Podcast: Play in new window | Download ()
Subscribe: Android | RSS | More
The new Hulu docuseries about Hillary Clinton and the 2016 presidential campaign — entitled Hillary — premiered on Saturday at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Unsurprisingly, the four-part series, which is set to be released to the public on March 6, is said to be a non-critical look at Clinton and the events surrounding the 2016 presidential election.
If you have a strong stomach, you can watch the trailer here.
The timing of the premier — in the week prior to the Iowa caucuses — is causing some to wonder whether Clinton, again, may be looking to run for the presidency in 2020.
In many reviews of the series, Clinton comes off as a straight-talking pragmatist; especially in relation to starry-eyed socialist Bernie Sanders, who is currently leading many national polls for the 2020 race.
Last week, snippets of the docuseries came out in which Clinton attacks Sanders, saying, “He was in Congress for years. He had one senator support him. Nobody likes him, nobody wants to work with him, he got nothing done. He was a career politician. It’s just all baloney and I feel so bad that people got sucked into it.”
“I just don’t want to get out there and say the revolution is working, [that] people ‘feel the Bern,’” she says in the docuseries. Clinton clearly stakes out her position as a centrist while accusing Sanders of offering ideas that aren’t realistic. “I had people in my campaign say, ‘Just say “free college.” Millennials love it,’” Clinton explains. “And I said, ‘no.’”
{modulepos inner_text_ad}
During a question and answer session at the premier, Clinton appeared to tone down that rhetoric — but only a little. When asked by a Sanders supporter, “So what would you say to the Bernie Sanders fans?… Who should they vote for?”
“Once we have a nominee, close ranks,” Clinton answered to loud applause.
One of the recurring themes in the documentary is also a recurring theme of Clinton’s life — especially in the years since she lost the 2016 election to Donald Trump. Put succinctly: It wasn’t her fault.
IndieWire’s review put it this way when describing a montage in the documentary:
For a biographical documentary, this rapid encapsulation may seem rather simplistic, even trite. But what makes the sequence so watchable, time and time again, is that Clinton’s eyes never move. The montage’s unchanging focal point is aesthetically absorbing, sure, but it also serves as the window into director Nanette Burstein’s wider argument: Much of what’s kept Hillary Clinton from her purpose in life is beyond her control.
Poor Hillary. Everyone around her ends up sabotaging her. Whether it’s her husband’s serial infidelity, the media’s not-fawning-enough coverage of her, or the FBI investigating her use of a private e-mail server to conduct State Department business, she’s always the victim.
Her post-election treatise on the result of the 2016 election, What Happened is full of the same responsibility-dodging narrative. It was Russia. It was the Democratic National Committee. It was misogyny. It was Barack Obama. It was Bernie Sanders. It was the “basket of deplorables.” The list goes on and on.
And since she is simply a victim of circumstances beyond her control, doesn’t she deserve another chance at the brass ring?
Sometimes, a veteran professional athlete will feign retirement in the off-season only to return in time for the start of the season, having missed all of the body-punishing training camp. So, the question must be asked: Is Hillary Clinton pulling a Brett Favre? Has she simply skipped the grueling pre-primary portion of the election season in order to focus on the real deal?
Joe Biden, the leading “centrist” in the Democrat field, is compromised and fading in the polls. Many Democrats believe that Bernie Sanders’ socialist message is too far left to win a general election. None of the other candidates has truly captured the imagination of the Democrat electorate.
With the release of this docuseries, Hillary is clearly saying, “I’m still here.” If a “draft Hillary” movement — real or manufactured — suddenly arose, it’s unlikely that Clinton could say no to another run.
Photo: AP Images
James Murphy is a freelance journalist who writes on a variety of subjects, with a primary focus on the ongoing anthropogenic climate-change hoax and cultural issues. He can be reached at [email protected].
