The Audacious Rebuilding of a Political Machine (36 page)

Thus for his wife, Clinton would likely counsel someone equally unexpected or bold. Someone who might underscore Hillary’s strengths while addressing questions about her age and health. Perhaps another woman. There are no shortage of Democratic females quietly auditioning, if not for VP then as a Hillary stand-in—McCaskill, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, who succeeded Hillary as U.S. senator after Clinton became secretary of state.

With the prospect of the Clintons returning to the White House, it’s only reasonable for Americans to ask: Under what capacity would they serve? Would they even be together? Would 2017 offer a return of marital infidelity, embarrassing scenes in the Oval Office, and a whole new round of investigations, allegations, and simple tawdriness? And besides, who’s to say that Bill Clinton wants to return to the White House and be put under the same scrutiny he came to despise toward the end of his own presidency?

No one really knows the answer. Not even them. For the first time in basically thirty-five years, neither Clinton holds public office. They are richer, more powerful, and more popular than they have ever been. They are happy wanderers, both free to do whatever they want, whenever they want. To whomever they want. And they are doing it largely together, at least for now.

On June 13, 2013, in Chicago, Bill welcomed a glowing Hillary Clinton to her first job in the private sector in recent memory. The Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative, where Hillary had formally come on board, had just been renamed to include the entire immediate family: the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation. Three for the price of one.

“This last six months for our foundation has been a very interesting time,” President Clinton said, a typical understatement considering the series of news articles and financial mismanagement scandals that were about to circle around Clinton and his consigliere, Doug Band.

He praised his new partner and, some would say, accomplice. “For the last couple of years, Chelsea’s been spending about half her time on the foundation work,” he noted. “She just got back from Asia, visiting our projects in Malaysia and Cambodia, and visiting the efforts of our CGI partner, Procter and Gamble, in Myanmar, Burma, where we, our foundation, is also slated to do a lot of work. And I’m very grateful to her for helping us to spearhead a reorganization to try to put all of our forces into one place.”

Chelsea stood onstage smiling. Her cold dispatch of her rival for her father’s affections was already in her rearview mirror.

“And I was thrilled when the third member of our tiny family, Hillary, said that she wanted to come into the foundation and resume her work,” Bill gushed. With his tangents and awkward sentence structure, it was clear that he was once again winging his remarks. “I would depart from our normal rule that nobody gets to give a speech and let her give a fairly brief outline to you about what she will be doing in the Clinton Foundation, which has been renamed with Hillary and Chelsea as part of it. I can see this coming now, as I move into my dotage: My job will be to fund people who really know what they’re doing.” The audience offered a light chuckle. “Which I am very happy to do. So I’d ask you to join me in welcoming at her first—she’s been at many CGI meetings in the past—but never as a principal in the Clinton Foundation: former senator and secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton.”

The gathered attendees applauded, and a few added a smattering of whoops and hollers. Clinton embraced his wife, who was sporting a new hairdo and a teal oversize pantsuit. They kissed on the lips.

A wide smile came across her face as she looked out at the audience. “Good morning! Thank you!” The applause continued. “It is such a pleasure to be here in Chicago, participating as a
private
citizen.”

This was her coming out at the foundation—and to the world—as philanthropic Hillary, the woman who cares about the Third World. Her brand-new official bio, which popped up on the foundation’s website that day, indicated her latest rebranding, which would come as a surprise to many of her former colleagues at the State Department:

Hillary Rodham Clinton served as the 67th U.S. secretary of state from 2009 until 2013, after nearly four decades in public service. Her “smart power” approach to foreign policy repositioned American diplomacy and development for the 21st century. Clinton played a central role in restoring America’s standing in the world, reasserting the United States as a Pacific power, imposing crippling sanctions on Iran and North Korea, responding to the Arab Awakening, and negotiating a ceasefire in the Middle East. Earlier, as first lady and senator from New York, she traveled to more than 80 countries as a champion of human rights, democracy, and opportunities for women and girls. Clinton also worked to provide health care to millions of children, create jobs and opportunity, and support first responders who risked their lives at Ground Zero. In her historic campaign for president, Clinton won 18 million votes.
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As she spoke, she appeared well rested and, as usual, meticulously well prepared. “I am thrilled to fully join this remarkable organization that Bill started a dozen years ago, and to call it my home for the work I will be doing, some of which I will outline today.” And after a couple of acknowledgments to her hometown crowd—she had grown up in the Chicago suburbs six decades before—Hillary rained a series of trendy but meaningless buzzwords on her husband, thanking him for “giving philanthropy and problem-solving a new paradigm, and we’ve seen already this morning . . . what that means. To really look at solving problems through partnership and collaboration. And really I am very proud of what he has accomplished.”

Hillary made it clear that she too was on board with the effort to brand Chelsea as the seasoned and competent NGO manager. “I am also a very proud mother,” Hillary said, “because Chelsea’s role is expanding and this is truly a labor of love for our entire family. In just a few short years, she has helped the foundation widen our reach to a whole new generation of young people through CGI U—CGI University. . . . Chelsea’s really been our leader there.”

As the crowd applauded, Hillary beamed at her daughter. “We are so excited and thrilled to have this be a full partnership among the three of us.” It wouldn’t be the last one for the trio, who stood onstage clearly as a unit. As solid a team as they had ever been. And just as much a mystery to everyone else.

“I don’t understand the Clintons, either,” says a former press secretary. “They’re like any old married couple. When they’re together, they get along just fine. They have their own very different styles. She’s way more neat and organized and much more of a planner than he is.”

For Newt Gingrich and others who have observed the Clintons for years, their latest evolution fits a familiar pattern. “These are very smart, very powerful people who are very, very intelligent, and who are very driven,” says the former speaker. “She married him because he was going to be somebody. And he married her because she’s going to help him be somebody. And they decided to be somebody together. . . . He has empowered her, while she has tolerated him. And it’s been a mutually beneficial relationship.”

Currently married to his third wife, Gingrich was animated talking about the Clintons’ marriage. “They must have at some point had a very tough period of talking through—what the ground rules are, and how they relate to each other,” he says. “I think they had a very clear discussion, whether it was the Lewinsky period or whether it happened five or ten times over their relationship, I don’t know. But clearly they reached a very clear agreement on how they would operate and what they would do.”

For the last decade, they have largely lived separate lives. Back in 2006, the
New York Times
found that the two spent only 51 of 73 weekends together. Their time together likely grew even rarer after she became America’s most-traveled secretary of state, eager to board a plane across the globe because, frankly, she had nowhere else to go at home. With what spare time she had, she was usually at her house near Georgetown, where Bill rarely visited. There she would garden or redecorate. “They redo their house like every other week,” says a former aide, somewhat facetiously. “And re-cover furniture. I think she does a lot of that.”

That has changed, at least for the moment, now that both of them are out of public office. Hillary and Chelsea are around all the time, which does not entirely thrill the former president. “Why do you think he wants her to run for president?” a former aide asks half jokingly. “He just wants to have this lifestyle that he’s grown accustomed to without them around, and now they are around all the time.”

Hillary and her husband also look to buy more homes. They’ve been spotted in New York State, near the Connecticut border, looking at a $10 million home. It is a white colonial in South Salem and is described as having a “pool, lighted tennis court, studio, stable, indoor and outdoor ring and a 3-car garage.” Bill Clinton wanted to turn the horse-riding ring into a conference center of sorts, which could be used by the Clinton Global Initiative, according to someone familiar with their visit to the property. That would allow at least some of the property to be written off as business expenses.

The Clintons’ concern was that the home should be close to the airport, which is a bit of a problem with the South Salem address since the closest airport is Danbury Municipal Airport, a twenty-five-minute drive away in Connecticut. That airport’s runway is too short for the kinds of planes the Clintons would need to be able to use—which would make White Plains, New York, the next-closest airport and the one they would have to rely on. It’s at least a thirty-minute journey to get to it.

The Clintons were even overheard talking about whether the home could, at some point, handle a helicopter pad—or at least some sort of helicopter landing space. Ultimately, they decided not to buy the home, showing a little indecisiveness.

In fact, property hunting is now a favorite Clinton pastime. “They always are looking,” says someone familiar with their activities.

The key consideration, of course, was politics: How would it look if Hillary were to run again? They are concerned that it might not look too good to be buying a $10 million home before a presidential run. They are aware of the ridicule Mitt Romney endured in the 2012 election for his many homes, and for even putting a car elevator in one high-priced property. John McCain in 2008 and John Kerry in 2004 were likewise criticized for having too many houses. (Interestingly, the candidate in the last three presidential campaigns with the most number of homes would wind up being the loser—John Kerry in 2004, McCain in 2008, and Mitt Romney in 2012.)

And it might look especially bad to be buying a vacation home, though that too hasn’t stopped the Clintons from looking into the possibilities.

“They were looking at property in the Hamptons for a while, but I think that they decided that, if she runs, that seems too tony or too exclusive. Which it is,” says a Clinton insider. The Clintons love the Hamptons. While Bill Clinton was president, there were often reports that the First Family had poll-tested places to vacation. They’d avoid the ritzier locales for something more “authentic” and down home. But out of office, they tend to enjoy a bit more flexibility on the vacation front.

“Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton are renting a virtual Shangri-La in this lush, beachside paradise in the Hamptons. The $11 million mansion sprawls over 3.5 acres of prime real estate, with four fireplaces, six bedrooms, a heated pool and private path to the beach,” the
New York Times
reported in the summer of 2013.
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There they hobnobbed with celebrities, held fund-raisers for their foundation, and gathered together with family.

In his self-pitying moments, the kind close acquaintances know well, the former president will tell people he only has five years to live. He has gone through heart surgeries, lost significant weight on a largely vegan diet, and worked hard to control his voracious appetite. For food anyway. Yet he hears the ticking of the clock. Hillary’s election, he says, especially to donors, might be the last thing he ever does. The most important thing he could possibly do, with whatever time the good Lord has left for him.

The subtext, of course, is that this is not the Bill Clinton of old—the destructive narcissist who plunged his presidency through seemingly endless scandals. A kinder, gentler Bill Clinton, approaching seventy, is more discreet, more disciplined. He wants to be a grandpa, he tells acquaintances (unlike Hillary, he doesn’t have many true friends). And he is the picture of the loyal, dutiful husband, one whose wife gamely jokes with Barbara Walters that if she were elected president, he’d want to be named “First Mate.”

Her nonprofit rebrand aside, Hillary has joined Bill in the Clintons’ real business—making money. She received a reported $14 million for her (second) memoir. She gives speeches around the country and around the world, often taking lessons from her husband, who by now has the routine down to a science. He shows up at a random place in the middle of nowhere, he makes a splash, steals the show, and, while he’s still hot, he gets out of town. All the while, he makes as little news as possible—while still satisfying and flattering his high-paying hosts.

Wherever the Clintons are, they are plotting, constantly recalibrating their positions to stave off likely opposition to her candidacy on the Democratic left. In the span of Clinton’s four years as secretary of state, the Democratic Party had essentially shifted underneath her feet. The consensus position among Democrats went from defining a marriage as between a man and a woman to the belief that gay marriage—marriage between a man and a man, or a woman and a woman—should be legalized.

Hillary obliged. “LGBT Americans are our colleagues, our teachers, our soldiers, our friends, our loved ones—and they are full and equal citizens, and deserve the rights of citizenship. That includes marriage,” she said in a face-to-camera announcement posted online. “That’s why I support marriage for lesbian and gay couples. I support it personally and as a matter of policy and law, embedded in a broader effort to advance equality and opportunity for LGBT Americans and all Americans. Like so many others, my views have been shaped over time by people I have known and loved, by my experience representing our nation on the world stage, my devotion to law and human rights, and the guiding principles of my faith.” The video was published by the Human Rights Campaign, the biggest and most powerful gay lobbying organization.