by
Hans Izaak Kriek*
She’ll take you with her on her journey and talk about What Happened, what’s next, and what’s on your mind. What you’ll see will be her story – Live. Her story of resilience, how to get back up after a loss, and how we can all look ahead. It’s about Hillary’s experience as a woman in politics – she lets loose on this topic, and others, in a way she never has before. This announcement she made on her internet side Hillary Clinton live. Under her picture she wrote:
“In the past, for reasons I try to explain, I’ve often felt I had to be careful in public. Like I was up on a wire without a net. Now I’m letting my guard down.”
Her book tour starts September 18, 2017 in Washington D.C. and is going to Canada, Florida, California, Michigan, Illinois, New York, Wisconsin, Georgia, Massachusetts, Washington and Oregon. People who are interested can buy tickets for going to an event. It means big business For Hillary Clinton. She’s ready to talk about “what happened.” But if you want to hear her speak about it in person, you may have to spend some serious dough. Starting this month, the former Democratic presidential nominee embarks on a tour across the United States and Canada to promote ‘What Happened’, her memoir about running against Donald Trump for president. And the price for access is a throwback to campaign fundraisers. For $2,375.95 (or $3,000 in Canadian dollars), Clinton fans in Toronto can obtain a “VIP platinum ticket” for her Sept. 28 talk. That ticket includes two front-row seats, a photo with Clinton backstage and a signed book. For Clinton’s November 1 event in New York, VIP tickets are going for $ 750.
In the last 15 years Bill and Hillary Clinton earns millions of dollars for speeches and books, totally $153 million.
What Happened reveals what she really thinking at Trump debate. She’s now the unvarnished candidate Democrats needed in their primary and the country needed when Trump became the GOP presidential nominee. With approval numbers lower than Donald Trump, the most unpopular president in history at this point in a presidency, Hillary Rodham Clinton has nowhere to go but up. Her new book, What Happened, seems to support precisely that.
The book, the fact of it and the timing are interesting, but Clinton’s book tour and conversation with America are infinitely more so. A more apt title of the memoir and accompanying tour would be Hillary Clinton, Unplugged. Nothing left to lose. Direct, unvarnished, gossipy, honest, in your face, tell it like it is — she’s the Hillary Clinton the Democrats needed in their primary and the country needed when Trump became the GOP presidential nominee, courtesy of the ratings-hungry media. Where was this person in 2016, the one who on Wednesday on NBC's Today called out Donald Trump Jr. for the "absurd lie" that he met with Russians last year to learn about her "fitness" for office?
For years and years — decades, even — we’ve been told by close friends and associates of Hillary Clinton that if we knew her as they did, we would all love her to the moon and back. So where was she hiding?
While it’s true the establishment Democrats would like her to shut up and exit stage left, this woman who won the popular vote and received more votes than any white man in our nation’s long history of electing white men, with one notable exception, has every right to step up and tell her story. And she should.
Wincing Democrats can take some small comfort in that she is appropriating a bit of their limelight early, well in advance of the 2018 midterms. As well, she’s addressing some tough truths about what happened in her own party. Nothing new is revealed that hasn’t already been hashed over by political analysts, but Democrats seem to take issue with the fact that it’s Clinton joining in the discussion.
Taking the medicine is unpleasant and somewhat painful, yet what some might view as self-indulgent naval gazing will ultimately prove valuable to Democrats hoping to take the majority in Congress in 2018 and the White House in 2020, regardless of whether Trump is still president then.
Clinton’s assertion that President Obama should have done more regarding Vladimir Putin’s interference into U.S. elections is on point. So is her assertion that Sen. Bernie Sanders’ vicious attacks on her harmed her with Democrats, many of whom stayed home on Election Day. She's also right that then-FBI Director James Comey torpedoed her campaign in its final days by suddenly publicly announcing he was reopening the investigation into her emails and private server, while keeping the far more serious investigation of Trump’s collusion with Russia under wraps. Had any one of these situations been effectively dealt with, Hillary Clinton would be president.
But it’s her uncharacteristic acceptance of personal blame that catches the eye of longtime Clinton watchers. It’s humanizing. It’s also a bit tardy, sadly, and appears to be something she considers so risky that it can come only after one’s political career is over.
“I felt like I had let everybody down," and “I am done with being a candidate. But I am not done with politics because I literally believe that our country’s future is at stake,” she told Jane Pauley on CBS on Sunday.
Which means, ironically, that though this woman has been in American public life for decades, we are only now getting to see and know the most authentic, human version of this two-time presidential candidate, former secretary of State, former U.S. senator and former first lady.
*Hans Izaak Kriek is international political commentator and journalist for European Business Review and editor-in-chief of Kriek Media
By: N. Peter Kramer
